Moments later, Jack materialized on a large platform. The visor in his helmet automatically went to low-light mode, and Jack's hands automatically brought his rifle up to engage anything that didn't look like a Marine.

Hundreds more transporter beams materialized in every direction around him, and the well-oiled machine that was the Federation Marine Corps spread out and perfectly covered nearly every direction they could possibly cover with their weaponry. A few feet ahead of Jack, three drones—one of which looked like a Bolian—started walking towards the hundreds of Sharkies. The Bolian drone, or a voice that controlled him, started speaking,

"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is-"

The voice was drowned out by a hundred XR-118 Assault Rifles firing out a thunderous volley, almost as thunderous as the guns of Repulse or Vanguard. Jack didn't even need to pull his own trigger. Not even a blink later, all three drones were shredded apart in a mass of circuitry, wires, flesh, and blood. The tritanium wedges that didn't kill the three drones killed twenty more that started walking behind the first three, and even more wedges cut through the mysterious metal of Borg interior bulkheads, creating a hole in the wall that looked like a violent form of Swiss cheese.

Once the immediate threat was dealt with, a squad from The Grizzly Bears moved up to cover a doorway with their own massive weapons, while other Sharkies from every division began to spread out and cover the massive platform. Below and above Jack, the unmistakable roar of rifles, chain guns and photon projectors killed hundreds more Borg Drones, while emergency and tactical lights started cutting through the pools of darkness around the Borg Diamond.

Jack jumped slightly as a group of XOF Ninjas de-cloaked and took their positions alongside the Grizzlies and Sharkies, unnerving the less sneaky Marines but somehow reassuring them at the same time. Jack's helmet picked up one, Major Rain Kaimeao, and she walked quickly towards her now superior officer, "Did we all make it?"

Jack looked at his wrist-comm and nodded back, "Looks like it, I've got 74 960 call-signs all showing up fine"

To add to that count, several green transporter beams formed up around Jack, and Republican Infantry stood ready around the rest of the Marines. A few enlisted men who hadn't been fully brought up to speed raised their rifles and took aim at the Romulans before Jack shouted, "Hold your fire! They're with us. Anyone that takes a shot that's not aimed at a drone answers to me! I hope you fucking idiots can tell the difference between a Romulan and a Borg!"

With perfect precision, The bootnecks lowered their weapons and allowed the Romulans to take up covering positions, although more than a few Sharkies felt the need to roughly shove a few of their Rommie cousins into proper positions.

A tall Romulan wearing a tactical eye display approached Jack and nodded, "Jolan Tru, I am First Spear Centurion Tariuk, Republican Karansu Khhiu Gekha, 5th Legion. I have three thousand men with me. Where do you need us?"

Jack quickly assessed Tariuk. Romulan Infantry had never been anything to write legends about, especially when compared to the history of their Navy, but they looked as ready as any of his own men. The Khhiu Gekha—literally translated as "Land Soldier" but understood as the Rihannsu word for "Marine"were trying to break that tradition. They had been personally trained by Black Star ECS a decade ago and looked like it.

The Romulans lacked any version of Molotok Armour but were wearing TAV's and carrying Romulan disruptor rifles. They looked ready, but a disturbing thought entered Jack's mind as a question to Tariuk, "The Borg can adapt to DEW's. You guys understand that, right?"

Tariuk held his rifle up to Jack's visor and pointed at a black device near the trigger guard, "This is called a Temmorhhae hweillh dhaesan, In your language, 'Impact Spark Module,' specifically designed to modify our plasma disruptors into ferrometal beams that melt at 18 000 okians, or 3000° Celsius. They should, at least in theory, penetrate any force-fields, even those used by the bhorga. We haven't tested them in battle yet-"

Rain forcefully stole Tariuk's rifle from his hands and aimed it across the gangway. She squeezed the trigger and Jack's helmet went from low light to regular as the green beam erupted out from the compressed barrel towards a Drone about three hundred feet away. Half-way into the shot, the beam changed from green to grey as the plasma hardened into super-heated ferrometal, and seconds after the transition, melted away the Drone's personal force-field and most of the Drone's body, leaving nothing left but a pile of burnt ashes behind.

"This works fine." Rain said bluntly, throwing the rifle back at Tariuk and returning to her own cover position.

"Good enough for me," Jack said as he opened his wrist-comm, "Centurion, link your comm's systems to ours and follow us. And try not to point your own rifles at my Marines"

"We need an objective here, Jack. As much as we all want to, blindly shooting our way through a Borg ship won't accomplish much of anything." Rain said next, taking effort to remain calm.

Right now, she wanted to kill everything in front of her, but the Engine was forcing her to think calmly and act cool, as much as Rain tried to fight it.

"Way ahead of you Major," Jack said as he keyed in a QC frequency on his wrist-comm, "Shanghai Actual, Vanguard 1-9 requesting vectors and targets"

Seconds later, a holographic avatar of Virnas appeared in front of the group, and the former drone quickly opened a map beside his avatar, "My data indicates there are 87 899 Drones aboard Diamond 812. You are outnumbered, but you the advantages of superior technology and skill at your disposal. Brigadier Marshall, you will need to divide your forces and destroy one of two targets"

Virnas pointed to a blue dot on his holodisplay and continued, "Target 1, primary reactor. Inducing a detonation at this point will cause a cascading failure in all primary and secondary EPS power taps. The reactor is shielded with fourteen inches of Borg Hull Plating, composition eighteen. Many photon demolition packs, or micro-photon torpedoes should be able to penetrate the shielding and destroy the reactor"

He then pointed to a yellow dot above his head, "Target 2, and my preferred option if you wish to preserve Diamond 812 for future study. Primary Vinculum Chamber. This is the Diamond's pivotal point of contact with the Collective. If you destroy or disable it, the drones aboard will be unable to function. Both Targets will be heavily defended. The drones will not be able to adapt to your weaponry, and Molotok Powered Infantry Combat Suits cannot be penetrated by assimilation tubules. However, you should still be prepared for heavy resistance. I advise destroying all drones you encounter immediately"

"Copy that, lets-" Jack started to reply before Rain cut him off.

"Where's the Bitch, Vir?!" Rain shouted at the avatar.

Unmoved, Virnas simply replied, "Target 2"

Rain immediately took off in the indicated direction before Jack, or any other Marine, could stop her.

"God Dammit." Jack cursed under his breath.

Realizing there wasn't time to chew her out, he keyed up the all-call frequency and shouted orders, "Ninjas, with Reaper 1-9. Grizzlies, Squirrels, Target 1, take the Romulans with you. Everyone else, sweep and clear, all decks and all elevations"

"ROE, Sir?!" Lance Corporal Andrew Kelso shouted from behind Jack.

Annoyed, Jack turned, fired a burst at a Drone attempting to climb up the rails to the gangway, and shouted back, "What ROE?! Kill em' all!"