Diamond 812
Diamond Class Assimilation Platform
Near Titan
─•~:~•─
"It's quiet," Tariuk said, louder than Mike Bagsley cared to hear.
Mike shoved the Romulan Marine forward and harshly whispered, "Would you shut the fuck up?! Their ears still work, you green blooded Hobgoblin!"
Tariuk was about to respond to the insult, but the Bhorga would be first.
Six bolts of plasma shot out from the darkness, while the Squirrels, the Grizzlies and their Rommie Cousins scattered across the hallway.
A single Grizzly stood up, hefted his heavy Micro-Photon Projector onto his armoured shoulder, and answered back with six micro torpedoes.
The orange torps screamed back down the dark hallway, and the explosions made Mike's bones rattle inside of his armour.
"I could smoke these here dang old fuckin Cyber Zombies all day," the Grizzly said in a thick drawl as he turned to Mike, "Get yer weak ass up and get a move on, Squirely. I ain't carryin yer nuts all day!"
The Rommie Cousins took point and advanced first, weapons up and moving in a well-trained double-stack column.
A Uhlan asked the First Spear Arrain, "Sir, can you explain all these animal associations to me?"
"Feanna Hevams, Uhlan," Tariuk replied in Rihannsu.
"I heard that, fehill'curak!" Mike shouted back.
He raised his scout rifle and fired six wedges through a Vulcan drone advancing behind the twenty-man group.
The drone was four hundred feet away, but Mike's helmet watched all six wedges cut through his cybernetic torso.
But the Vulcan Drone stubbornly refused to die.
The Grizzly turned, again hefted the Micro-Photon Projector onto his shoulder, and three more torps screamed in behind Mike's wedges.
The explosion utterly obliterated the Vulcan Drone, along with thirty feet of Borg bulkheads and hull material.
"Yew stupid sumbitch," The Grizzly said, "Yer supposed ta kill the fuckin things when ya shoot em. Aint yew pussy lil Squirelys learn nuthin frum Major Kaimeao?!"
Mike instead pointed to the thick door separating the group from their target, "How about you just make a mess of that door already, Feanna Bear?!"
Grizzly turned once more and made his projector ready, but answered back, "Now yer talkin ta me with that damn Rommie Pig Latin?! Yer fuckin lucky yer a Marine there Squirely, or I'd be blastin yer shit up instead!"
Grizzly obliterated the door, and the Rommie Cousins moved in first to secure the primary reactor of Diamond 812.
The reactor was massive, far larger than any Starfleet warp core or Republican Karansu Quantum Singularity Chamber.
Mike's helmet was barely able to dim the green glow of plasma, EPS conduits and whatever strange material the Borg used to power their ships with.
The humming of the engines was maddening to his ears, and Mike slapped his filters to full strength as the mixed group of Squirrels, Grizzly Bears and Romulans fanned out to covering positions.
"We're gonna need a fuck load more det-packs to blow this up," he said aloud, raising his wrist-comm.
Before Mike could call for more supplies, another panel opened to the left, and the reactor hummed even louder as it diverted power into the new chamber.
"Shit," Said Mike.
"Well, Shit," Said Grizzly.
"Hnaev," Said Tariuk.
All three men, and their fellow Marines, watched as a Borg Probe – a cruiser sized vessel equivalent in capability and firepower to an Intrepid class heavy frigate – lit up from the increased power surge and fired up her main drives.
Seconds later, a massive porthole opened in the roof of the Diamond, and the Borg Probe screamed out into the blackness of space, with a second Probe following close behind.
Mike had his wrist-comm up second after, "Squirrel Actual to Repulse. Incoming enemy vessels your way, and we need det-packs here now!"
Without acknowledging the signal, three cases of explosives were beamed in behind the Marines.
The Grizzlies and Rommie Cousins immediately started strapping the munitions up and down the reactor core, while Mike and the Squirrels stood guard for more drones.
Mike had finally started going to Church again after Operation Soul's Edge.
He lowered his head and spoke a quiet prayer under his breath.
If you can hear me Jesus, please don't let the fucking Cyber Zombies blow up my ride out of here.
─•~:~•─
USS Repulse
Vanguard class Battleship NCC-89901
Main Bridge
In Orbit above Titan
The worst part of being a Starfleet Captain was the waiting.
Micheal Tovey could only sit at his command chair and wait. The Marines were busy trying to secure the Borg Diamond, and he could view reports or watch the Bootnecked Sharkies do their work via QC, but there was very little he could actually do other than wait.
Repulse's alarm gave him something new to do, while Morris shouted, "There's the probe! Course; 1-1-8 mark 2-2-5, speed; full impulse."
"Lock all weapons and fire!" Tovey shouted back.
Repulse fired a terrifying amount of ordinance towards the much smaller Borg Probe.
Eighteen Torpedoes – nine photon and nine quantum – raced to beat the phaser beams, anti-proton CIWS bursts, two blue fangs of plasma from her dorsal lances and a pair of shells from the main battery to kill this new target.
The torpedoes managed to win the race, and the main viewer temporarily failed to a white error screen as the ordinance savaged the Borg Probe.
The shockwave of the most powerful ship that Starfleet had ever built firing every weapon she had jolted the ship, and Quinn almost fell out of his seat as he failed to hold onto the safety rail.
"Was that really necessary, Captain?!" The Trill shouted to Tovey with anger.
"Not really. But it felt good," Tovey replied with a smile.
But the good feelings raced away.
The Second Probe screamed into space, and her angle of departure put her out of the weapons envelope of either Repulse or her sister Vanguard.
Tovey felt horror entering his stomach.
A Romulan Valdore moved in to intercept the probe and began lacing the black mechanical ship with disruptor fire.
Green and red explosions danced across the probe's hull, but the pill-shaped cruiser refused to halt.
The Probe shot forward like a main battery shell and rammed its way through the Valdore's middle section.
The Romulan heavy cruiser – the Star Empire's answer to the Grey Ghost – broke apart in even chunks and exploded seconds after.
The Quantum Singularity of the Valdore collapsed into a micro black hole above Titan.
It wouldn't be enough to threaten the moon, but it would be a hazard to space travel for the next few centuries.
"Morris, track the probe's course. Raise Vanguard and Courser," Tovey ordered.
Alynna Nechayev and Jackie Fishier appeared on the screen.
Seconds later, Donatra also appeared in a second window.
"My sympathies for your cruiser, Rear Admiral Donatra, but at the risk of sounding cold, someone needs to get after that thing. Morris, what is the course of the Borg Probe?" Tovey asked.
"1-1-8 mark heading for Earth."
"Neither of us can leave, Micheal," Alynna said, "We need to support the Marines."
"I'll go," Donatra added quickly, "My ship is faster than yours anyway. We'll try to cut that thing off before it reaches your home."
Quinn finally weighed in, "Unacceptable! Your very presence in the solar system is an act of war, Rear Admiral. It is only because of the presence of the Borg that I have not ordered your ship destroyed. No Romulan vessel will approach Earth—"
Alynna interrupted his ranting, "Captain Tovey, on my authority as Task Force Commander, Vice Admiral Quinn is relieved. Place him under arrest and confine him to quarters until a court martial can be arranged for dereliction of duty. If he resists, you may exercise whatever force you deem necessary to secure the prisoner."
Tovey waved, and two Security Officers climbed up the stairs of the loft, phasers in hand.
They each grabbed an arm of the Vice Admiral who shouted, "You won't get away with this Nechayev! Your career is finished!"
Tovey allowed himself a small smile at the sight.
The Chairman of the Admiralty Board was being dragged off by security like a raw Cadet who had too much to drink on Federation Day.
But with Courser racing off to intercept the Borg Probe, and the Bootnecked Sharkies still fighting to secure the Diamond, Tovey was forced to go back to waiting.
The worst part of being a Starfleet Captain.
─•~:~•─
Earth Space Dock
In Orbit Above Earth
As soon as the alarms went off, Anna raced from her office to the control centre.
There wasn't much – realistically – she could do to influence the events, but damned if she was going to sit on the sidelines.
Once she reached the top of the stairs, Anna finally felt some relief today when Kathy Janeway had nodded at her and started taking charge of the situation.
"Report."
Mei Xia answered, "Repulse reports an incoming Borg Vessel. One Probe class ship. I've got her on sensors Admiral, she'll be here in thirty seconds."
Janeway let go of a decade's guilt and assessed the tactical screen on her left.
Home Fleet and Task Force 57 had completed the evacuation of Earth and left for Venus an hour ago.
The only things standing between the Borg and Earth was ESD and Kathryn Janeway.
"Can we call them back?" Anna asked, looking at the same screen.
Kathy shook her head, "Even if they turned around and redlined right this second, they'd still be an hour out, and carrying a full load of civilians. We'll have to do this ourselves Anna."
Kathy hit the all-call switch on Mei's console, and brought her decade of experience from Voyager with her next words, "This is Rear Admiral Kathryn Janeway on ESD. I am assuming command of all remaining Federation personnel receiving this message. Sound battle stations and ready all orbital defenses. Camp Nath, deploy all available ground forces to ready positions. Standby for orders on my next signal."
As the transmission was sent, the Borg Probe appeared suddenly over the Moon.
Janeway nodded to another Lieutenant in the control centre, and ESD shook as the station's full array of rearmed weaponry charged to full power.
Around the station, hundreds of orbital weapons platforms fired maneuvering thrusters and drew in close to the station, adding their own array of weapons to the defense.
"Let the probe close to within ten kilometres. Set phasers to cycle frequencies with every outgoing shot. Random settings. Don't give them time to adapt. They'll likely try to shoot our torpedoes out of the sky, so set the warheads to auto-seeking and proximity detonation. All hands, standby to fire!" Janeway commanded.
The Probe continued to race headlong towards ESD, looking to Anna like it might try to ram the station.
As the pill-shaped vessel crossed the debris of Red Ball Express, Janeway made her move.
"Fire."
Streaks of phasers drew orange lines across space. ESD's beams hit the target first, lacing across the Probe's shields like a spider trapping it's prey in the web.
Behind the phasers, endless bolts of photon and quantum torpedoes slammed into the target like an avalanche. The explosions made the Probe's shields shimmer with each hit, as the ship visibly distorted for the mass of ordinance hitting it.
The storm cleared for a moment as ESD and the OWP's reloaded magazines and recharged phaser strips. The Probe continued it's mad drive towards ESD.
Her hull was on fire and her shields were barely registering, but like so much else that the Collective had brought with them today, the Probe was simply refusing to die.
"Are we ready to fire again Lieutenant?" Janeway asked Xia, using the calm but firm voice she had used to command Voyager so long ago.
"Fifteen seconds," Mei reported, not daring to look up from her console.
Anna took a seat at a targeting console and did what she could to speed up the process, adding, "We've got one last shot at this Kathy. If we can't send the fuckin thing to Hell with our next burst, we're next!"
After the eternity of fifteen seconds, a calming ping indicated that ESD was ready to fire again.
The storm of steel started up, and the Probe was once again savagely barraged by the largest amount of ordinance that Starfleet had fired at a single target since Wolf-359.
Explosions ripped across the black hull as her shields gave out, but the Probe still refused to die.
"They'll board us first," Janeway said as she opened a locker and retrieved a pile of phasers, "Arm yourselves and prepare to repel boarders. Remember that the drones can adapt after twelve or so shots. Keep your settings in the high EM-band, and aim for their heads."
As Kathy secured one of the two remaining phasers at her waist, she looked at Anna, "Madam President, I strongly recommend that you board one of the escape shuttles and evacuate ESD. You're too valuable to put in harm's way like this."
Anna rose, but instead of leaving the control centre, she seized a rifle from the hands of one of the tall and handsome Grizzlies.
Just as Mark and Rain had showed her, she set the magazine in place, pulled back the charging handle, and held the weapon at low ready.
"Like fuck. I'm a fightin' Irishwoman. We're in this till the end, Kathy."
The probe finally stopped just eight hundred meters away in space, and the tone of the alarms changed to a shrill noise as green Borg Transporter Beams formed throughout the huge station.
Fishies and Sharkies alike quickly spread out and opened up on dozens of drones on every deck.
Three Drones beamed into the control centre, forming just behind Kathy and Anna.
Each woman turned, raised a fast sight picture, and unloaded on each of the three drones.
Anna's tritanium wedges followed Kathy's phaser beams, and in seconds the drones were reduced to ashes and piles of blood.
"Admiral Janeway!" Mei shouted, pointing towards space, "Look!"
A dozen spatial torpedoes dropped down from an unseen source and lashed into the Borg Probe. The greenish tinted explosions brightened the side of ESD like lightening.
Courser dropped her cloak – stealth being unnecessary for this fight and a waste of power besides – and spread her long, spiney wings like a Bird of Prey preparing to feast.
From the wingtips, turbocharged disruptors created a rainstorm of destruction on the much smaller Borg Probe.
The disruptor blasts danced across the blackened hull, and the Probe turned to it's side and finally exploded in a massive green fireball, just in front of the same place that Europa and the Red Ball Express had exploded just two days ago.
"Khre-Riov Janeway, your legend precedes you. I am Riov Jarok, Commander of the RRW Courser. We come as friends of the United Federation of Planets. Do you require assistance to repel the intruders on your station?"
Unlike the balance of the Admiralty, Janeway actually trusted Romulans.
She had met more than a few during Voyager's years in Delta, and if it hadn't been for the generosity of a temporally displaced Romulan Scientist, Voyager may never have found her way home.
"Your assistance is greatly appreciated and gladly accepted, Commander. You may deploy at your discretion," Janeway smiled, finally letting herself breathe.
Tiaru smiled back, "Our reinforcements are on their way. Courser will maintain geo-synchronous orbit with Earth Space Dock for the time being and stand guard for any more unwelcome guests."
She looked at Anna next, "Madam President, I apologize for the lack of formality, but my own Khre-Riov Donatra brings greetings from Proconsul D'Tann. Will you do the honour of joining me in my office when this crisis is ended, so that two leaders may speak together?"
Anna sighed, "Given the circumstances Young Lass, I'm hardly in a position to say no. Would ye care for a pint?"
"I'm afraid I do not know this word, but I've been instructed to have a glass of Kali-Fal ready for you. I look forward to meeting you in person. Kiuu mnekham. Courser out," Tiaru said as the channel closed.
"The fuck does that mean?" Anna asked openly.
"All's Well," Janeway answered.
"Like fuck it is!" Anna said, as she shrank into the chair and ordered a fourth coffee.
