The Lakota was rocked by Borg weapons fire. Their shields were holding up well, but they needed to get moving. The helmsman could barely keep up with Riker's evasive manuevers. They swooped in on a cube and strafed it with a concentrated phaser blast and a large spread of torpedoes. Their new weapons were definitely still having an effect, the cube lurched on its side, if you could say that about a cube, and collided with a cube next to it. The Lakota and her wing continued on, avoiding the debris.

"Mr. Tuvok, what ship did that transmission come from?"

Tuvok punched in some commands, along with constantly firing their weapons. "It came from a Borg sphere approximately four thousand kilometers away." He punched the coordinates down to Riker's terminal.

"Helm set course one-four-seven mark zero-zero-five. Tuvok, have any ships who can follow us in." Riker was beginning to get some hope for this mission. They were going to cut the head off of the snake.

--------------------------------

The U.S.S. Majestic manuevered through the Borg horde and the rest of the fleet with ease, firing as she went. As a Miranda-class ship, she was probably the oldest ship in the fleet, but also one of the most manueverable. The Majestic was following the Lakota in to find the central ship. She swooped down as the Ambassador-class ship Essex was hit with a mass of Borg weaponry and broke up in her path.

The Majestic zeroed in on the target-a Borg sphere. She dove in right away in front of the rest and flew in close, firing torpedoes and phasers, doing barrel rolls as she went. She came about and prepared for another run. The sphere was firing wildly, and had found the pesty Majestic. The Miranda-class ship continued forward, her shields beginning to buckle under the onslaught. She never ceased fire, carving up the sphere's hull. The shields collapsed and a stray shot exploded the port warp nacelle.

The ship tumbled wildly, losing power. Secdondary explosions tore through her hull,sending debris and crewmen flying out into the void. Soon, her tumbling slowed, and losing power she drifted listlessly, no longer deemed to be a threat to the Borg.

-----------------------------------

Captain Wesley Crusher of the Majestic pulled himself off the bridge floor, nearly falling down again due to his broken leg. His face was slick with blood, but he didn't feel much pain. He collapsed into his chair.

His voice cracked a bit as he said," Damage report." Looking around the smoke filled bridge, he grimly realized no one was going to answer him. He limped to the helm and pushed the blackened corpse of Ensign Griggs off the chair. He still had power, but barely. Internal scans showed that his skeleton crew had been virtually wiped out. Most of them were either on the bridge or engineering, and engineering was open to space.

The warp core was offline, and he had no way to move his ship far, he just had minimal thrusters. Through the crackling viewer, he saw the sphere continuing to fire on the fleet. He saw hits on several ships, including the Lakota, which seemed to be bearing the brunt of the assault. And the Borg sphere loomed large on the screen, no more than five hundred meters away. He did have one option, one thing he could do to help turn the tide.

He gave the lower bow thruster a short burst, then stopped the rise with the top bow thruster. When the sphere was directly below his ship he said,"Computer, eject antimatter storage pods." The computer stated a warning to him and he overrode it with his command code. The ship shook as the pods ejected out from the ship's underbelly. He then reversed the ship's previous manuever.

He routed torpedo control to the helm, and targeted the pods.

"I'm sorry, Captain Picard," Crusher said as he punched the blinking "fire" control.

The torpedoes hit, and a huge white explosion disintegrated the Majestic and took half of the Borg sphere with it.

----------------------------------

Riker was thrown off his feet and flung across the bridge, flipping over a rail. He landed hard on the floor of the upper deck. Trying to get up, he looked to his right and saw Tuvok pulling himself up, a flow of green blood marring his face.

"Damage report!" yelled Riker as he pulled himself up to the railing.

Tuvok wiped blood out of his eye as he studied his station."Shields down to forty-seven percent, Captain. Moderate radiation damage to all decks."

Lieutenant Meroq shouted over the din from her Engineering station, her blue face slick with sweat. "Our warp field has been collapsed, Captain. Warp core offline!"

"What the hell happened?"

"We were in close proximity to an antimatter exposion, Captain," came Tuvok's measured response.

Riker made his way back to his chair, holding his bruised ribs as he sat down. "Where the hell did it come from?"

Lochley went to the science staion, pulling up sensor logs. Riker asked her to send the sensor log replay to the main viewer. They zeroed in on the area the explosion came from, and Riker's heart sank.

Wesley, he thought.

He wouldn't be occupied with feelings of grief, that would come later. He sprang into action. "Tuvok, what is the sphere's status?"

"Their shields are down, minimal Borg life-signs."

"What about the rest of the cubes? Are they still attacking?"

Tuvok pulled up the tactical schematic of the battle. He zoomed in on their position. "The cubes closest to the sphere seem to have been stunned somehow. However, cubes outside the range of the antimatter explosion seem to be recieving transmissions from a different source. It is on the planet itself."

"Tuvok, you and I are going over there. Get two of your best people still available." Tuvok nodded and prepared for the trip. Riker turned to Lochley. "Sarah, send the coordinates of that carrier wave source to Captain Sisko." The Intrepid was the only ship that could manuever in the atmosphere and make a strike against the source. "And have some ships fly cover for us here, whoever's available."

Tuvok and Riker made their way to the turbolift, when Riker heard a quiet-voiced "sir?" He turned and saw Lochley looking at them. Riker smiled knowingly.

"Don't worry Commander, we're coming back." As the turbolift doors closed he said, "And we're bringing company..."