Chapter 7 The Cavalry
"Mayday mayday, this is U.S.S. Alleghany requesting assistance from any Federation ships in the area please respond. We've sustained heavy damage across all decks. Power has been temporarily restored but we don't know how much longer it will hold up. Crew casualties are heavy. Mayday, Mayday."
Captain's Log Stardate 54664.7: We are currently en route to system J-356 after receiving a distress signal from the Federation Third fleet under the command of Captain Namura. The Third fleet was searching for the location of the Borg staging grounds and had apparently discovered a Borg base in J-356. Namura was in the process of mounting an attack against the Borg when they were themselves attacked by several ships of unknown origin. Starfleet, fearing the worst, has dispatched the Enterprise to provide assistance to the Third fleet. I only hope that we arrive in time.
The Enterprise along with a pair of Intrepid-class cruisers and a repair ship arrived at the lone Starbase on the edge of the system behind a cerulean nebula. Picard ordered the base to build construction ships and for those ships to build a mining station and orbital facility along with a shipyard and research facility. The repair ship along with its escort set a course for the last known location of the Alleghany. Along the way they recovered an Akira, Intrepid and Saber-class ship and sent them to the shipyard for repairs and a new crew.
The repair ship continued with its escort and flew past a trio of pulse cannons. Eventually the Enterprise found the Alleghany drifting next to a J-class gas giant and a radioactive nebula. The four ships approached the Alleghany cautiously alert for a possible Borg trap.
It wasn't.
Picard ordered the repair ship to do its job and it fired a repair beam at the Alleghany. Onboard the Galaxy-class ship the lights came on and communications was restored.
"Thank you Enterprise, our systems our now coming back online."
"What happened here Captain?" asked Picard
"When we first arrived in J-356, sensor scans revealed several Borg bases in the system. I ordered the Third fleet to engage and as the battle was underway a fleet of species 8472 vessels appeared and proceeded to attack both ourselves and the Borg. We took the brunt of their assault but eventually manage to drive them off. But at a high price, we are all that remains of the Third fleet. The Borg appeared to suffer heavy casualties as well but we lost sensor contact with them after the battle. We're lucky you arrived when you did as we expected them to return at any time to finish us off. We also acquired some data from a derelict Borg vessel that may prove useful to Starfleet."
"You're with us now Captain, our orders are to locate and eliminate any remaining Borg ships or stations in this system. We can't allow the Borg to threaten our hold on the transwarp portal. Number one; prepare medical and engineering away teams to beam over to the Alleghany." Said Picard
The Allegheny's warp drive came online a few minutes later and the five ships returned to the base. On the way back however the Enterprise and the escort Intrepids destroyed the three pulse cannons blocking the way between an asteroid belt and a Metreon nebula. There were two latinum nebulas nearby but with no habitable planets in the system Picard decided against mining them. Sensors did however find a second dilithium moon behind the nebula. Picard had a construction ship and three mining freighters dispatched to the moon. The construction ship built a mining station four torpedo turrets then returned to the base to build a science station while the other construction ship built an advanced shipyard. Meanwhile the research facility researched all available special weapons and when the science station was completed it researched the Gemini effect, engineering team and point defense phaser.
The shipyard and advanced shipyard built several combat ships eventually building up a sizable armada. They had to wait again as the Vulcan research institute was built and upgraded each of the major systems twice. Weapons, shields, engines, sensors and life support were all upgraded as resources allowed. As this was happening a small but powerful Borg fleet attacked the base and damaged several ships but all were recovered fairly quickly and the Borg ships themselves destroyed by the supporting Starbase's pulse phasers. Picard ordered a dozen Venture-class scouts to be built a scour the system for Borg bases. After twelve hours the scouts found one large base, a lone nexus protected by only a trio of pulse cannons and a scattering of Borg mining stations next to dilithium moons and D-class planets.
Picard ordered a small fleet of Defiants and Sabers to attack the three mining stations while he ordered the bulk of his forces to attack the larger base with the assembly matrices and modification center.
While the main fleet engaged the base they found a technology node protected by several torpedo and pulse turrets. Three Sovereign-class ships took out the turrets while four Akiras and a pair of Nebulas took out the technology node. The four special weapons pods of the Borg Diamond were destroyed with the node rendering the Diamond's special weapons inert. The main fleet continued its assault destroying a nexus, modification center, assembly matrix and advanced assembly matrix. Another nexus was detected at the far 'north-western' edge of the system and the fleet destroyed it and the accompanying defense turrets. The smaller fleet of Defiants and Sabers finished off the last mining station and freighters then joined the main fleet in destroying the nexus protected by a trio of pulse turrets. Once the major Borg stations had been eliminated Picard spent another eighteen hours scouring the system for any remaining Borg ships. Only a few were found and immediately destroyed.
Captain's Log Supplemental: We have cleared system J-356 of the Borg and are now in the process of analyzing the data acquired by Captain Namura. Hopefully this data will assist us in our search for the location of the Borg staging ground so that the sacrifice made by the Third fleet will not have been in vain. While the identity of the race that attacked both the Borg and the Third fleet remains a mystery, Namura's description of their ships seems to indicate it may be the race known to the Borg as species 8472.
