Chapter 36 – Sabers and Slugthrowers

"At least the Borg didn't seem to have any plan in mind beaming aboard" said Proudmoore, seeing as they'd materialized in all sorts of random places. "Not that this is any comfort whatsoever. All non-combat personnel, evacuate to the nearest shelter. This is not a drill."

On a separate channel, he ordered his best Sensing Guardians to sniff out drones. "A single loose Borg could assimilate this whole ship" he said. "Do not let any of them escape your notice!"

Oviha Tupa oversaw securing a department that could count as a ship unto itself—thousands of personnel were needed to run the reactor systems aboard a Star Dreadnaught-scale vessel.

She held a small cylinder in her hand, having received orders from Proudmoore, "just in case."

It wouldn't come to that, she thought. Not with assault troopers at every junction and six Jedi Guardians backing them. The first wave of drones fell to massed Heavy Repeater fire that tore through them like flimsiplast.

"Adapt to this" shouted some wielders of the weapon. Unfortunately, that's exactly what they did.

The next wave took almost no damage, but not for the usual reason.

"Tupa to bridge, we have a problem."

"What is it?" Tactical took command, not bothering Proudmoore with every issue aboard his ship.

"The drones, we aren't hitting them. It's like the bullets pass through them! Anything in the database we got from Starfleet about this?"

"They must be interphase" replied Tactical. "You'll have to use disruptors!"

"Oh, that's just great" snapped Tupa. "There are probably sixty drones down here—and that's after we filled a bunch with repeater slugs!"

"No more will be beaming in, however. Our shields are back online."

Tupa didn't respond to the good news, instead ordering the few people authorized to use disruptor weapons forward. Three shots were required to destroy a drone with disruptor fire. Given the slow-firing, high-energy properties associated with even the most advanced disruptor rifles, squad commanders ordered that only two shots be employed since that was enough to "bring them back into phase." After that, Heavy Repeaters or lightsabers did a fine job.

The same drama played out aboard each of the Vekah shipyards. Yes, drones were beaming into a biohazardous environment in which they would soon lose functionality and die (quite grotesquely, it was said by those who saw the effect of the "Plague") but each wave lasted slightly longer than the previous one.

"Worf to Picard! We cannot hold this yard forever—they will overwhelm us by sheer numbers if we do not find a way to stop the cubes transporting more drones aboard."

Redemption let loose on the two tactical fusion cubes harassing Vekahs 2 and 3. This created a problem—in order to bring most of its heavy weapons to bear an Executor had to direct its topside at the enemy. But the goal was to grab each yard in tractor beams mounted by the main hanger, requiring the exact opposite orientation. Combine this with the fact that Borg tactical fusion cubes now essentially rated as low-level Star Dreadnaughts themselves, and Redemption found itself having a very bad day.

Commander Kira Nerys wasn't doing much better. Deep Space 9 shook as if hit.

"Report!"

Odo returned to Security as though he'd never left. Miles O'Brien happily conceded half the ops/tactical duty hat he'd been wearing, not that such doubling-up was uncommon. Lieutenant Nog took up sensors/comm instead of just maintenance and Ezri Dax was assigned to science. A fuller staffing had been set to occur (including a new security chief and Bajoran liaison) until the whole Redemption/Borg mess intervened.

"Looks like a Borg fleet just got pulled out of…well, I'm not sure whether it's hyperspace or warp, but whatever they were in, our gravity wells yanked them out of it. That's what shook us."

"At least we have some time before they show up" replied Kira. "Contact our fleet—let them know they're not going to come back to a ticker-tape parade."

"Ground teams, report!" ordered Picard.

"Vekah 2 Kahless Squad is falling back" replied Worf. "We are facing stiff resistance. I advise abandoning the yard, Captain."

"Vekah 3 Kirk Squad is being forced to retreat" said Tuvok. "Our tactical position is untenable. I suggest we concentrate on attempting to secure one facility."

Jaina Raynor had the only positive news. "Vekah 1 Coruscant Squad is advancing."

"Given the levels of damage we're sustaining, I suggest we take what we can get and go." Proudmoore's comments came as he received word that concentrated Borg fire might actually cause a shield breach for the first time.

"Picard to Kahless and Kirk teams—beam out."

Proudmoore ordered his escorts, still sheltered under Redemption's shield bubble, to provide what covering fire they could as the massive ship rolled on its axis to grab the damaged-but-functional Vekah 1.

"You know, if we hadn't issued all our assault teams the same weapons, I'd think the Borg were toying with us" said Proudmoore to Picard. "It's not like the squads from this galaxy were any weaker offensively than my Coruscant group."

"They may well be doing exactly that." Picard's voice dripped venom. "The Borg were once thought to be a monolithic force bent only on assimilation and destruction. Then I met the Queen."

"Incoming comm from the Deep Space facility. Sir, you might want to see this."

Deep Space 9's computer transmitted a representation of a fusion cube escorted by several tactical vessels.

"Now, lest you get into a panic, we're not threatened" came the voice of Commander Kira. "Not yet. They're stuck at impulse thanks to our gravity wells and even with their relatively higher sublight speed, it'll be almost a day before they get here."

"We were actually just leaving" replied Picard. "The Borg have overwhelmed two of our teams but we did secure one shipyard."

Kira slapped a console.

"We could try to trap the Borg between the station and us" suggested Proudmoore. "Adjust the size of the gravity well so that it pulls us out of hyperspace on top of them." He turned to Picard.

"Do you think if the gravity well shrank, the Borg would use transwarp or hyperspace in an attempt to get closer to the station?"

"Of course. It would offer them a tactical advantage." Picard concealed his thinking the question silly.

"Commander Kira, take these numbers and do the math. Figure out given our travel speed, the gravity well size, and the estimated position of that Borg fleet how to resize the gravity well to bring the Borg within weapons range of Deep Space 9 shortly before we arrive."

"Vekah 1 secured."

"Thank you, Guardian Raynor. Kirk Squad? Kahless Squad?"

"One fatality, six casualties with moderate to severe injuries" reported Tuvok. "One of our crewmen was hit by an overloading conduit, and several others were caught in the blast."

"No fatalities, three casualties with moderate injuries" came back Worf's voice.

"We have the yard" reported Proudmoore on a fleetwide channel. "We cannot jump to hyperspace with other vessels inside our shield bubble, but we can provide very literal cover while other ships hyper out."

Redemption and her attendant ships reversed position, putting the dreadnaught's batteries in view of the Borg once more. Two tactical cubes were destroyed by this point, but the remaining four realized if they attacked from behind the Super Star Destroyer would have difficulty getting rid of them. To compensate, tactical put most shields aft and ran up the hyperdrive.

"Overall, not a complete loss" noted Captain Picard as the fleet sped away. "We secured one shipyard and lost nine ships."

"Four were intentional" reminded Proudmoore.

"We have a long way to go if we want to do more than survive. But somehow, some way… I think we'll come through."