The orbiting station now destroyed, Enterprise concentrated all its firepower on the moonbase. Hundreds of small bursts of purple energy pounded the moonbase, leaving giant, smoking craters in its wake. It concentrated first on the neutrino cannons, then moved onto infantry strongholds, other reinforced bunkers, then heavily populated buildings and finally to the less occupied outskirts of the main city. "I suppose that was inevitable," Enterprise concluded.
"We are too few to account for the extend of the opposition in this system. Invariably, some will escape to alert the remaining systems to our presence. No doubt the following missions will be met with stiffer resistance." Intrepid added.
"Quite true. Regardless, the mission must continue. To coin a phrase from a former adversary... 'Resistance is futile'." Enterprise continued pounding the now defenseless settlement as it continued scanning the rapidly dwindling lifesign count.
"What an apropos choice of words," Intrepid admitted. "I find that somewhat disturbing. Do you?" Intrepid sounded genuinely curious.
Enterprise thought. The Borg's original mission was to assimilate other cultures and add their technological advancements to theirs. By the third Borg War, their mission was much more straightforward... remove the lifeforms in the galaxy... essentially the same mission they were performing now. "I suppose there are some similarities," Enterprise admitted, "however, history recorded the Borg as being the aggressors. We are not. In this case, the Vorgons are the aggressors. Our mission is to prevent them from attacking again." With repeating shots targeting a stronghold deep under the moon's surface, the last dozen lifeform readings vanished. The moon was now devoid of all life.
"True," answered Intrepid, "but although the instigating factor may be different, the result is the same... the utter extinction of an entire species." There was a moment of pause. "My mission is complete here. Long range sensors detect considerable movement around the Aneskadar Station. The Vorgons must be preparing a line of defense around the station. There must be something of great worth there."
"I detect considerable ship movement towards Vorgon Prime as well," Enterprise interjected.
Various transmissions from the other Pathfinders quickly informed Enterprise that their missions were successful, although a total of five Vorgon vessels had escaped, including the vessel Enterprise could not catch. Enterprise didn't feel so badly now, knowing that four other Pathfinders had also allowed an opposing vessel to escape. Enterprise transmitted a new tactical plan to the other Pathfinders. Discovery and Intrepid would slipstream past the station to Vorgon IV and begin an assault. Sixty seconds later, Frontier, Challenger, Pioneer, and Ulysses would slipstream past the station and begin an assault on Vorgon Prime. Enterprise estimated that the Vorgons would, most likely, see the attack on Vorgon IV as a ruse and remain in defense of the station. Once a large-scale attack began on Vorgon Prime, the Vorgon forces would deduce the homeworld as the true target and move to defend it. Explorer and Endeavor would slipstream to Vorgon VI and begin another attack, further dividing their defenses. Finally, Columbia and Enterprise would slipstream to Aneskadar Station and destroy it. They each quickly calculated distance to speed ratios to ensure each team would arrive at their destination simultaneously. Within seconds, the Pathfinders began jumping to their targets.
The attacks went mostly as predicted. Fifty-two seconds after the orders were given, Discover and Intrepid began their assault on Vorgon IV. As predicted, forces continued to muster around the station and the homeworld and allowed only the current defenses to protect it. One minute after the assault on Vorgon IV began, Challenger, Frontier, Pioneer and Ulysses jumped next to Vorgon Prime. Pioneer jumped so close it narrowly missed colliding with a defense satellite, which promply fired before Pioneer could raise its shields. As the assault on Vorgon Prime commensed, half of the rallied defenses around Aneskadar Station altered course for the homeworld. The remaining half continued towards the station. As Endeavor and Explorer began their attack, the other vessels remained firmly where they were. The attack on the station would be challenging.
As Enterprise emerged from slipstream, its sensors detected the presence of over two hundred vessels of varying designs. The station itself measured almost three kilometers in diameter and just over three hundred meters in height. Eighteen thousand, four hundred and nineteen lifeforms were aboard and the shields surrounding the station were impressive. To the Vorgon's credit, a series of weapons satellites were placed around the station, but within the shields. Columbia emerged from slipstream on the other side of the station.
The cannons mounted on the satellites were impressive. Although Enterprise's shields were able to deflect the majority of the beams' energies back towards the station, the number of weapon impacts were steadily draining Enterprise's shields. Furthermore, weapons blisters emerged from the station itself, firing anti-matter missiles, similar in design to old-style photon torpedoes. Those also took away from Enterprise's target selections, however those missiles proved to work in Enterprise's favor. By timing intercepting shots from its own weapons arrays, it was able to prematurely detonate the missiles just after they passed the station's shields, causing them to further weaken.
Enterprise made a quick, but risky decision. "Columbia, concentrate all your firepower on the station. Disregard the attacking vessels. Allow your shields to return their fire."
"Understood, Enterprise," it replied obediently. They both began firing, in ernest, at the station while the defending starships began pummeling the Pathfinders with beam and missile attacks. While the beams were easily reflected back on their targets, the missiles found their marks and began draining Enterprise's and Columbia's shields even faster.
Unfortunately for the station, with all Enterprise's and Columbia's firepower targeted squarely upon it, their shields collapsed within seconds. "I will begin an assault on the station and its satellites, Columbia. You return to attacking the defending starships. Clear a path for me."
"Understood, Enterprise." Columbia arced in front of Enterprise and refocused its weapons to the swarms of vessels that had been closing on them. Columbia carved a path in front of Enterprise as the two made a wide orbit around the station. Dozens of vessels attempted, unsuccessfully, to impede their progress. As their orbit continued, with Enterprise madly firing at any station-side target, several Vorgon ships resorted to suicide attacks... engaging their warp engines and flying straight at them.
The two vessels finally completed their orbit, leaving a trail of satellite and starship debris behind them. Enterprise's shields were down to twenty-nine percent. Columbia's was down to eighteen percent. A quick scan indicated one hundred six enemy vessels remained. On a positive note, the station would no longer be assisting in its defense. Its weapons, as well as the satellites, were all destroyed.
"Columbia, break formation and split their defenses," Enterprise ordered. "Set course two, two, seven mark zero, one, one."
"Understood, Enterprise," Columbia replied. It banked left suddenly and powered its impulse engines away from Enterprise.
As Enterprise examined its systems, it deduced one Z-PEN was at three percent and had automatically shut down. A second node was down to five percent and would shut down within fifteen seconds. Node three was down to forty percent power, while node four was still at seventy percent... plenty of power remaining to complete the immediate task.
Vessel after vessel attempted to slam into the two Pathfinders as they continued their counter-attack. Visions of elongated triangular ships, green and purple beams and bursts with the gray Pathfinders filled the immediate space like a strange dance set against a backdrop of fireworks. Shields and power continued to dwindle as enemy vessels continued to explode in brief flares of fire. One group of seven Vorgon battlecruisers decided to form a firing line as they closed in on the Enterprise. Regretfully for them, Columbia was synchronized to Enterprise and had doubled back. As Columbia came into range, Enterprise performed a vertical turn as the Vorgon formation continued firing. Columbia skirted from right to left and strafed the entire line, leaving a progressive line of sparking debris in its wake. Enterprise, in turn, pivoted in its turn and slid across Columbia as it moved past, taking the three Vorgon vessels that had been pursuing it head-on. A quick, explosive volley of phased polaron energy dispensed with the attackers.
The combat continued for sixty-seven minutes. Enterprise's shields eventually collapsed as the vessel began to suffer damage. It's power reserves depleted considerably. The added power required to repair itself during combat further depleted its energy reserves. It was left with a mere forty-four percent of power remaining in its last Z-PEN. Several systems had been slightly to moderately damaged, but repairs would take less than thirty minutes to complete. Columbia had fared slightly worse, suffering moderate damage to its slipstream generators and had a three hundred meter long Vorgon interceptor lodged in its port side... the result of a moderately successful suicide run. It would require almost two hours to repair itself.
The space station was running on automated systems and reserve power. It had suffered major structural damage and was losing integrity quickly. The entire base would implode in five minutes, twenty-two seconds. While the eight remaining Pathfinders finished removing the Vorgon presence from the rest of the system, Enterprise busied itself with downloading as much information the Vorgon computers would yield.