Chapter 7: The First Engagement.
"Sir, The Romulan Commander is hailing us." Lieutenant Worf announced from tactical.
The Captain got out of his chair and looked toward the screen "open a channel." The Romulan commander with a rough brow came up on the screen and gave Picard a fake smile. "Tomolak." Picard said with a genuine smile. "I'm glad that you decided to join us."
"Just so you know Picard this alliance is only temporary so don't get your hopes up."
"If that is all you had to say then why just tell me after we complete our task?" Picard asked in a stern tone of voice. After all of this time Tomalak hadn't changed. He was still the same arrogant Romulan military commander from ten years ago. But that didn't phase Picard, he could deal with someone without manners. After all, he dealed with Q on a regular basis.
"No, it is not Picard; the Borg now have two hundred cubes working on Trans-Warp tunnels some four light years away from the tear on this side. One of our cloaked scout ships spotted it and has had no contact with us since then and that was two hours ago." Tomalak said in reply as he stared down at his data pad.
Picard stared at the screen, "Let's deal with that later, Trans-warp is primitive compared to the speed we have attained now. Our main concern is and should be the imperial battle station."
"I agree, We are fifty seconds out before we drop out of hyperspace to engage the three cubes. Good luck Picard, we all need it." Tomalak said in reply. The screen flickered and the transmission ended.
Picard walked back to his chair and sat down with a loud thud. "We are within firing range of the Borg cubes now sir" Data announced loudly.
"Drop out of hyperspace Data." Picard ordered as he straightened up in his seat. The Enterprise rocked and finally slowed to impulse. Everyone looked out onto the screen and shuddered.
"The Romulans and Klingon's have engaged the lead cube and have severely crippled it and are attempting to destroy it." Data said as he started pressing keys at a lighting fast speed. The cubes were taking a beating, a squadran of Klingon K'vort class cruisers was circling around the cube and firing everything they could muster at the behemoth. The Cube latched on to one of the cruisers with its tractor beam and blew it to smithereens with a barrage of massive plasma torpedoes. Picard squinted into the screen as he struggled to see what was going. There were so many explosions and so much fire being exchanged that it made it almost impossible to see what was going on.
"Mr Worf fire quantum torpedoes full spread hit every single cube." Picard ordered.
Worf followed his orders, "Firing sir, direct hit; minimal damage to all of the cubes sir." The ship shook furiously and the Enterprises bridge dimmed; only to be relight again by the emergency lights.
"Worf try to get us out of their line of fire before we end up like that Klingon cruiser!" Riker yelled as he held on to his seat with a death grip.
The Battle was fierce. Tomolak held onto his to his chair as sparks flew from the stations on his bridge. The Entire bridge of the mighty Romulan war bird was falling to pieces. Men were lying everywhere and wires were hanging from the ceiling of the once mighty Romulan warbird. The Borg fire power was extremely strong and Tomolak admired that, their strength. He smiled and muttered to himself "A worthy enemy." One of the crippled Klingon K'vort class ships rammed the lead cube and blew up themselves along with the cube. Tomolak smiled at the thought of worthless Klingons dying.
"I'll give it to them, those poor bastards were brave." A lieutenant said from her station.
Tomolak turned around "As much as I'd hate to praise the Klingons you're right."
"Sir only two more cubes left and one is firing on the Enterprise." The Lieutenant announced from her station. Right behind the Enterprise about twenty thousand kilometers off it's behind the other cube moved in on ten Imperial Star Destroyers and started its onslaught. The star destroyers managed to take out the Borg tractor beam but not without the cube taking out seven out of the ten destroyers in a massive barrage of massive green Plasma torpedoes.
Tomalak looked at the screen and thought for a bit. It would be great to have Picard and his crew gone but they of course were an asset to the entire quadrants safety. "Lieutenant Rasha Fire everything at the Borg cube when you get us infront of the Enterprise" ordered Tomolak.
"Sir?" the Lieutenant asked in shock.
"You heard me!" Tomalak hollered. The Lieutenant shook her head and maneuvered the warbird straight toward the Borg onslaught. The ship shook with intensity as they placed themselves in front of Enterprise. The mighty Romulan ship fired all it had and ripped off half of the cube while the Klingon and Cardassian ships came in for the kill. The last two Cubes turned and fled toward the position of the other two hundred cubes. Tomolak looked up in disbelief.
"Did the Borg just retreat?" asked Rasha from her station.
"It would appear so lieutenant, How many ships destroyed?" Replied a shocked Tomolak.
"Two of ours, one Cardassian, three Federation, one Klingon and seven Imperial, Sir I am getting a transmission from another scout ship, it says that one Borg cube is headed to a planet called Tatooine." she said as she read the reports coming in at her station.
"Is that planet of any importance?" Tomolak asked as he got up from his chair.
"Apparently so sir or the Imperials would have not requested extra scouts in that general area."
Tomolak strode closer to the main viewscreen, "Hail the Enterprise."
Picard stood in the center of the Enterprise's bridge listening to all of the reports that had came in through the Romulan cloaked scout ships. "Well then I presume that after our initial repairs we should get there as fast as possible if they assimilate anyone with knowledge of how to use Hyper-speed then they will have the upperhand." Picard said with a rather worried look on his face.
Tomolak nodded "After your repairs I will send two of my best captains with you god speed." The screen blinked back to the wreckage of the battle and Picard then sat in his chair. Enterprise would be done with repairs in four hours at most, but Geordi was the best engineer in starfleet and sometimes four hours of work could turn into 2 and a half hours of work. Picard began to ponder a bit while he stared at the demolished star destroyers in front of him. Most of the destroyers were gone and what was left of them mostly was their shield generators. 'these Borg cubes are even stronger than before' thought Picard as he began to go over the repair progress of the Enterprise.
Data and Riker were over at the engineering station trying their best to help out Geordi who was in engineering working as hard as a mule. Finally 3 hours of hard work past and the comm system came to life. "La Forge to the Captain."
"Yes Geordi what is it?" replied the Captain from the captains seat.
"All systems are up and operational. She's ready whenever you are sir."
Picard smiled at the voice of his chief engineer and said in reply "You're a miracle worker Mr. La Forge. Ensign Kelley inform the Romulans and Klingons of our departure and set a course for the coordinates that the Romulans have provided us with."
"Aye sir, they have responded." the ensign announced from his station.
Picard looked toward the screen, "Engage."
