Time/Date: 2013 AD

Location: Earth

"Okay… someone explain to me how the hell the BORG got here?" Colonel Kelly asked, pointing at the screen where the Borg Cube was displayed. "I'm pretty sure these fuckers are suppose to be stuck over at the Delta Quadrant by now!"

"IDIC's a bitch," Ron informed. "And I blame the Incubators; the Borg drove them to near-extinction in our universe, but they never left the Delta Quadrant. Here, they came to Earth. And these aren't the Borg we're used to. They're worse." Ron closed his eyes, focusing on the voices of the Collective. "Undine. Krenim. Vaadwaur. Devore. Teuterian."

Sonja nervously chuckled. "Oh, fuckie do."

"What? What's so bad about them?"

"Ms. Miki, the Undine are Species 8472, and are almost impossible to assimilate," Sonja said. "The fact that he can hear them in the collective is a very bad thing. Still doesn't answer the how, boss."

Homura flinched, knowing the reason. Madoka's final wish.

She altered the fabric of reality; introduced the Borg into this universe and made them the ultimate destroyer. Accidentally, of course. It was clear the captain was on a similar train of thought. "When an incubator contracts, the amount of potential energy varies. It can be as powerful as a small starship's warp core or almost at the level of Q. This is pretty close to the latter. What I don't get is how that cube hasn't detected the probe yet."

Sonja snapped her fingers. "Multi-adaptive shielding," she said. "I put a modified version of that shit on each of our stealths; sure, it's no cloak, but it'll do."

"The Borg assimilated that technology."

"OUR Borg. But these aren't our Borg; they're… some sort of random mutation, with the same level of technology the Collective was at when the Enterprise-D ran into them at J25, but they don't have the technology developed by the Hansens."

Were this an anime, Madoka and Sayaka would be having swirls in their eyes from all the technobabble. Homura, at least, had some idea of what they were talking about.

"Get that probe back here, and expedite repairs to the drive. As soon as we're done, we're leaving. There's nothing we can do."

"B-But the people on earth!" Madoka shouted out, "W-We can't just leave them! My-My family and friends are down there!"

"There's nothing we can do. One starship, even an Odyssey-Class superdreadnought, can't tangle with the Borg Collective alone. Our allies don't have the firepower to hang in a firefight with them, either. And I can't evacuate seven billion people off of Earth. At most, I can pack one hundred and fifty thousand into this ship. It would not be pleasant, and where would we take you? The Vulcans wouldn't tolerate the Borg, or anyone else, violating their space, and yet here's a cube, heading for Earth." Madoka shrank under the Captain's cold logic. He was right. "So what would you suggest we do, Miss Kaname?"

"Save as many as we can." All eyes turned to Jaden as he stepped onto the bridge. "UNSC would do something similar… when ONI thinks the Covenant are about to invade a planet, they quietly evacuate as many people as they can. Prioritizing top scientists, engineers, leaders, and even family members of critical ONI and UNSC staff… it's better than standing around and doing nothing to help them."

Ron groaned. "I hate no-win scenarios," he muttered. "Can we bump up the count a little, Sonja?"

The hispanic woman shrugged. "We've got parts to build two Sabers." She said, "Won't be much; at most, that's a thousand people shoved into each ship, and conditions would suck, to say the least."

"Better than nothing." The Captain nodded "Transfer the parts to the St. Elizabeth and get them built as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I want every ship under the cloak. And I have a grim job to do."

Homura said it for him, preventing anyone from asking. "You are going to choose who lives. And who dies," she confirmed. "A choice I do not wish on you, Captain. I ask only that you put Madoka on that list."

"What, you think I would waste your efforts trying to save her?" Ron asked. "You went through thousands of loops to save Madoka here; I'm not wasting that." Ron sighed. "I'll be in my ready room; please inform Miss Tomoe of the events once she gets up."

"Understood," Takeshi replied, his eyes glowing briefly. "But I recommend extreme care is taken with her, Boss - what I can get from just the barest contact with her mind tells me she's got a rather fragile personality."

"She's been screwed over by an Incubator for at least a year; I'm not surprised."

Mami groaned as she awoke, rubbing her head. The last thing she remembered was something involving Star Trek followed by blinding pain.

Then she remembered everything. It started out simple enough, just another day hunting witches before Kyubey went missing - being attacked by Homura no less. But upon arriving at another site where a Witch was spotted… she met Madoka, and the… Star Trek people… who proceeded to tell her everything she knew about being a Puella Magi was a complete lie.

She was a battery. A power source for Kyubey. A witch in the making. Whatever that crazy doctor did meant little to her; she was a dead girl walking. A zombie, or 'lich', whatever that was.

The doors to sickbay opened, allowing Rutia and Madoka to enter. "Hello, Mami. Feeling better?"

"I have a headache…what did you do to me?" The doctor gestured to Mami's hairpin, which no longer glowing. "I put your mind back where it belongs. No more 50 meter range limit and you drop, according to the boss. But there's… another problem."

"So long as I can keep fighting Witches, it's fine." Mami said, standing back on her feet. "I need to get back down there… I still have things to do."

"Tomoe, there's something you need to kn—"

"The only thing I need to know, doctor, is where is that… beaming device! I want to leave! NOW!"

Madoka recoiled at the kind, patient girl's angry retort. Rutia impassively didn't react. "Computer, display a route to the closest transporter room. If you want to die so badly, Miss Tomoe, go right ahead. We gave you a choice. Clearly, you prefer suicide." She stepped aside, allowing Mami to storm past.

Madoka watched in horror. "Why… why didn't you stop her?"

"She didn't want to hear it. Nothing I can do about it if she wants to kill herself. Besides, I have to get ready to deal with a LOT of refugees." The Trill glanced at Madoka and gave her a smile. "Mind giving me a hand?"

Madoka glanced back at where Mami headed, before looking back at Rutia before she sighed. "I-I guess," she said. "How can I help?"

"Just grab what I ask you to get. I'm going to be doing a LOT of work in the next week."

The best and brightest. That was all he could save.

While saving seven billion people was impossible, Ron could focus on the best humanity of this era had to offer: scientists, poets, those who had done something to merit themselves in history.

Other than them and a few other 'lucky' survivors, everyone else was going to die. Or rather, it was a fate worse than death. Assimilation by the Borg was a fate no being deserved. He would rather see humanity rendered extinct first. "Captain, this is the transporter room: our guest is requesting permission to beam down."

Ron looked up from his PADD. "Which one?"

"A Mami Tomoe, sir."

He wanted to slam his head into his desk. The girl was being given a real second chance. Did she want to die THAT badly? "Granted, but I want a Code 48-J. Clear?"

"Yes sir," Cassie nodded - a Code 48-J basically meant that when Mami was beamed down, a small transmitter was going to be beamed inside her body when energized. It would allow them to keep an eye on her movements, as well as bio readings. "She's energizing… "

"Keep a lock on her. As soon as we lose signal, tell me. I'll deal with it myself." That left the final one. The other victims of the Incubators, Mami's contemporary Puella Magi. They, more than anyone, deserved a second chance.

"Send Homura Akemi to my ready room; I have a job for her, if she's willing to take it."

"I… know this is… a lot to take in, Professor… but it is the truth." The Starfleet Officer informed, though silently not trying to geek out considering just who he was talking too.

To anyone who had not known earth history, or the people of earth, this may have seemed like a regular, ordinary man, stuck on an advance wheelchair, looking like an aged old man. But to anyone who studied Starfleet's historical records, they would know exactly who this man was, and would be having just as much trouble trying to speak to him in person - and not as a Hologram.

"You. have. made. your. Point." The man spoke - but not with his natural voice, but rather with a synthesized computer voice. "This. is. still. difficult. to. fully. comprehend."

"We know." The officer nodded. "It's difficult to deal with, but we don't exactly have a lot of time. My captain wants to transport as many people off of Earth before the Borg arrive. You were pretty much top of the list, seeing as you were one of the greatest minds of your age. Imagine what you could do with the Ra Cailum's science labs."

The man in question was the legendary Stephen Hawking. Much of his theoretical works made their way into working technologies in the 24th and 25th Centuries, and his work eventually led to Cochrane's launch of the Phoenix and the birth of the Federation 80 years later.

"What. about. my. family?"

"They were prioritized as well," the officer nodded. "Along with thousands of other individuals. We will save as many people as we can, I promise."

The legendary scientist seemed to pause in thought for a solid minute, thinking of his options. "Very. well." He informed. "I. will. Join. you. Just. make. Sure. my. Family. Is. safe. "

"Done." He handed a transponder to Mr. Hawking. "Whenever you're ready, sir, we can transport up to the Ra Cailum: Commander Henderson's been eager to meet you."

"Very. well." Stephen said. "Well. Beam. me. Up. Scotty."

The pair disappeared in a shower of light, reappearing on a transporter pad on board the Odyssey-Class starship. Waiting for them were Mitod and Sonja, the latter of whom was grinning. "Professor Hawking," she said. "Commander Sonja Henderson, chief engineering officer. It's an honor to actually meet you in person."

"The. pleasure. Is. mine. My. apologies. For. not. Shaking. Your. hand."

Sonja waved it off. "We know about your amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Professor; we completely understand, and it's not your fault. Would you like a tour of the ship?"

"Of. course." The professor said, moving his wheelchair forward to follow the engineer. "It. is. Similar. To. what. I. have. Seen. when. I. was. On. the. Set. for The. Next. Generation."

"…Wasn't that the set for the show involving the Enterprise-D?"

"Yes."

"Well, this is an Odyssey-Class ship. We're the Enterprise-F's big sister!"

"Really?"

Sonja nodded. "She was commissioned about three weeks before the Big E. So it counts! I also designed her at Utopia Planitia." While Sonja (and many others) geeked out, more away teams were sent to the surface.

In short, the duty sucked.

Kyoko Sakura didn't want to believe the Star Trek shit. She was the daughter of a preacher; she didn't watch TV much. But seeing Homura shoot a familiar with a phaser (provided by Ron) was enough to make her listen up.

"Okay… so…" she started, taking the sucker out of her mouth. "Star Trek is real… that Kyubey was using us as batteries, we transform into witches, and now the Borg are coming to essentially fuck the entire world up via assimilation. Do I got that about right?"

"More or less. Captain Pinkerton would explain it better, and he's willing to take all of the Puella Magi with them." That included Oriko.

Homura wasn't a fan of her. Killing Madoka would do that. But the Puella Magi were on the list, and while the captain of the ship was an asshole, he was nice when he chose to be.

"So… they got pocky on board?"

Homura said nothing, pinning a combadge to Kyoko's hoodie before she was beamed up kicking and screaming.

The cube continued its' approach, cruising into the system at one-eighth impulse. Jaden glared at the cube displayed on the screen in front of him, wondering how a big metal box could be the greatest threat the Federation had ever faced.

"Kinda bland, isn't it?"

Jaden turned his chair around to face Lunamaria, who was wearing a customized version of MACO armor. "It's just a bunch of metal plates fixed in the shape of a cube. How could it POSSIBLY be dangerous?"

"Oh, believe me, that thing is massive," Luna remarked. "As for how dangerous it is… Computer, play recording, Wolf 359."

The probe image was replaced by footage of starships firing on another cube. Jaden had time to memorize some starship designs, and saw as an Excelsior-Class starship's saucer was destroyed by the cube, then brushed aside as it targeted the Miranda-Class USS Saratoga, causing crippling and mortal damage. The USS Ahwahnee fired on the cube with a salvo of photon torpedoes, which did nothing to stop it before the ship was fired on and torn open.

"Uh… fuck."

"And that was over 45 years ago," Luna remarked. "We've made advances in technology since then, but…" She shrugged. "Computer, play recording, Vega Colony Incident."

A large craft landed on the ground, impaling it with a large metal spike before drones beamed onto the ground, attacking civilians, stunning them and injecting them with those tubules he'd seen Ron use a million times.

And Jaden thought REACH was bad. This was worse.

One image showed something that looked familiar. The eye was replaced by a cybernetic one, and he was bald, covered in some kind of body armor. But he'd recognize Ron anywhere.

"Yeah, Vega was where we found and recovered Ron," Luna admitted. "We were able to liberate him from the Collective, but… well, back around Wolf 359 when the Enterprise rescued Captain Picard, who had also been assimilated, the only thing that couldn't be removed from him were traumatic memories. Obviously, the Borg have adapted since then."

Ron had mentioned his… augmentations a few times. Jaden thought he was bragging. Now he knew better.

He was just a victim that was taking advantage of what was forced on him. "They can't be removed, can they?"

"The implants? Most of his organs were outright replaced. He's lucky he survived being taken out of the collective to begin with. It took a couple of weeks to figure out most of them, and adapt them to work without the Borg hive mind. I think if anyone gave him the chance to be normal again, though, he wouldn't go for it."

"I understand… well, kinda." Jaden said, looking at his arms where faint scars could still be seen. "I'd never want to get rid of my augments… they've become a part of me, who I am… reminds me of why I'm doing all of this."

"It's sorta the same with Ron," Luna admitted. "His implants are reminders of what the Borg did to him, and what they want to do to all sentient life."

One of the science stations began going haywire. "We just lost contact with a subspace transponder. The probe's still active, so—"

The door to Ron's ready room opened as the man himself ran to the bridge transporter pad. "Lock onto the last known coordinates of that transponder and beam me down there! Dumb girl wants to die, she's dying on MY terms!"

"You need backup?" Jaden asked, picking up his rifle. "I'm ready."

"Oh, fuck it; get over here!" He grabbed his compression rifle and two type-2 phasers, holstering one and tossing the other to Jaden as he approached. "You'll need it. Bullets are nice, particle weapons are better against these things."

"Fair enough," He nodded stepping onto the transporter "Remind me to ask Sonja to make me an MA5 that can swap between projectiles and phasers."

"Energize!" Both disappeared seconds later. "Who wants to bet that the Boss is going to be screwed at the end of this?"

"Shut up, Corpie."

Jaden did not know what to expect. More Incubators, to be sure, but he wasn't prepared for… this. "…Why does it look like a bunch of candy?"

"Most final stage victims form a barrier based on what what their greatest desire was. In this case… a little girl wanted to have some candy."

"This is fucking weird. Why aren't you freaked out by it?"

"Kathryn Janeway said it best: weird is part of the job. So, freaking out is… kinda pointless. To us, all this is just part of the job. We get…numb to it after a while." A phaser bolt vaporized a familiar before they continued onward. "Trust me. You'll get used to it."

Jaden groaned, firing his own phaser at a familiar. "For some reason, I doubt that…" he muttered.

"Let's go; we've got an idiot to save."

Mami fired both of her Brown Bess-styled muskets at the candy-familiars, killing as many as she could.

She figured her life was pointless; so she didn't bother thinking. Kyubey betrayed her; so why bother doing anything but what she was doing before?

If she was going to die, she would die doing something.

And she would; this witch was going to die.

She created her massive cannon and fired at the witch. The doll-like creature collapsed, and something akin to a massive worm with a clown's face and 'wings' emerged from out of the doll, with a sinister smile with razor-sharp teeth - and heading straight towards her.

Mami wanted to move, get out of the way - to keep fighting… but her legs refused to move, looking at the creature wide-eyed. Her previous courage dried up, replaced by nothing but complete and total fear. She was going to die… die alone… no family, no friends…

Her vision went black as the teeth prepared to take off her head, hitting something hard.

"You are a fucking IDIOT, Tomoe." Mami opened her eyes, finding a barrier of sorts holding Charlotte's mouth open. "If you want to commit suicide, you're doing it on MY terms!" She trembled as she looked to her right, seeing Ron holding a tricorder and Jaden moving in to shoot the witch with his rifle.

The stress of losing her parents, all of the things that happened in the past three days and this… it pushed her over the edge as she fell unconscious. "Jaden, keep shooting the damn thing; I'll grab her!"

"No problem," Jaden said, pulling out his knife while still firing away with the phaser rifle, beating back Charlotte as the abomination was forced back. The creature tried to reach out to bite him, but Jaden caught it by the mouth with his arms, and held the beast's mouth open with his Spartan strength "Peeeyou, guess you never heard of a TicTac?" He asked the Witch, before punching it in the face - leaping over the creature before running along its elongated neck/body.

Charlotte moved around, roaring as it tried to chase after Jaden - as the Spartan fired over his shoulder, keeping the Witch's attention on him - while Ron took care of Mami. "Come on ugly! You want breakfast? You'll have to catch it!"

The witch followed, roaring. It was mad, and that was what they needed. When something got mad, it lost focus. And when something lost focus, it just made it easier to kill.

And Jaden was very GOOD at killing things. All he had to do was have Ron distract it so he could finally kill it. A single narrow beam from Ron's type-2 was the distraction he needed as he threw an M9 grenade down its' throat, exploding and killing the witch as the labyrinth (or a subspace pocket, as Ron called it) faded away.

"Ha!" Jaden clapped his hands, "Eat shit ya overgrown Muppets reject!"

"Pinkerton to Ra Cailum: beam us back! NOW!" Ron called out on his Commbadge, as he picked up Mami.

"She alright?" The spartan asked, dashing back towards them.

"She'll be ok physically, but mentally?" He shook his head. "I fucked her over badly." All three dematerialized and rematerialized on board the Ra Cailum, in one of the transporter rooms closer to sickbay as a medical team entered the room. "Get her to sickbay. Use a level 4 subspace field; that'll knock out her abilities."

Mami's eyes fluttered open before she latched onto Ron, crying her eyes out. "D-daddy?"

Ron, Jaden and everyone else all blinked at the words that came out of her mouth "…eh?"

"DADDY!" Mami shouted, hugging Ron in a tight embrace - tears streaming down her face "You're alive! I-I don't believe it y-you're alive! T-the car crash and… and mom and…"

Everyone stared at Ron, who glared at them to shut them up. The only one who didn't fear the glare was Jaden.

And in his case, he hadn't been around Ron long enough to learn how to fear them. "She's your kid?" The Spartan asked, with a slightly amused smirk.

"Shut up." He forced Mami's head to look into his eyes. "Honey, go with these people. They'll make sure you didn't suffer anything from the crash. Ok?" She simply gripped tighter to his body. "Great. I'll take her down. AND STOP GRINNING!"

Rutia chuckled as Ron tried to pry Mami off of him. "I ran a genetic comparison between the boss and our little girl. She's his kid, but at the same time, not."

At first Jaden didn't get it, before he let it process in his head. "Let me guess," he said. "Mami's father was actually Ron from this universe? Or something to that effect?"

"Yup." She said, struggling with a chuckle "It's hilarious. He's a 41 year old virgin and he's a father!" The Trill began laughing before falling on the ground, forcing Jaden to deal with Ron, who was patting Mami's back in order to get her to stop crying.

And let go of him; he had better things to do. Thankfully he was able to get the girl to fall asleep after a few minutes. "PLEASE tell me you've got good news."

"Well, depends how you look at it." Jaden informed, leaning against the wall. "Turns out… genetically speaking, you are her father - this universe's version of you was her father at least, so… yeah."

Ron groaned loudly. "If IDIC weren't actual fact, I would SHOOT something."

"IDIC?"

"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations." He explained. "In short, anything's possible. For example, there's a universe where the Covenant laid down their arms and proclaimed humanity their new alien overlords."

Jaden's disbelieving expression gave the Captain a brief laugh. "Yeah, it's possible. Well. I guess I have to move out of my quarters. A closet's no place for a family of two."

"A Closet?"

"Yes." Both glanced to the door, seeing an amused Luna leaning on the door. "He literally lives in the smallest room on the ship. As an ex-Borg drone, he REALLY didn't need much room."

Jaden shook his head, before looking at the resting Mami "…you know, now I kinda see the resemblance… " He admitted, "Can't believe I didn't see it earlier… she acts like you, too, in a sense."

"Don't start. There a reason you came down here, Luna, besides to make my day worse?"

"You know me too well, big brother. We DO have a problem. With the added people, our life support demands have skyrocketed. We can't keep the cloak active for another day. If we do, we're going to lose power to life support."

"I am not liking this choice. If we decloak, the Borg will find us—"

"I know - but that's what we're going to have to do," Luna told him. "We'll just have to do our best, and hope it's enough."

"Fuckery. Give the order." Luna tapped her combadge. "All hands, stand to battle stations; red alert. We are decloaking. Repeat, we are decloaking. All security teams, report to stations."

Ron looked at Jaden. "We've got 9000 people on this ship, not counting my crew."

"I know; protect them with my life." He nodded. "I've done this dance long before I joined you guys."

Planet detected. Classification: standard oxygen-nitrogen. Lifeforms: 7 billion. Unknown species. Prepare to assimilate.

The Cube continued its' journey, heading for Earth as its' sensors picked up an anomaly.

Ten vessels detected in orbit. Status: technologically advanced. Unknown technologies. Opening channel and identifying.

Ron, Luna, and Jaden entered the bridge, Mami still hanging onto the captain. "Say anything, and you'll regret it. Report."

At that point, a pop sounded over the comm system, before a hybrid voice comprised of millions said a line that many of them recognized.

"We are the Borg. Your technological and biological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is Futile."

Another pop was heard as the channel was cut.

"I hate it when they do that. It's always 'you will be assimilated', never 'hello, how ya doin?'."

Jaden blinked. "That was… a lot of voices."

"That's the Borg: a collection of minds bound to one will. And they're firing on us."

"Brace for impact!" The Ra Cailum shuddered as the Borg Cube opened fire upon their ship. "Cassie!"

"Firing!" The A.I shouted, as the Dreadnought returned fire with its own phasers - varying the settings to ensure that the Borg couldn't adapt to their weapons.

"Cube is changing course: range, 350000 kilometers from Earth!"

"If they close to a tenth of that distance, they'll start beaming drones down to Earth. I need options!"

Sonja shook her head. "I… have an idea, sir."

"Spit it out!"

"We pull a Soran: use a trilithium warhead to cause a level-12 shockwave."

There was a deadly silence across the bridge - everyone knowing exactly what she was suggesting… save for one confused Spartan. "Uhh… explanation?" He asked.

Ron, as Mr. Nutshell, gave it to him. "Trilithium's a nuclear inhibitor. A man named Tolian Soran used it to destroy a star, and nearly used it on another the Viridian system. The incident resulted in the embarrassing loss of the Enterprise-D. A class-12 shockwave will destroy everything in the system." Jaden's jaw dropped.

A Nova bomb could only shatter a moon or scar a planet. A covenant antimatter bomb had more explosive force, and he'd seen the Starfleet photon torpedoes in action: one torpedo destroyed a CAS-class assault carrier which had full shields.

But destroying a sun and causing a supernova?

"We'll have to knock out the cube's propulsion matrix to make sure it doesn't escape, plus the central plexus to make sure they don't transmit the data on our wormhole drive back to the Collective, boss."

"We can do the former." Ron said, "Jaden, take a team of ODSTs, Alpha Team and some of our MACOs over to the cube: they'll know what to hit. You've got 30 minutes."

"Thirty?"

"Ten for Sonja to make the warhead, fifteen for the weapon to reach the sun and five to give you a head start. MOVE!"

Jaden paused for a second, only a second before he cursed "Goddamnit!" He shouted, before running towards the transporter room. "Alpha Team, Red team, Blue team, get your asses suited up and in the Transporter!"

The ship rocked before alarms that Jaden had never heard went off. "Shields are down on decks one through seven!" Green light showers signalled the arrival of Borg drones, covered in skin-tight exo-plating. "Fuck." One looked directly at Ron, almost curiously before advancing at him.

"Not this time, you son of a bitch." A knife ended up in its' head, courtesy of Sonja, who pulled out her Calico M960 and opened fire. "Boss, behind you!" A drone extended its' arm before the captain spun around and punched it in the face, knocking it back.

This woke up Mami. And while she was still screwed in the head, she still had her powers.

"G-GET AWAY FROM MY DAD!" She shouted, summoning up one of her Musket rifles, before aiming at the Borg Drone, before pulling the trigger - as he .50 Caliber round shot out and blasted the Borg's head clean off.

"…Nice shot."

The interior of the cube was humid: 70% higher then on board the Ra Cailum, two kilopascals higher and it was almost 40 degrees celsius. And, while strange, it was skeletal, almost… barren, like no ship Jaden had ever been on.

"Keep your heads on a swivel. The Borg will know we're here, and they'll make every attempt to assimilate or kill us. So don't bother aiming anywhere but the head."

"Zombie tactics," Jaden nodded, pulling out his own M45 Shotgun. "I can get behind that. Remember: We need to move fast, hit hard, and GTFO before the whole system goes Supernova."

"Are we seriously doing this?" Blue Team's leader - Church asked, to which Jaden sighed - shaking his head.

"Better to blow Earth up then let everyone on the surface be enslaved by an alien race," he admitted. "Come on, no time for chit-chat. MACO, lead the way."

Two of the MACOs led the way, using MA37s instead of phaser rifles for something the UNSC forces found ironic.

The Borg had shields that, after a maximum of 12 shots, adapted to particle weapons, but not projectiles. As everyone used particle and plasma weapons, this made sense.

But it gave them an advantage to exploit. A trio of drones rounded a corner, and were cut down by 7.62mm bullets in seconds. "They know we're here. Move out!"

More red lasers signaled more Borg on the move, and Jaden was beginning to understand why fighting them on the ground was such a pain in the ass. From what he was told, there were at least three hundred thousand hostiles. And they were going to have to get through them, forcefields and enough plasma to destroy a planet to get to the plexus.

Oh, joy.

"Saratoga and Jericho, fire MACs at the following coordinates at my command!" The two UNSC light warships turned to engage the cube, who was mostly focusing on the Ra Cailum and its' escort, launched minutes earlier. "FIRE!" A volley of photon torpedoes and two MAC rounds impacted the cube, the antimatter doing more damage, but the railgun rounds hurt the cube as it began slowing down.

"Cube's propulsion matrix has taken heavy damage! FTL systems are offline!" Ron was less than pleased with how long this was taking, but the Borg had boarded his ship on no fewer than six decks, so it was understandable. "How long until that warhead's ready?!"

"Almost done Boss!" Sonja replied on the comm, "One more minute!"

The Ra Cailum shook once more "Hurry it up!"

"Do you want to blow up the ship, boss?!"

"We can't hold that cube off forever! As soon as the warhead's installed, shove it into a torpedo tube and fire!" A console sparked, sending Corpsa to the deck. "I know we need EPS relays in the consoles, but WHY do they need to keep exploding?"

It was big, shaped like a cube and a royal pain in the ass to get to.

But at last, the team had reached the central plexus. "So, how do we knock this thing out? Computer virus? Worms?"

"Spatial charges. Best way to knock out anything Borg is to destroy it."

"Simple: I like it." Jaden nodded, before his motion tracker detected several red blips "Let's move fast - we've got company!"

(BGM: Captain Borg: Star Trek TNG Best of Both Worlds)

The borg drones approached from all four entrances to the central chamber, and were introduced to shotgun pellets, bullets and grenades as they entered. But Jaden was starting to see why the Starfleeters didn't bother reintroducing projectile weapons.

The dead were piling up, and the drones were still coming.

"Seriously, how many of these guys are in one of these things?!" Jaden asked, as he reloaded.

"A LOT," Lieutenant Ramirez said, as he placed a quartet of charges on the cube-shaped device, as well as a small present the Borg wouldn't be happy about. While it was different, Jaden knew a nuke when he saw one.

Kinda hard to miss. "Charges set: time to exfil! Back to the beam-in site!" One of the ODSTs - the lazy-as-hell Grif - fired his AR into another drone before asking the question on Jaden's mind. "Do we HAVE to? Can't we just beam out here?"

"Too much shielding around the plexus! We're pretty damn close to the center of the cube! Move out!"

"You heard the man!" Jaden shouted, firing his MA37 into the upper body of a Drone - shredding it to pieces. "Move it! We've got ten minutes before everything from Sol to Mars goes supernova!"

Screaming was heard over every radio frequency. Ron knew those screams.

He made them in 2401 when the Borg turned him into a mindless walking machine. "Time."

"T-minus fifteen minutes, sir. We're out of the cube's weapons range, and clear to fire the probe."

"Make one final pass over the cube so we can beam our people out of there, then order the fleet into formation. We're… we're leaving."

The Odyssey-Class ship turned back towards the cube, firing the solar probe fit with the sun buster from the aft torpedo launcher before firing its' engines to make a pass over the cube.

"Captain, I've got the away team on sensors." Ron sat down in his chair, not looking forward to what was about to happen. "Beam them out of there as soon as we're in range, Chief!"

"Stand by… energizing!" There was a short pause. "All away team members accounted for sir!"

"All ships, enter formation; Takeshi, get your ass docked! Prepare for wormhole insertion!"

Damage to systems: heavy. Central Plexus: destroyed. Propulsion matrix: offline. Weapons: damaged, regenerating.

Sensors detecting new technology from vessel identified as USS Ra Cailum. Energy signature reads modified warp drive.

The fleet entered formation with the Ra Cailum, then jumped to warp, dragging them into a wormhole formed by the unstable drive.

Inter-universal signature. Highly relevant technology. Directive change to repairing central plexus: the collective must obtain this information.

The Borg would never get the chance to receive it as Sol brightened for a brief moment - and the star went supernova. The blast sending shockwaves which shattered Mercury, Venus - and moments later, Earth, Luna… and the Borg Cube.

Ron the True Fan: Love it, hate it, or indifferent, Generations is part of the canon. Just like STO after CBS allowed Cryptic to put in the reboot timeline content. (Evil cackle)

Takeshi Yamato: Though depending on your opinion on Cryptic's storytelling post-Delta Rising, whether that's a good thing or not is a YMMV issue.

117Jorn: So yeah, the Madoka Arc was fairly short, yes. Next time though? Ohoho it's gonna be *sees red eyes in shadows* Ah shit…

Ron the True Fan: (Hands phaser rifles to co-authors) We'll see you guys next time while we deal with these sons of bitches.

Ja Ne!