Okies, firstly I really must say this: past and present tense. I sorry, very very sorry, because even I can tell there is a lot of mixup in the tense. I KNOW I keep skipping to present tense, my application of English is extremely poor and it annoys me greatly. This story seems almost unreadable at first and after I combed through it three times I still KNOW that there is a HUGE amount of grammatical errors that would make any linguist wince in terror.

The truth is, I would most likely have picked out these errors given time but that would take days if not weeks (yes me is that stupid) So I'm simply gonna shrug and post it anyways. Because I REALLY can't be bothered right now, maybe later as more friends read it and point out the obvious fault I will alter it but for now I am content with something that won't make me any money...

Hey! It's readable now! Well sort of, but good enough that you won't be scratching you head too much or get urges to hunt me down and beat me with a thesaurus. (I hope)

Revision: Did some minor editing job, diddle around with few of the dialogues and corrected some idiotic mistakes I've made. (It was Core that was the machine race, Arm was the clone side) Also I've since discovered the Borg's designate for human (thanks again Janusi!) so that's fixed.

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Disclaimer: (for last chapter too) not mine, don't sue.

Collective Consciousness

----------

Chapter 02: Luck and Providence

---------

Two month had past for Unimatrix Zero-One since the failed attempt to assimilate Species 12943, two month that had proven decisively to the Borg Collective that Species 12943 is not only a collective, but one that holds with many of the same philosophy as the Borg themselves.

Never had the Collective suffer such staggering loss and failure as they had to the rapidly advancing Species 12943, the four intervening universe that had separated universe X9-123-D4 to the origin zero-one had been rapidly cleared of Borg presence, only universe X9-123-D6 still contain a Borg powerbase. From one of the largest independent Unimatrix the collective had ever establish; the mighty armada, unicomplex and advance Borg nexus that dominated universe X9-123-D4 had been reduce to an area some thousand light year in radius with no transwarp junction and an increasingly hostile environment filled with savage skirmishes that more often than not left Borg cubes as nothing more than space debris.

The independent Unimatrix Two-Six Beta-Epsilon consists of a fleet of six million tactical cubes, some ten times that of Unimatrix Zero-One. The Borg are an efficient race, and the construction of vessels begins only when necessities dictates its need, the vast area once controlled by Unimatrix Two-Six Beta-Epsilon (some fifty thousand light year) had been the primary reason for the staggering fleet, yet when the force of one of the largest Unimatrix had concentrated its entire armada for a concerted strike against the invader, the result had been not only humbling but nearly inconceivable.

They had not only lost but were crushed.

In the entirety of its existence, the collective had never faced the possibility of extinction, not even during their disastrous conflict with species 8473 had the collective consciousness been threaten. A single Unimatrix –even if it is the alpha source- does not equal the collective whole, and with a universal expansion that dwarfed anything the lesser race could comprehend, the Collective had always existed with the surety that it will persevere and eventually eliminate any threat that it confronts.

Nearly six hundred Unimatrix had been established throughout multi-planar dimensional rifts, culminating a combine total force of nearly half a billion battle ready and fully operational cubes.

With the activation of the universal collective preservation protocol, this absolutely mammoth fleet will amass in one single locality to eliminate a threat conceivably large enough to warrant the unholy gathering.

This was an action that had never been deemed necessary.

The struggling scout cube that emerged from the singularity was critically damaged: passage through the dimensional rift had torn apart and rearranged an already near death vessel. Just before the cube collapse due to massive containment failure, it transmitted the one message that Unimatrix Zero-One had been expecting yet also dreading to hear.

Scout Cube XD2-999-556-8890-785-4S to Collective, universe X9-123-D6 has fallen to the swarm, Unimatrix Two-Six Beta-Epsilon was critically compromised, emergency transference to backup unicomplex had failed due to subspace interference by species 12943.

The Swarm is coming!

Message sent and mission complete, the cube succumb to the inevitable and exploded in a massive display of lights, becoming nothing more than so much space debris.

Four Unimatrix had failed utterly to eliminate species 12943. Nearly five hundred thousand attempts at assimilation of all subvariants had resulted in the exact same thing: the termination of both the subject of assimilation and the drone attempting the operation. More than eight million Borg cubes and an uncountable number of minor vessels had been destroyed since first contact, more than one hundred and fifty billion drones lost and worst of all: four independent Unimatrix ceased existence.

Unimatrix Zero-One consists of six hundred thousand tactical cube and twenty thousand multifunctional assimilation cubes: a fleet that is equivalent to approximately 10.56 of Unimatrix Two-Six Beta-Epsilon and 84.98 of Unimatrix Two-
Zero Gamma.

Both Unimatrix had superior number to call from and the same tactical data as Unimatrix Zero One. Recent encounter with species 8437 and the biological weapon develop to counteract them had been used and neutralised within one engagement.

Unimatrix Zero-One realise that the Collective face a race with the capacity to generate trillions of expendable units, the ability to counteract Borg adaptive shielding, the mindset and capability to match the collective consciousness and now access to Borg technology to the extent of being able to create singularity and successfully sent organic unites through them.

Unimatrix Zero-One knows for a fact that the localised Borg Collective of universe origin could not defeat this threat; in fact, no current Unimatrix in existence is capable of successfully repelling much less destroy species 12943.

Coming to this conclusion, Unimatrix Zero-one chose the only acceptable option available to it to ensure the collective's survival.

Within minute, hundreds of singularity open around the space of the diamond shaped unicomplex, signalling the departure a plethora of scout cubes to inform every single Unimatrix of the activation of initiative zero-seven-nine: the universal collective preservation protocol.

The Borg will gather and make their stand.

Here in the designate universe origin zero-one, the Borg will show species 12943 WHO is the superior Collective.

The Swarm will find the Borg no easy picking.

----------

Time is a relative thing when crossing the dimensional rift through singularity, so when a mere two month had passed for Unimatrix Zero-One, the Swarm migration had been rapidly progressing across the multiverse for nearly two years.

The initial victory over the race known as the Borg had yielded treasures beyond the wildest dream of the Hive's collective consciousness. Every celebrant had tackled the new obstacle with glee and an unholy fever as the remnant of the Borg armada was taken apart piece by piece to be dissected and analysed.

The large majority of the destroyed fleet was beyond salvageable, for as defeat become imminent, the cubes had one by one exploded in a rigorous display of conflagration, taking millions of Zerg land base fodders and Borg drone alike to whatever afterlife awaits them.

But on two account, the Zerg were successful in infiltrating the cubes' central core, thus immobilising the cube and disabling all defensive countermeasure -
including the self destruct mechanism.

Technology is rare to the Swarm's composition, the Zerg as a whole being an organic species that usually makes do without technological advancement. But in this case, the clearly superior and extremely alien technology located within the captured craft had sparked the celebrants' and even the queen's interest. Not since the integration of the Protoss had the Swarm discovered a worthwhile technological distinction, and this new discovery was something even more ludicrous than the Protoss' psionic adaptive shielding.

But what was worth more than even the technological advancement being discovered was the inflow of data from the captured ship. Information regarding thousands of races that might be integrated into the swarm and most pleasing of all: the data pertaining to their whereabouts and the ability to get there!

The Swarm had discovered the wonders of singularity jump; the existence of parallel dimension is open to them at last!

Soon the multiverse will feel the presence of the Swarm, and learn that there is always the greater evil.

But before that, the race known as the Borg, this so call Collective so much like the Swarm MUST be eliminated. There presence throughout the multiverse can be considered a direct threat to the Swarm, for their very existence as a Collective that parallels the Swarm's ideology and belief is something that borders on heresy.

The situation is deemed unacceptable: the Swarm is the superior race! No pale imitation will stand between it and its goal. The Borg will be utterly annihilated!

The Migration moved on, nothing but destruction in its wake.

The Borg will be Purge! There can be only ONE!

----------

The First Unicomplex to appear through a singularity had been Zero-Two Epsilon, along with a force of two hundred thousand tactical cubes and nine thousand all purpose assimilation cubes that made up her independent Unimatrix. Immediately uplinks were established between the two queens, and Unimatrix Zero-One felt the surge of new voices filling her mind like a vast river meeting the mother ocean.

The time of arrival for each individual Unimatrix had been expressly calculated taking into consideration the size of each Unimatrix and the difference in temporal distortion when crossing the dimensional boundary. Zero-Two Epsilon had arrive first as expected, partly because of her relatively small composition, but mainly due to temporal relativity favouring universe X9-193-S5 from which Zero-Two Epsilon had resided in.

Following some six hours behind Zero-Two Epsilon had been the vast armada of Unimatrix One-Nine, one of the first independent Unimatrix to be established by the Collective and nearly as old in its awareness as Zero-One itself. Unimatrix One-
Nine's composition was disproportionably large compare to other Unimatrix, for its universe of residence had been one of the rare cases where the Borg had not only been welcomed but openly embraced by the dominant culture of the local inhabitant.

As the only interstellar civilization habituating the entire quadrant of space, the machine empire called the Core Cooperative stood as the universe's undisputed master. Once a race of living flesh, the empire previously known as the Corallian Imperii had discovered the means to transfer an individual's consciousness from flesh to machine using a combination of electro-nanotechnology. These breakthrough had sparked a huge civil war within the Imperii; with the prospect of immortality tantalising a massive number of convert throughout the empire -including aspect of the military- to join the crusade for a 'machine paradise' in the 'spirit of the cooperative.'

What ensued was a bloody and savage interstellar war, lasting nearly eight hundred years and resulting in the destructions of thousands of worlds, the lost of trillions of lives and the eventual defeat of the Arm Resistance.

The Core Cooperative stood victorious.

Efficient and productive yet progressively stagnant due to their limitation of interstellar travel, the Cooperative saw the Borg as the herald of a new dawn.

The technologies that the Borg possessed were clearly superior, but what had truly intoxicated the Core Cooperative was the realization that the Borg themselves were a collective awareness, a veritable Mecca to the machine consciousness whose progressive expansion throughout the galaxy and entire reason for existence had been to reach that one goal.

A machine paradise in the spirit of the cooperative.

Core had embrace the Borg as primitive embracing their long lost God, and Unimatrix One-Nine had suddenly found itself in control of an empire stretching some two hundred thousand light year in one fell swoop.

Such a coup that also contains merit worthy technology (critical to later Borg advancement in the area of nano-repair matrix and cellular level assimilation) had increased the powerbase of the Borg almost exponentially.

To this day, it remains the largest and most efficient acquisition the collective ever made.

More than fifty million cubes exited the singularity like a flight of locust, an unending wave of metallic grey spacecraft that inspires fear upon thousands of sentient race throughout the multiverse. Billions upon billions of voices were added to the localised collective, a veritable avalanche of awareness that personified what it is to be Borg.

WE-HAVE-ANSWERED!

WE-HAVE-COME!

WE

ARE

BORG!!!!

----------

The dishevelled Admiral Janeway that had answered the emergency call from Starfleet arrive in a less than happy mood, being deprive of sleep, the propriety of appearance and coffee (this last clearly the greatest crime of the three) at this god forsaken hour in the morning had made her terribly snappish. Being snappish however was not something she could afford herself at this time, especially if the situation deteriorates as it most likely would when the federation -indeed when any race- deals with the Borg.

Janeway scan the briefing room, spotting Seven of Nine who was immaculately dressed with not a hair out of place (of course), Captain Jean-Luc Picard who had no hair to BE out of place and Admiral Owen Paris whom she suspect doesn't sleep and is never out of uniform and thus ALSO has no hair out of place.

"Admiral, Captain." Janeway gave each man a brief nod of recognition before turning to Seven and giving the woman a brief but sincere smile which she returned. "It's good to see you Seven, all of you."

"I wish that this meeting could be under better circumstances Admiral." Paris announced, his voice sounding slightly strain which surprise Janeway greatly.

"What are we looking at?" Janeway asked cautiously, eyeing the room and for the first time feeling the air of tension and uneasiness.

"A substantial Borg force has been detected entering Federation space from the Romulan neutral zone and is on a direct course to earth." Seven informed with her usual near monotonous voice, though years of listening to the ex-drone speak had allow Janeway detect the slight note of distress in it.

"Where have we established a blockade?" Janeway asked, ignoring the observation for now in favour of finding a working solution to their current dilemma, already her mind was thinking furiously on dozens of countermeasures from her past experience dealing with the Borg.

Silence greeted her statement and Janeway look first at Picard then to Paris with something very close to shock.

"We ARE going to establish a point of resistance?" It had meant to be a statement but ended up more a question.

"There is more." Picard bit out grimly his fist going momentarily white before he forced himself to unclench them.

"The Borg armada wish to parley." Seven began. "They have requested the presence of Captain Picard, you Admiral Janeway and myself."

"It's a trick!" Janeway blurted out almost instinctually, her past experience giving her painful reminders that the Borg were capable of guile as any other. "It has to be."

"Negative." Seven said a little too forcibly. "In this circumstance, the collective has no need to lie or use trick."

"Explain." Janeway asked, tired and very annoyed at this unintentional baiting game that she'd fallen into with her one time Astrometrics officer.

Seven bowed down her head, taking a deep breath before looking up at Janeway with a note of real fear in her eyes. "The Force approaching Earth consist of Five hundred and thirty thousand tactical cube, ranging from type two to seven variants, eighteen thousand all purpose assimilation cube and what I believe to be the primary unicomplex Zero-Six."

Janeway's mouth hung open despite herself and she heard a strangling sound coming out of her lips as her mind process the absolute enormity of the opposition. "They want to parley?" She finally asked, her voice shaky.

Picard snorted. "Believe me Admiral when I say that I had the same reaction as you, both on the matter of the numerical superiority of the opposition and their intention."

"What are our chances?" Janeway asked glumly, the light bulb that seems to be permanently in her brain suddenly going dim.

"We do not HAVE a chance Katharine" Owen Paris announced blandly. "The entire alpha quadrant does not stand a chance against a Borg armada that large, this isn't like any battle we've fought against the Borg before, and the circumstances are also very peculiar if what miss Seven has been telling me is correct."

Janeway raised an eyebrow at Seven, who oblige her former captain with an explanation.

"The opposing force consists of a unicomplex, which I have tentatively identified as Unimatrix Zero-Six." Seven began. "Understand that this in itself is highly irregular; individual Unimatrix do not co-exist within a single universe, the presence of a separate unicomplex that is not Unimatrix Zero-One accompanied by what I believe to be Unimatrix Zero-Six's entire localised collective indicate that there are massive dimensional upheaval."

"What does that mean to us?" Janeway asked.

"It means that whatever caused this Unimatrix to approach Earth had also motivated it to be mobilized from its home dimension." Seven replied crisply, her voice sharp but also tightly wounded, so much so that even a normal person much less Picard and Paris could see her obvious stress.

The room fell silent, and Janeway gave out a heartfelt sigh. "Has an evacuation process begun?" She asked Admiral Paris, who gave a brief nod of affirmation. "Already underway, as have any population centre along the Borg fleet's path." He replied.

"Starfleet is mobilizing as we speak." Picard interjected. "While we may not be capable of setting a blockade against a force of this magnitude, we ARE going to see about defensive countermeasure if it comes down to us versus them."

Janeway gave Picard a brief smile which he returned, two individuals that where not born but made warriors by circumstances beyond their control, recognizing in each other the same familiar spark.

And idea suddenly hit Janeway as she looked at Picard. "What about the viral agents Starfleet develop against the Borg?" She suggested tentatively.

"The only way the viral agent will work against the entire fleet is if we injected into the Unicomplex." Seven stated blandly. "Currently it is at the centre of a thick formation of tactical cubes and weapon platform stretching up to two hundred kilometres in all directions, exact number varies at times but never falls below the fifty thousand cubes mark."

"Well they seem overly paranoid." Janeway remarked bitterly as she slumped her shoulder in defeat.

"They have every reason to be." Picard answered dryly. "Much as it works against us."

"Is their any way to turn back this fleet?" Janeway asked hopefully.

"There is always a way." Picard replied firmly. "We just have to find it."

Janeway smiled wanly at Picard and shook her head. "It looks like we're going to have to go meet the wicked witch of the east Captain." She said, the light attempt at humour falling appropriately flat.

"Let's hope Dorothy's magic shoes still work." Picard quipped back.

----------

Unimatrix Zero-Six had arrive within the alpha quadrant through transwarp some two hours ago along with her entire localised collective -now a part of the growing Borg congregation- as part of an objective set after the activation of initiative zero-seven-nine. Skirting the edge of the Romulan neutral zone, the fleet had encounter several scouts from species 2058 and 2062 in their travel before cutting sharply into federation space towards its goal: Earth, and a meeting with figures that should statistical prove insignificant, but have in the past striven against insurmountable odds to achieve victory where defeat was nearly an inevitability.

For the first time, the Borg finds itself desperately in need of this capability, be it the result of a unique form of genetic, habituation or any combination of factors.

For the first time, the Borg finds itself facing a foe that is numerically and statistically superior; in which logic dictates the collective's imminent destruction.

What is required it seems, is the acquisition of capabilities that allows this tiny insignificant race to survive and flourish despite its inefficiency and un-uniformity.

What is required is something the Borg would have dismissed as completely and totally irrelevant not to mention an absolute falsehood.

What is required is something human like to call luck and providence.
The Collective's interests in Humanity have been a long and drawn out affair, starting before the origin universe ever heard of the existence of species 5618 or even the Alpha Quadrant.

This interest had originally derived during the early stage of the Borg's multi-transit dimensional analysis when the collective discovered a very odd pattern within parallel and vectored dimensional displacement.

Dimensions are catalogue into two distinct formatives; those that are given to possibilities which are labelled as sub-branching routes and those that are inherently different not just through historical alteration but composition and species existentialism, which are labelled as vectoring routes.

The Collective duly noted that any attempt at establishing independent Unimatrix within a sub-branching route dimension are useless due to the fact that such dimensional rift are NOT stable, shares the same quantum signatures among themselves and tends to merge or split at will. Dimensional alteration on a scaler quantity in these types of universes also tends to disrupt temporal stability to the point of eradicating entire sections universe, along with the collective in it with little to no notice.

It is the vectored route dimension then, with their stable & varied quantum signature and different universal composition that the Borg capitalised on in their dimensional crusade.

Throughout their expansion it is noted that all universe share distinct qualities that are considered quantum stable -the same within every universe and their sub-branches bar-none. These can often be the existence of a spatial phenomenon in certain location of space, continuity of specific elements and, in a truly unique case: the presence of a specific species.

Human

A constant of the multiverse that defies reasoning and probability; no matter which universe the Collective may traverse to, the presence or existence of species 5618 haven been proven and vindicated again and again.

The species 5618 planet of origin, the composition of its entire system of origin, its very existence as quantum stable with so many random factor always coming to the exact same product is something that defies description and the concept of probability.

In no other cases was this scenario ever repeated, species 5618 has the distinction of being the only multi-planer species that count as a quantum stabile

The mystery that is humanity and perhaps the reason it manage to survive against the logical process of elimination?

Another piece to the jigsaw puzzle that species 5618 represents.

Unimatrix Zero-Six suddenly broke from her intrinsic analysis as the Collective inform her of a federation hail, responding to the thousands of demands for parley the Borg fleet had been repeating in every available frequency.

Three figures -its requested audience- appeared on screen and instantly Unimatrix Zero-Six recognised the people on the other side of the vidcom.

"Locutus." The Borg queen announced evenly, giving the Starfleet captain a brief nod. "Designate Katharine Janeway, Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjutant to Unimatrix Zero-One."

The acknowledgement briefly stiffened the being recognised as Locutus by the collective, while Janeway –already frowning- deepened it and thinned lips tightly. Seven of Nine had no visible reaction but if Unimatrix Zero-Six had been more humanized, it would have recognise the mix fear and curiosity expressed in those expanded eyes.

"You are the designate independent Unimatrix Zero-Six" The ex-drone of the trio stated, her voice as stiff as her composure.

"Correct." Affirmed the Unimatrix, her voice matching those of Seven of Nine in its coolness and apparent indifference.

"State your purpose." Seven of Nine continued, and briefly, the Unimatrix noted with satisfaction that even a malfunctioning drone (the collective deeming all resiting drone as such) had all the hallmark of the collective; direct, minimal level of verbal communication for maximum affect, and most of all efficient.

"We are here for the express purpose of acquiring designate Katharine Janeway and Locutus." The Unimatrix began, ignoring the look of outrage on the two mentioned figures' face as it continued blithely on. "The collective have need of their... individuality." There was almost a trace of distaste in the queen's voice, but it remained neutral almost in spite of it, looking towards the three figures with a singular expectation. "You will comply."

"Clarify." Seven of Nine stated firmly, before the one captain and other admiral can get in a word.

"Irrelevant." Snapped the queen. "Your co-operation is required, that is all. Resistance is futile, comply with the demand of the Collective."

"CLARIFY." Seven stated again, a trace of anger and frustration in her voice, though the queen recognised not these odd emotions.

Pausing as if to think about a response, the dimensionally displaced queen gave the ex-drone a speculative look. "We recognise the need." It stated. "Clarification will ensure co-operation."

Before any protest could ensue, the queen spoke up again, cutting in with the words that would change Federation history forever.

"Borg initiative zero-seven-nine: universal collective preservation protocol has been activated. The unified Collective has estimated a greater probability of failure to success ratio, your skill is required to rectify this situation."

Seven of Nine stagger as if struck, and Janeway jumped to support the now deathly pale ex-drone. Locutus, the one that is also call Jean-Luc Picard look towards the queen with eyes that spoke of recognition and dread.

If the queen had been so inclined, it would have smiled at the bitter irony of the situation.

----------

The massive armada that belonged to the independent Unimatrix Zero-Nine waited at its designate location in preparation for the Swarm's imminent arrival. It, along with fifty six other Unimatrix had successfully arrive into the origin universe, thus making the combine total force of the Borg collective within the current locality to fall just short of ninety million strong.

As a singularity opened once more within realspace at least seven hours before the expected arrival of Unimatrix Two-Six Lambda, the Borg relay network assume that the temporal discrepancy must have either been pushed forward or the fleet had been more efficient than estimated to assemble. As more and more singularities are detected, the collective located within the current sector sent recon cubes to investigate the discrepancies.

When contact was suddenly lost with the recon cube, the collective proceed to send a larger recon fleet, this time consisting of more than twenty scout cubes and two all purpose assimilation platforms to discover the fate of the unresponsive scout cube.

When this fleet too fell silent at the expected time of contact with the anomaly, Unimatrix One-Nine, Two-Eight, Two-Four Lambda and One-Six Delta-Epsilon, each located within an approximate equal distance to the disturbance began mobilizing for war.

The Collective had deduced.

The Swarm is HERE!

----------

Billions –trillions- of devourer pour out of a multiple of spatial and dimensional distortion, their inhuman screech echoing through space in the form of modulated tachyon wave, once a form of communication among its kind, these sound now serve as nothing more than courier system to sentient species, delivering a very familiar message to the host of sentient race residing in their current universe.

WE-ARE-THE-SWARM!

RESISTANCE

IS

FUTILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

----------

The process of moving the Migration through the dimensional rift was a long and drawn out affair that can take days if not week. Nearly all Borg presence have been wiped from existence in the universe the Borg had designated X9-123-D6.

The Swarm had establish multiple colony within the previous Borg stronghold, integrating technology within the Hive as celebrants left behind began to churn space fairing combat unit at a rapid rate.

The Swarm had come and gone, but this time an entire universe awaits their destruction. When the migration returns to finish what they had started, the local Hive mind will be ready to support the massive Zerg Swarm.

This universe will soon house none but the presence of the Swarm.

----------

The multi-vectored assault came with speed and alacrity, millions of Borg cubes and assorted lesser vessels appearing in normal space amidst an ocean of warp trail before immediately opening fire with every conceivable weapon port available. Hundreds of plasma beams, cutting lasers, high intensity disruptor rays and other assorted weaponry from each cube slammed into the forward guard of the Migration, instantly killing millions of devourer that had been the first line of attack and defence for the Swarm.

Retaliation came immediately as the Swarm began advancing, uncountable numbers of scourge decloacking as they make their kamikaze run. The tactical cubes responded to this new threat by diverting a section of its fire to the approaching missile-
like organic suicide squad, breaking billions of scourges as they exploded in a fantastic display of gore.

Yet despite the massive loss, the Zerg Swarm was pushing ahead, slowly but surely driving the massive Borg armada back as the scourge made first impact.

Soon after the destruction of the scourge smokescreen, the devourer stepped in, expanding like a three dimensional ink blot; the devourer began ruthlessly bombarding Borg shields with their own weaponry or failing that their very body as they cut a swath through the seemingly impenetrable wall of Borg cubes, support vessels and weapon platforms.

Borg shields crumbled, unable to deal with the Zerg's weapon's biogenetic makeup as adaptation and counter adaptation strive to outperform each other and eventually cancel out, leaving the brunt of the attack to be taken by the cubes' thick haul. But this time around the Borg too have massive numbers and where one cube started to fail another quickly took its place as system maintenance drone and nano-matrix began repair procedures on the damaged and retreating cubes.

Thing seems to develop into a near stalemate, the Zerg holding on with their endless supply of canon fodder coming out of the singularity while the Borg effectively alleviating and distribute damage through their relay technic.

The Collective was satisfied, if action continues as followed; the battle will eventually draw to a halt in favour of the Borg once the Swarm runs out of unit to send through the dimensional rift.

For the first time, victory seems achievable.

Then the guardians arrived.

The new variant of Species 12943 that began filtering in among the throng of devourer where quickly identified as being MUCH more deadlier than any previous subvariants that the Borg had encountered. Three times the size of a devourer, the guardian –in a morbid way- resembles a cross between earthen crustacean and microscopic parasite, its face mandible clicking furiously as it advance forward among the devourer.

Unlike the short range devourer however, the guardians' range almost equal that of the Borg beam weaponry and were much more damaging even as a singular shot to a vessel's structural integrity. Borg cubes began faltering with greater speed as the crab like Swarm artillery bombarded them from afar. With the advantage of range lost, the Borg must now compensate for both the endless advancing throng of devourer before they might get too close and the artillery barrage that plagues the armada from afar.

With resource split, the Collective suddenly find itself becoming more and more inadequate in dealing with the endless throng of the Zerg Swarm, four more Unimatrix had joined the battle and twelve more were arriving within the next thirty minutes. Each arrival however, had merely served to plug in an already faltering front line. Filling into gaps left by more and more cubes that where force to self destruct or risk contamination.

The Swarm pushed forward without pause, trillions upon trillions of mindless Zerg rushing to meet the Borg resistance, their mind and body will by the relay network now so far extended that immediate presence of an overload had become redundant.

As the battle scene deteriorate. The Borg queens present during the battle deduced that the chance of success had grown slim. The vast Borg armada assembled for this battle had been reduce to fourty million from their original seventy two, and statistic indicate that this remaining force will only be reduce at a faster rate as the line of defence grown thinner and thinner.

Unanimously, the assembled queens decided to retreat. They had failed to stop the initial invasion, but in this circumstance, they where NOT defeated.

Not yet.

Slowly, the massive Borg fleet began retreating, losing great number as the Swarm finally discover the fleet's intention and began full pursuit.

When the battle was finally over, the debris of more than thirty two million tactical cubes, spheres, scouts and weapon platforms littered the area along with an uncountable number of Zerg corpse.

From the very first shot initiated by the Borg that herald the beginning of the engagement to the destruction of the last struggling scout cube of the fleeing Borg fleet, the battle had last exactly twenty one minute and thirty two second.

---------

End Chapter 02

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Before I do anything I have a few propositions I would like to make to any readers/reviewers.

Firstly: How would YOU (yes you!) like to become a cannon fodder in a fic? YES that's right! Starfleet is now accepting any wannabe fly boy of rank and status to be blown away into subatomic particles or killed for their genetic template! Yes that's right! If YOU want to die a horrible gruesome death, (not to mention wear really crappy looking uniform) then please provide a name and race (federation & allies only) you would like me to insert into the next chapter and I will gladly write you to your death! (/Subclause: By agreeing to sign your inevitable death to this Author, you hereby acknowledge that the Author is in no way responsible for any and all action that may occur during the next chapter./End Subclause)

Seriously, anyone wanting to have their name used and abused in the next chapter as a venerable captain or first officer etc that is fated to die before ever seeing screen time then mention a name and race in a review and face the music...

And NO! This is not a shameless plug...

-Cough-

Okies now that's out of the way I need help, already I getting way to deep in Star Trek and don't know where to go, please point out errors so I can correct them ASAP. Below are the obvious discrepancies:

Situation with Human Borg number has been rectified! Thanks a bundle Janusi! Your awesome!

Reference to time and direction: I am using earth time for the first and ignoring the second altogether. Earthen time seems silly, but I don't know the dating system for Star Trek, how is time measure in both short and long terms? What's the equivalent of minutes, hours and years? Secondly, how do you describe direction in Star Trek universe? I really can't see how the North South East West thing could work since we're talking vector and I don't want to simply make some BS up. Again help on any of this point is greatly appreciated.

Editing: erm I'm not sure if this is just me but FFnet seems to always eat about half my editing job... it becomes really annoying to have to redo spacings and separators frequently. I usually use MS Word but have tried rich text and text to no effect, half the editing, including many characters such as asterisks, keeps getting wiped, if you know I way around this input would be appreciated!

The caste of characters and timeline discrepancy: I am not very familiar with the vast timeline and happening of the Star Trek universe, so if any characters where slightly (or severely) OCC or if I missed some very obvious events (aside from the one mentioned below), be nice and try not to flame me TOO badly. Picard is still captain in my story, mainly because he has refuses a number of request by the admiralty to join their illustrious rank. –ahem- As for the Voyager crew, I'm assuming most of them stayed on in Starfleet and have since been promoted and made popular military icons. I am going to put Seven in a particular position here: she will technically not be part Starfleet but still hold an honorary position within it, which is shown by her presence here (apart from any other reason) and also by Owen calling her Miss Seven instead of her rank. Finally I WILL be ignoring the whole renegade Borg plot in Voyager which I think is a joke (as is the Voyager's abilities to escape time and time again against the Borg without so much as a casualty, but that another kettle of tea altogether...)

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Well as you can see another chapter ended in another battle between the two collective and again the Borg came out the worst, have no fear that the Zerg suffered severely. There numerical superiority is they only thing they have going for them right now. So despite their current invincible streak across the multiverse, they are not all-powerful and this will NOT become an every race under the sun (including the Borg) against the Zerg affair, treachery and deceit will come into play and it is by no means certain that the Borg will stay the underdog!

Kudos to anyone that gets the very obvious reference to another strategy game!