Capt. Luis watched the events of the last half hour unfold as the oddly shaped xenos ships did combat with one another. The spheres, designated support craft alpha and beta, descended upon the more elongated vassal. The battle was quick and painful for both sides, as the support craft beta was destroyed by a sustained and relentless assault by what the tech priest had called "null-beam projectors", an old and extremely rare archiotech thought lost thousands of years ago, lashed out from the longer ship ripping into alpha's hull causing a core overload. The resulting explosion would have been enough to overwhelm the shields of even a grand-cruiser at close range, but the two remaining combatants ignored it off as if it were nothing.
Soon after however, Support craft alpha was able to not only lower the elongated ships shields, but systematically target and destroy its propulsion drives, warp cores, and then disable every weapon that Capt. Luis's watch stander's had identified. The ship and her crew still refused surrender, as evidence of ship board fighting began to immerge, and support craft alpha ceased fire abruptly.
"do the Oddly Green glowing Xenos ships have stealth boarding craft that am unaware of?" he asked his tactical watch stander in charge of boarding plans and execution.
"Not that our sensors picked up sir. We detected no movement, use of warp drives, and no visual confirmation of exhaust. My tactical analysis captain is that they have teleported aboard the ship after disabling her completely." Capt. Luis frowned, then growled in frustration, almost instantly beads of sweat appeared on everyone's brow.
"Have we decrypted the first Xenos language yet? I need to know what that message was!" Capt. Luis nearly yelled, but contained his rage, and controlled his volume… somewhat at least, by pounding his clenched fist onto the empty arm chair on his throne.
"The Machine spirits are finishing now sir, they say it's an old earth dialect… ancient… from before the emperors assention… from before the age of strife and the even before the Dark age of Technology sir!"The man's voice was disbelief incarnate.
"If you keep stalling, I will have you strung up by your entrails! What does the message say you ingrate!" Capt. Thomas roared over the bridge, breaking the silence as a battleships prow lance would a light cruiser… that is with little difficulty at all.
"Sir!" the young officer nearly yelled, fear evident. "The message is a request for assistance. They say they are from earth and need repair, and that they are being chased by forces they name the… Borg, sir." His voice cut off, as another picked up the flow of verbal information, as much more detailed reports were sent from their stations to his throne. "Already checked sir, no known information on this enemy, however assessing their shield strength, the tonnage of their ships, and what little known capability we have seen, along with the records that the tech priest sent us on those ancient weapons our ancestors were using, we can estimate with at least some accuracy as to their capabilities. If the large cube-esq ship is anything like those spheres, it is more than a match for a grand cruiser on its own, perhaps even a match for a battleship. Given support from remaining support craft which is estimated to be a match for a heavy cruiser, then our odds of victory with minimal losses goes up significantly."
Capt. Thomas knew the second, tactical analyst watch stander was correct. He had assumed just as much when he had been running his simulations earlier on, and had taken into account that the spheres were probably as, if not more maneuverable then a heavy cruiser. "have we received, or even picked up on any transimitions from these…'Borg' yet?" the question was to the bridge in general, and Thomas waited for anyone to respond.
His most senior watch stander, and the ships third in command, Manerva Slovack broke the silence. "We have picked up some signals, but I couldn't make them out sir. I sent them to tech-priest Joseph for analysis and have not received his report yet." Her voice trailed off, and eyes went back to her console, hard at work once again; showing off the dedicated nature and work ethic that had earned her the position as ships third.
Somewhat placated, and worlds calmer from his earlier outburst, Capt. Thomas hit the direct communication button on the other arm rest on his throne, and selected the eccentric, yet brilliant tech-priest.
The screen was dark for a few seconds, as the Tech-Priest probably had not yet noticed the request for a direct visual audience from the captain; or simply chose to ignore it while he finished whatever project he was working on. The captain smirked at the thought, knowing that the only two people in the whole fleet who would dare to something like that without cause was this tech-priest who was just under the level of arch-magus, just as he was just under the rank of admiral though playing the role; and that demandable navigator sitting right behind him on his own silvery throne, surrounded by void shields and a personal warp stabilization field covered in glyph s of warding and protection.
But Capt. Thomas liked the tech-priest, just as he hated the navigator. The Tech-priest was eccentric to be sure, all knowledge and theory, and refusing to get any augmentation unless it was necessary for a project, or for his health as his body grew older. That adversity to non-essential augmentation was what had attracted Thomas's attention in the first place, Thomas never liked how other tech priests were constantly throwing away body parts and replacing them with machine 'upgrades'. IT was not that Thomas was against augmentation its self, he personally had several such as the brain implant that allowed him to interface with the ship, and which was required of every captain in the Imperial Navy. He had just been raised by his mother, who had also been a captain in the Navy until she retired to raise him, that the human body was a beautiful thing, a gift from the emperor.
The screen flickered, as Joseph answered and accepted the privet conference; grey hair, and optic sensor that replaced his left eye looking very odd juxtaposed to one another. "Captain, I was about to call you. I have deciphered the whole message from the Xenos cube. They call themselves the Borg. Would you like to hear the message translated into high gothic?"
Capt. Louis nodded "Yes, I would. Though I need you to send it to me via this privet conference, so that it is secure." The tech-priest nodded, as if finally realizing the need to keep this kind of information secure.
"Easily done captain, here it is." The tech-priest's image was minimized to the bottom left side of the screen, another image appeared taking up the rest of the screen. A woman with extensive mechanical augmentation that reminded Capt. Louis of some of the highest level tech-priests he had met in his long serving career. The only flesh that was visible were the women's shoulders, and face, though these too showed signs of extensive and highly advanced personal augmentations. Her voice sounded as if it were trying to be feminine and kind but failing as it struggled against its synthesized nature.
"We are the Borg" she said, motioning to the chamber that she stood in, presumably the command center on one of the Xenos ships. "Your technological and sociological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Lower your shields, power down your weapons and prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile." The last phrase sounded almost cheerful, as if being 'assimilated' whatever that meant, was a good thing.
"Do you think they mean to negotiate?" Capt. Luis said, though his voice betrayed his skepticism. The tech-priest's image took up the whole screen again, as he shook his head.
"No captain, from what I have gathered from analyzing the footage that was broadcast with the audio message, they are a collective of multiple species, probably linked together via a highly advanced neural network. I don't think they mean us any kind of good will sir, particularly with the immediate demise of the human vessel that is presumably from an as of yet unknown human civilization under the delusion that their home world is holy Terra." The words came out in a constant stream of information that probably would have continued had Capt. Luis not raised his hand to stop the tech-priest.
"Thank you for the analysis Tech-Priest. Do you think that they might be able to attack with machine spirits effectively?" The question stopped the tech-priest in his tracks for a second as he contemplated an answer.
"Perhaps sir; However the defensive Machine Spirits that I have placed, and the ships own natural fire walls should be enough to protect it against all but the most powerful cyber attacks… hum… it might be prudent for me to create a few more defensive machine spirits and loose them into the system just in case I am wrong in my assessment. My expertise is after all, not in cyber-network defense, but lies in ...other areas." Again, the tech-priests voice sounded like one long run on sentence, and left the Captain wondering, not for the first time, when he breathed.
"Good idea, consider it an order then. Coordinate with the rest of the flotillas tech-priest's and engine-seers, engineers and commanders as necessary. You have my full authority behind you." Capt. Luis's voice took on an edge of steel. "And Tech-priest, remember, we have a fifteen minute window until we are in combat range. Make this your highest priority."
The tech-priest nodded before saying "it's already underway captain… Oh Omnissiah protect us... Captain? We have this same message being broadcast throughout the system in low Gothic. It seems these Borg have been able to work out our language from the limited transmitions they have received. The two inhabited planets in system are going to receive the message is approximately two hours sir."
"Has the rest of the flotilla received this message?" Capt. Louis asked, as three small alert signals appeared on his station and in his mind. They were messages from the two Battle-cruiser captains, and the most senior commander among the detachment of smaller support craft. "Hold on tech-priest…" he said as he opened all three messages. The three ship commanders were acting on behalf of their divisions of either the smaller capital-ship class heavy cruisers, or the lighter support craft. They were requests for instructions regarding the transmition, if it was to be ignored, stored for further study, or some special instructions that Capt. Louis had in mind. He sent the same order to everyone; scrub the message for any kind of warp, or hidden machine-curse's, then store it for future study by the tech-priests and the Ordos Xenos. He didn't want to not have it should an inquisitor ask for a copy to study.
"Alright Tech-priest, I have handled the fleets exposure. Do you need anything from me in order to do your job?" Capt. Louis asked not unkindly. He never wanted the men and women under his command to ever feel like they did not receive the needed tools and support to do their jobs, if he could help it.
"No Captain, our efforts at increasing the flotillas cyber defense is well underway. If there is no further need for this communication channel to be open, I could use its bandwidth to speed up the work." Nodding Capt. Louis shut off the connection and allocated any extra computing power that the ship had to the control of the tech-priest and his acolytes.
Capt. Louis checked the time until engagement range was reached, roughly twelve minutes. Just enough time to make another call, and issue a few more orders to prepare for the upcoming battle. He checked the fleet registry, and found what he needed under "Flotilla tertiary auxilari", how they would be angry if they ever found out that they were considered tertiary auxiliaries to the fleet, but they never would find out. The Capt. Quickly switched them to the section called "Primus Auxilari" and noted them as "independent elements" from the fleet command hierarchy. Only then did he click on the small 'communications' icon near the name "Storm-wolf: Audacious Hunter".
The small waiting icon, a servitor scull, swirled as the call attempted to connect. The massive form of Wolf-Guard Alaric appeared on screen, and Capt. Louis jumped slightly on his throne; Surprised to see a massive, only slightly cooked and still bleeding stake being torn apart by the leader of the small detachment of Space Wolf's Space Marines. "Capt. Louis! Good to see you! What can we do for you?" the man said between giant bites.
"I need you to get your Space Marines ready for a boarding action. You will be supported by elements from the Heavy Cruiser Saint Augustine's Rage, but you will be leading the charge." The Wolfish Space Marine nodded his understanding as he ate the last of the stake in a giant gulp.
"Understood sir; you should know captain, that while these young bloods are almost ready to become grey hunters, they are still as reckless as pups on their first hunt! If you want us to clear the whole ship, that won't be a problem, but restraint once they are in the battle rage, it will be hard to control them." Capt. Louis nodded his understanding of the situation.
"If I understand correctly Wolf Guard Alaric, that is why you have been granted use of terminator armor." The Space wolf turned red with rage, but Capt. Louis raised a hand to forestall his angry outburst. "But I understand, no leader can be everywhere at once. Please coordinate with Saint Augustine's Rage, and her captain in order to plan out the best possible situation before sending me your plan. You have roughly ten minutes in order to get that done, let's not waste time." The captain said, as Alaric visibly calmed as the realization of the restraints of time, and the steely determination the man showed before battle took control of his anger. "Understood sir, the Emperor Protects, Storm-Wolf: Audacious Hunter out." the screen went dark as the Space Wolf commander terminated the link.
I really should insure I honor them at the earliest opportunity, or I might find myself facing a mutiny orchestrated by a pissed off Space Marine Commander." Capt. Louis said to himself. He looked at the combat range indicator and realized the flotilla was only five minutes away from combat range.
"Captain! We have another temporal rift opening up!" Came commander Slovack, her voiced tense with anticipation. Capt. Louis pulled up the visual display showing the Borg Cube, and suddenly, as if materializing out of nowhere two additional Cubes appeared; the rift invisible to the naked eye.