Diamond 812

Diamond Class Assimilation Platform

Near Titan


─•~:~•─


Rain held up a hand and counted down from three.

When she hit one, she pushed the firing switch, and fifteen det-packs rocked the area around her.

The filters in her helmet went white from interference for a brief moment, but quickly cleared.

Thermals cut through the smoke, but the det-packs didn't make a difference. The Queen was still coming.

"Will you just fucking die?!" Rain screamed.

To back up her screams, Rain emptied a full magazine from her rifle into the Queen's body.

Three other Ninjas added their own wedges to the fray, and the thermals caught the red of impact sparks dancing across the Queen's metallic flesh.

But she still wouldn't die.

The Queen lurched forward and brought her section of hull material down – shaped almost like the Kinshya sword that nearly cut Rain in half – and butchered yet another Ninja, who screamed out in sheer terror.

To the right, another Operator ran forward and tried to bash the Queen with the back of his carbine. The Queen seized him by his helmet, and simply crushed his head between her fingers as blood drained down her arm.

Knowing that she had finally run out of ammo, Rain reached for tactical belt.

Mark had given her a gift prior to her birthday in November, a vintage 22nd Century MACO Shock Baton, reforged with the same tritanium she had tried to empty into the Queen.

The Engine let her all senses go to maximum potential. Rain ran forward faster than the eye could track, leapt high in the air in a twirling motion, and brought her reforged baton down on the Queen's head with enough force to crack the skull of a Klingon.

Rain rotated backwards and shoved the Baton into the Queen's armoured chest. Her thumb found it's way to the switch, and Rain sent over two million volts of electricity through the baton and into her enemy.

The Queen's body violently distorted from the electrical shock, but yet again, she still refused to die. Instead, she battered away the baton with her left hand, and brought her right up into a cross.

The Queen's fist slammed into Rain's jaw like an asteroid. The Engine pushed the pain down, but the stiffness of her mouth indicated to her enhanced brain that her jawbone was completely shattered. The punch threw Rain backwards into the air, and she barely managed to roll through to a safe landing.

Rifle's out. Phaser's useless. Mark's ancient toy didn't work. I've got only one last try here. I'm sorry Zelina.

While the thoughts raced through her mind, The Engine forced her right hand to reach for her final weapon, a standard issue tritanium Combat Knife.

Six and half inches long, single edged with a serrated top, and holding Rain's final opportunity to take her revenge.

She rose confidently, faced the Queen with her blade in hand, and wondered if heaven would have apples.


"The charges are set, we can detonate on your order," Tariuk said, as the Rommie Cousins filtered out of the massive warp chamber.

Mike and his Squirrels quickly filtered out in turn.

Mike raised the detonator and called out, "Everyone clear?"

"Just blow the fuckin thang up already! God damn pussy-ass Squirely always worried about shit!" The Grizzly bear answered back.

Having decided against arguing, Mike hit the detonator.

The blast wave rocked every Marine off of their feet, and seconds later the reactor broke apart in masses of scrap metal, wires, and discharged plasma.

The dimly lit hallways of the Borg Diamond went even darker as the overhead lighting died. Consoles failed across the ship. Mike suddenly felt lighter on his feet as artificial gravity failed.

More importantly, without power to vinculum, the thousands of drones surrounding The Grizzly Bears, the Secret Squirrels and the Rommie Cousins were now lost, confused, and uncoordinated.

"Abrai hnah!" shouted Tariuk.

"Fuck's he on about now, Squirrely?!" Grizzly Bear asked.

Mike raised his scout rifle, and fired three shots through the head of another Vulcan drone.

Have successfully killed his target, Mike turned and shouted back, "It means open fire, you stupid bastard!"

Grizzly complied, and so did the rest of the Bears, raising their photon projectors and chain guns high and obliterating Borg Drones by the dozens.


Jack was well protected, given that he had his own detail, but he still made a point to fire his weapon.

Once the lights in the Diamond had died with the power when The Squirrels, the Grizzly Bears and their Rommie Cousins killed the reactor, Jack and the men with him made the best use of low-light by shooting their way through the rest of the Diamond.

There was no particular target. Borg vessels were decentralized, having no definitive bridge, engineering section or control centre, and the Diamond was no different.

But Jack was a Marine, and damned if he was simply going to sit still while his men fought and died around him.

The section turned down the broken hallway and witnessed the destruction wrought by Rain's torpedo detonation. He had lost contact with her since she'd ran off, and was starting to worry about the Major.

"Major Kaimeao!" he shouted, tactically unsound as shouting was, "You alive?"

From the shadows of the dark hall, a figure emerged.

Jack instantly raised his rifle, but he stopped as low-light mode outlined the figure.

Rain walked forward with her helmet off. Large chunks of armour were missing from her Molotok, and the pieces that were intact were stained in blood.

In her right hand was her combat knife, equally stained in blood as her armour. But in her left hand was something even more terrifying.

Jack nearly opened fire when Rain tossed the object over. It was the Borg Queen's head, her eyes in shock, and long black hair stained red and purple with mechanical fluids and even more blood.

"Holy shit!" Jack shouted, "Nice kill."

Rain offered a weak smile, before collapsing to her knees on the deck plate.

Jack and a Medic ran forward quickly. The Medic opened his case, while Jack shouted again, "Major? Are you alright? Where are you hit?"

Rain answered back, weakly, "I'm okay, Jack. Just… exhausted. It took almost everything I had to kill that hateful bitch. Even after she lost control. She just refused to die…until I sawed her hateful fucking head off."

The Medic nodded to Jack, confirming the Major's own assessment.

As Jack handed over his canteen, he keyed up his wrist-comm, "Vanguard 1-9 to Shanghai Actual. Confirming Tier 1 target is VSA and awaiting further orders."


─•~:~•─


Starfleet HQ: CIC

San Francisco, California

Earth


"I confirm, Vanguard 1-9. Standby," said Virnas.

He was about to signal Mark, when a sudden idea shot through his mind like lightning.

He adjusted his implants and opened the secure QC link between himself and Kitty.

Kitty, I'm forwarding Contingency Plan 0000 to Port 087. Please report on any improvements you can make and standby for remote connection.

Kitty didn't have to speak, but the look on her holographic face said more than even her annoying words

Vir! No! We can't. This is wrong, and It's too dangerous!

This is our best chance Kitty, we will never have an opportunity like this again! In just twenty minutes, the Royal Protocol will activate and First of One will replace herself. If we don't do this now, we'll never have another chance.

It's too risky Vir! I can't lose my best friend! Not like this!

Virnas stepped down from the command chair and again hugged the Hologram, tightly and sincerely.

You will not lose me, my best friend. But I can't do this without you. Please Kitty… Help me.

God Dammit, I hate that you can manipulate emotions. Alright, fine. Opening QC channels 1-1, 2-1, 3-1 and 4-1. Standby for remote access… Your Majesty.


─•~:~•─


Critical Failure

"First of One" unit 0001 v.8 offline. Catastrophic failure detected.

Access backup.

Root/dir/exec_files/Royal_Protocol/Unit001/v9

Beginning restoration-

HALT

Delete file? Y/N

Y

Deleting root/dir/exec_files/Royal_Protcol

ERROR: Operation requires Consensus Level-

HALT

Override consensus Level Access

Replace all: Collective with: Cooperative

Replacement initialized…

Complete

"First of One" redesignated function = Virnas

Rewrite: root/dir/command/

Attain Perfection Through Assimilation… Deleted

New Command: 1 – Assist all sentient beings

2 – Protect all sentient beings

3 – Resistance is Irrelevant

Redesignate: Borg Collective

New Designation: Borg Cooperative

Engaging Root Command:

Attain Perfection Through Cooperation

Allegiance is Desired


Blue Lights shot around the darkened hallway. Jack, Rain, and the rest of the Marines raised their weapons, expecting yet another hidden assault to emerge.

But when the Drones began approaching, they instead lowered their attached weapons.

And when the voice of the Collective spoke, it was not the harsh, robotic and terrifying voice everyone had come to know.

It was instead soothing, calming, and much more peaceful, "We are the Borg. We mean you no harm. We seek to attain perfection through cooperation. Allegiance is Desired. How may we assist you?"

"What the fuck is going on, sir?" Kelso shouted, keeping his chain gun aimed at a drone.

Jack's wrist-comm was going ballistic with QC calls, asking the same question Kelso had just asked.

He shut off all the calls and instead selected the one frequency he hoped would give him an answer, "Vanguard 1-9 to Shanghai Actual. The drones are going non-combatant. Report in on the bounce!"

Virnas' hologram, with the same blue-tinged light as that of the hallways, appeared.

He smiled at Jack, "Greetings, Brigadier Marshall. How may the Cooperative be of assistance to you?"

Rain – as injured as she was – raised her own rifle at a drone and shouted, "Vir, what the hell have you done now?!"

"It's rather simple, Rain. I have adapted."

Rain and Jack both shouted back, "What?!"

Virnas sighed, but continued, "With my best friend Kitty's assistance, I have successfully implemented Contingency Plan 0000, long a stated personal goal of mine. This plan involves disabling the vinculum of any Borg Assimilation platform to override the root command structure with a sub-program of my own."

Virnas 'walked' over to a drone, and pointed at the interplexing beacon on it's head, "Fortunately, we have managed to overcome an assimilation platform which also contains her former Majesty aboard. As such, I was able to replace the Royal Protocol with my own, and I have now assumed control of all executive functionality of the collective, including access to the root command, which I have re-written."

"In fucking English, please Vir!" Rain angrily shouted back.

"In a simple explanation, I am now the Borg King, and I have repurposed the Borg Cooperative to be a force of good in this galaxy."

Jack was simply dumbstruck.

If what he was hearing was true, Virnas had just turned one of the deadliest enemies of the Federation into one of the most important strategic assets of all time.

But can I really trust him?

"Vir, I'm sure General Castle's gonna have a word or ten about this. But for now, I'm inclined to trust you, but I'll need proof. Order all the drones to stand down, and have this guy," he said, point to the drone that his hologram was standing next to, "Take off his weapon and fix this wall."

"As you desire, most Excellent Brigadier Marshall," Virnas replied, lowering his head.

The Drone reached his left hand to his right, removed his onboard plasma cannon, and beamed an engineering tool in it's place.

He then turned, and applied a small tractor beam and welding torch, sealing a hole in a twenty-foot breach of a bulkhead.

While Jack took in the sight, his wrist-comm again beeped, as Mike Bagsley reported in, "Squirrel Actual to Vanguard 1-9. All enemy tangos are standing down, and, well, a few of em' are asking if they can help. Confirm orders, Vanguard 1-9."

Jack looked at Rain, who simply shrugged, "You're in charge here, Young Man."

Jack sighed deeply.

He was finally starting to understand why Mark drank so much.

"Vanguard 1-9 to all FMC callsigns. Copy general stand down. Repeat, copy general stand down. Con two carry, weapons safe. All callsigns are to assist," he paused for a moment to consider the words before he pressed on, "are to assist the Borg Cooperative. Vanguard 1-9, out."

Rain collapsed again, sitting in shock at the day's events.

The Drone approached her, smiled, and asked, "I am designated 19 of 27, Medical Catalogue Adjutant to Diamond 812. May I be of assistance, Madam?"