""Preparing to exit hyperspace."
"Concentrate all fire ahead of as soon as we emerge from hyperspace." Daala ordered.
"The last data transmission we received from the probe droid indicated a fleet of at least 1,000 cubes." Kratas stated and looked out at the bridge pits. The men were moving about, doing their duty with the cool calm professionalism of Imperial officers. But he could feel the tension in the air. The men were not happy about this mission. Many felt that they had escaped the Borg just when things were going to get difficult, and now Marek was ordering the fleet right into the center of an enormous Borg fleet.
"The fleet will be far larger when we arrive." Marek replied coolly, he had that far away look in his eyes again. Daala had grown to count on Marek's intuition in battle more than she cared to admit. But the Sith Lord had not been wrong yet.
"Hyperspace emergence in 10 seconds."
"All weapons standing by."
"I would feel better if Drayson were leading this charge." Kratas whispered to Daala. Usually the Adjudicator, Executioner and Inexorable were always in front, in tight formation. This time the Inexorable and Relentless were leading in, the other Star destroyers were flanking as per Daala's latest deployment.
"Belladonna and the Relentless will not disappoint." Daala replied.
The blue tunnel that was hyperspace suddenly flashed and disappeared replaced by a sea of Borg cubes. The Imperial fleet jumped out and fired continuously. Borg cubes were vaporizing in their path.
"Launch all bombers and fighter escorts, concentrate all fire forward, I want to clear our path. Have the flankers push out, don't let them encircle us." Daala ordered calmly, ignoring the awesome number of Borg cubes, various shapes and sizes around them firing.
"Launching."
"M'am, I'm picking up an enormous energy reading to starboard." A tactical officer warned.
"Let me see." Daala strode down to the pit and looked. There was an energy spike the likes of which she had not seen before in the last Borg engagement.
"Prepare the superlaser, Admiral." Marek ordered.
"My Lord?"
"This enemy vessel must be destroyed quickly." Marek replied grimly.
"There it is!" Kratas pointed at a massive cube that was hurtling towards them. A bright green flash lashed out and struck the Relentless. The Relentless was covered in bright green thrashing tendrils of plasma. The Supercube cast a shadow over the Star Destroyer, several tractor beams lashed out and pulled the Star Destroyer closer.
"Captain Zenah reports massive energy impacting on all screens, shields are buckling." The communications officer squinted as if trying to hear something over a loud din. He looked up at Daala. "There are reports of boarders appearing all throughout the ship."
"Damn it all, reveal the super-laser!" Daala snapped.
"Revealing laser. Main energizers charging to capacity."
Outside the Iron Fist hordes of TIE Defenders were streaking through the cubes, unleashing wave after wave of proton torpedoes. Their TIE escorts exchanged fire with the smaller scout spheres. The torpedoes slammed through the armored hulls of the cubes, blasting gaping holes in the Borg ships.
The Borg responded with fusillades of plasma torpedoes which exploded with devastating effect on the unshielded Imperial fighters. Some of the more daring pilots actually flew through the massive gashes in the enemy cubes, using them as cover from the torpedoes.
The Inexorable moved in close and concentrated its broadsides on the main weapon emplacement on the Supercube, destroying it in an explosion that would have destroyed an entire cube. As the Inexorable passed by, firing another broadside, the bridge officers noted the holes in the hull quickly covered with new wiring and plating. The strategic cube was regenerating its damage at an alarming rate.
"They're what?" Daala exclaimed.
"The Borg cube is regenerating according to the Inexorable."
"Status on the Superlaser?"
"Fully charged and ready to fire."
"Aim at the Borg cube, dead center."
"The Relentless?" Kratas warned.
Daala realized that the Star Destroyer was dangerously close to the Supercube.
"What is the status of her shields?" Daala snapped as twelve cubes suddenly flashed by, unloading on the forward bow of the Iron Fist. They realized what the weapon was. She had very little time.
"Admiral, there is not time for this, the Borg are aware." Marek warned, his voice had a tension that she had not heard before.
"They're failing, Admiral." Kratas replied darkly.
"Tell Zenah to divert all power to shields and brace herself." She turned to the weapons bay. "Fire the super laser now!"
As she turned back to the view port she suddenly realized why Marek had been so adamant about firing. The entire Borg fleet was now screaming towards them, all weapons blazing. They were ignoring the rest of her fleet and the Iron Fist was under a massive attack.
"Commence Primary Ignition." Her weapons officer announced.
A hundred Borg tactical cubes snapped by and unloaded a barrage of torpedoes and beam weapons, all focused on one point, right at the bridge.
"Bridge deflectors have failed…reestablishing." Kratas reported.
"Too late, it seems we have boarders." Daala hissed as a dozen Borg drones appeared in wispy columns of emerald light.
"Admiral look out!" Kratas shouted as one of the half machine monstrosities reached out for Daala. Daala was roughly shoved out of the way and landed flat on her back. She looked up and heard a snap hiss before she saw the crimson blade flash around and heard a sizzle of electronics and flesh being cut in two.
Daala pulled herself up by the railing on the command deck and managed to look up just in time to see the superlaser fire. A green glow suffused the nose of the Iron Fist a split second before a solid green bolt of energy lanced forth and touched the Supercube dead center. There was no pause, no brief flash of a shield effect as she had seen from her other ship's heavy weapons, the enormous cube simply evaporated into a ring of incandescent fire, a wave of debris and hot gasses carried on the shockwave like flotsam on a tsunami.
She watched the Relentless get caught in the shockwave of debris and get tossed to the side like a toy. She fervently willed that the ship not explode and watched with breath held as the Relentless toppled end over end then disappear in a cloud of plasma and got gasses.
She turned around and saw a squad of stormtroopers rush in, weapons at the ready. But it was the sight of Lord Marek in action which froze her in place. The Sith lord was moving among the Borg like a panther, his crimson lightsabers humming menacingly the Borg clumsily circled him. One raised an arm with a strange box like attachment at the end. It fired a green ball of plasma at Marek.
Marek pivoted on his left foot and swung the blade round, deflecting the shot right at another Borg. It stopped suddenly and simply slumped down to the floor. Marek continued his move and the blade flashed through the midsection of the Borg that fired. The Borg was cut right in half. Its torso fell to the floor and it looked dumbly up at the legs which were still moving. Marek held his hand up in a waiting gesture to the stormtroopers. The Borg advanced.
Marek smiled and there was a feral quality to it as he charged and whipped the blades around him as his charge turned into a spin. Four more Borg were summarily decapitated. Two Borg remained. Marek came out of his spin and waited, saber in a high guard position.
Daala noted Mara Jade for the first time. She had been on the bridge the whole time but as usual she had blended in, keeping out of the spotlight. Now there was a tortured expression on her face. She wanted very badly to be doing the fighting, to protect her Sith Lord charge but Daala slowly wondered just what the young woman could protect Marek from. He was obviously in no danger and Daala wondered if anything could threaten the young Sith Lord.
"Debris field clearing up." Kratas noted, tearing himself from the fight with a valiant effort.
Daala nodded to herself and stood fully erect, hating that she had to turn his back on the fight, but she had a fleet to lead.
"Have all Bomber squadrons deploy the seismic charges I ordered loaded. Set for, " Daala glanced down at the navigational display. "124 mark 80, remote detonate, give the Iron Fist remote command." She ordered hoarsely.
"Aye sir." Kratas snapped and nodded to the squadron commander.
The remaining TIE bombers suddenly spun round and fired small projectiles away from the Borg fleet. They rocketed into position and remained in a tight formation. The bombers then began to unload the rest of their ordinance into the remaining Borg ships.
"Any sign of the Relentless?" Daala quietly asked Kratas.
"Still no sign, but there's an awful lot of debris out there." Kratas replied hopefully.
She briefly wondered if Zenah and her ship had been lost to the Borg, if so, she swore that the fleet would wreck havoc on these monstrosities.
"I want helm control back, now!" Zenah shouted over the din of blaster fire. Her XO pressed a blaster pistol into her hand as he moved down control pits on the command deck. She accepted it and promptly holstered it. A stormtrooper stumbled backwards, struck by a Borg plasma weapon. He fell at her feet and stopped moving.
Zenah did not bother to turn around. She had a ship to get under control. The view port was covered in debris, Borg bodies and Emperor knew what else. She was as blind as a mynock. A casual look around the command pits revealed a cacophony of warning lights and alarms all going off simultaneously.
"Ship status?" she snapped. Her XO was on the other side of the command deck and he rushed back over after consulting with a few technicians. Behind her she heard the sound of a Borg going down hard as more storm troopers flooded onto the bridge, firing their weapons.
"We still do not have helm control. Borg boarders have scrambled all circuits between here and engineering in their attempts to assimilate the ship. We have lost emergency power in some of the lower decks and the hangar bay reports that a massive piece of debris is lodged in the hangar deck, disrupting the force fields there."
"What about weapons and shields?"
"Weapons are still functioning, scattered reports indicate that they are still firing. The shield grid is online but little power is getting through the grid. Those damned Borg have scrambled everything on this ship." Her XO spat.
"Focus on the shields, while they are on standby power more of these things are getting through. Try to raise the fleet and inform them of our status, tell them we need assistance right away. Also, seal all bulkheads between here and engineering, I want to limit the mobility of these boarders and scramble every available trooper even if they are on sleep cycle. We have to keep the boarding parties contained."
"Last report indicated hundreds were on board." Her XO hissed.
"Every man fights for his ship, is that understood?"
"Yes Captain."
Another Borg was hurtled down into the command pit where a stormtrooper fired two more shots into it to make sure it was dead before rushing to halt a new party that just beamed in.
"And isolate all computer cores, reroute all controls to the bridge on my authority."
"Yes ma'am!"
She turned back to see three more Borg drones go down to concentrated fire from several stormtroopers. One walked over to her.
"Captain, we have them contained below decks but they are concentrating their boarding parties on the bridge and engineering. My men are telling me that there are at least three hundred in the engineering section alone."
"Suggestions?"
"We flood engineering with Syntex gas."
"It will kill everyone in engineering."
"It will kill all the Borg as well, Captain. Otherwise you're looking at gunfights all throughout the engineering sections and I am not confident we won't hit anything…explosive." the stormtrooper commander replied ominously.
She thought for a moment. Hundreds of engineers would be killed. Irreplaceable engineers in this primitive galaxy.
"I want your men to redouble their efforts, pull troopers off details where the Borg are contained behind blast doors and push them out of engineering. If the situation becomes critical then I will reconsider. I want my engineering section cleared, commander."
"Yes, Captain." He replied without hesitation and turned to follow her orders. She shook her head slowly. This was not going well at all.
"Pull the Strike wings back further, give those Borg cubes room to maneuver, I want them to take that avenue of escape." Daala ordered. She smiled in spite of the frustration. Her fleet were well trained razors. They were cutting into the Borg fleet now, the loss of the Supercube plus all other Borg vessels in the blast wake seemed to have thrown the Borg into confusion. She had to press her advantage now. The fleet knew this and they were instinctively cutting off all avenues of escape, but that is precisely what Daala did not want, and like overeager hunting dogs she had to pull on the leash.
"Ma'am, the Inexorable is offering to make a flanking maneuver to drive more cubes to the center, requesting bomber support."
"Have wings 39 and 54 move to support the Inexorable's attack." She paused as she looked at her fleet deployment on a tactical display. "Also have the Bombard and Bellicose slide into the center position, we don't want this to look too orchestrated."
"Aye Admiral."
She turned as he heard a strange sound, an electronic gurgling like a machine was being strangled. Lord Marek was holding the last surviving drone up by the neck, its arms had been severed. He was holding it nearly two feet off the ground with one hand and squeezing hard enough that even the Borg's normally pasty complexion was darkening.
"I know you can see me. I can feel your pitiful Collective looking through your eyes." Marek snarled triumphantly. He jerked the Borg's face closer to his. Its one good eye focused on him, the other, a strange antennae implant was slowly moving back and forth, no doubt providing the Borg with real time intelligence even now. The bridge had Borg cauterized body parts scattered throughout the command deck, a testament to Lord Marek's prowess.
"See the futility of your actions. We have taken down your mightiest warship with a single blast. There is no possibility of victory. You are outmatched, as machines you must realize this, you must see that there is no chance at victory. You have spent the last millennia making yourselves into the demons of this galaxy. Now we have come to bring order to the chaos. Do you see what I am trying to say?" Marek whispered as he squeezed harder. The drones face remained impassive but it was obvious now that it was dying, the organic eye was starting to flutter.
Marek pulled it very close and whispered.
"In your case, resistance is futile."
The drone's neck snapped audibly and it slumped in Marek's grip. He stared at it for a moment then tossed it aside in disgust. He strode over to Daala.
"Admiral, finish this battle now." He ordered sternly.
"Of course my lord." Daala bowed her head slightly and turned to Kratas. "Tell all wings to begin immediate attack, all weapons, all fighters, drive them."
"Yes Admiral."
"Commander Kratas! One of our fighter wings has spotted the Relentless. She engaged in combat with several cubes, they report thousands of drones cover her hull and are trying to assimilate her."
Kratas whirled to Daala.
"We are going to personally assist her, move us in, tell the rest of the fleet to go forward, push them. When they reach position zero inform me immediately." Daala ordered without waiting for him to speak.
"Yes Admiral."
The Iron Fist roared forward to assist the wounded Relentless as the rest of the Imperial fleet surged forward, blasting the Borg cubes that stood in their way. The cubes were moving sluggishly, some not firing at all. Swarms of bombers and fighters raced between the giant ships, blasting away at anything that was not Imperial.
Massive thermonuclear explosions rippled along the line of Borg ships. Hundreds were vaporized as the remaining Star Destroyers concentrated their heavy turbolaser batteries into one devastating salvo. This was the event that broke the Borg lines. Suddenly sluggish cubes began moving backwards accelerating away from the hungry Imperial fleet. The fleet quickly followed, relentlessly nipping at the Borg fleet, always driving them to the center.
"There she is!" Kratas exclaimed and pointed to the Relentless. She was covered in a writhing layer of Borg drones. There were numerous deep gouges in the heavy hull, some parts of the ship were exposed to the vacuum, it looked like a Borg sphere, or a large portion of it was jammed into the hangar bay. The bridge tower was covered in the remains of Borg cubes.
Daala shook her head sadly. The ship looked horrible.
"Receiving transmission from the Relentless."
"Put her through."
Captain Zenah appeared on the holotransmitter, she brushed back a stray lock of hair and stood at attention. Behind her a stormtrooper could be seen blasting away.
"Admiral Daala, Relentless reporting."
"Status, Captain?"
"We now have at least 400 Borg intruders on board, stormtrooper regiments are containing the boarders. Our control systems are overloaded, attempts by Borg drones to assimilate any open terminal has rendered much of our computer controls useless. We are attempting to reconfigure the system but it will take time. I have zero visibility and all sensors are out due to the shockwave and radiation from the blast."
"We are going to clean off your hull now captain. You have thousands of drones on your outer hull attempting to assimilate your ship from the outside. We are also loading two assault transports to board and assist your regiments in repelling boarders."
"Understood Admiral."
Daala turned away from the hologram.
"Set all turbolaser batteries to flak mode, minimum safe distance from the Relentless, let's clean those things off her."
"Aye ma'am."
"Admiral, assault transports 1025 and 1138 standing by."
"Send them in, looks like they'll have to do things the hard way with the Relentless' hangar bay out of commission." Daala said with a frown.
"Aye sir."
"Are you well?" Mara asked Marek as she suddenly appeared by his side. He was adjusting his gloves and was examining the scattered drones with a mixture of contempt and disgust.
"I'm fine, Mara. Look to cleaning up this mess." He replied absently. She nodded and snapped her fingers at a stormtrooper who hurried over.
"See that this mess is cleared for Lord Marek."
"Yes, ma'am."
She looked back at him but he had walked away from her and was standing on the far end of the command deck away from the others. She had watched him in action and she felt excited watching him cut his way through the Borg, there was a certain joy on her face which she had not seen before. His face had lightened for that brief moment and the storm clouds that always seemed gathered over his head parted revealing just how young he truly was.
"Admiral. Borg fleet now in position zero."
Daala smiled triumphantly and strode over to fire control.
"Activate the charges. Order all fleet ships to stand by."
The fire control officer nodded and flicked a line of switches that sent a signal that tripped the seismic charges sitting out in sector 124 mark 80, now known as position zero.
The surviving Borg cubes were now in a route, transferring all available power to the engines and preparing to engage transwarp engines. They detected the charges but not the danger.
Not until it was too late.
The charges detonated. For a moment there was nothing. Then a deep bass thrumming that signaled the detonation. Massive waves of explosive energy whipped out in two dimensional planes. The Borg cubes were sheared in half. The waves intersected at certain points, utterly vaporizing anything in their path. The retreating Borg armada happened to be in the center of the explosive waves.
Daala watched coldly as the cubes quickly became a field of scattered debris. Nothing was left. The Borg fleet was gone.
"Victory." Kratas breathed.
Daala nodded.
"Now, let us save the Relentless so we can be on our way." Daala ordered and continued watching the expanse of dead Borg ships.