Chapter 4
The USS Vigilante made a hard turn, three flaming green bolts of energy seared past with little room to spare. In response the Vigilante sent a rapid burst of phaser fire into the already heavily damaged cube, tearing out more metal from its hull.
Captain Maxwell watched intently as his ship continued a series of sharp evasive moves until it got out of Borg weapons range and began to prepare for another run. The battle was not going well, the Klingons and Cardassians had lost about half their ships, and the Cardassian colony they were protecting was having its orbital defences swatted aside by this cube. In a few minutes it would have a clear run to the surface where it could begin full scale assimilation of the world, meanwhile the tactical cube was keeping the bulk of the allied forces busy, mainly by ripping them to pieces. About five hundred federation ships were hitting the tactical cube with the Klingons, while a further hundred including the Vigilante, were helping the Cardassians with their problem.
"Alright Malak." He drawled, "Lets give 'em a full torpedo strike this time."
The Vigilante was almost brand new, although built ten years ago as a standard Akira class cruiser a Dominion battleship had done a pretty good job of disassembling her four years ago so she was rebuilt. The biggest modification was the installation of quantum torpedo systems instead of the older photon launchers, giving the Vigilante a serious punch for her size.
"Attack pattern laid in." Malak, the Andorian weapons officer replied.
The Vigilante dodged forward between Borg weapons and wrecked Cardassian ships, the looming black mass before them growing ever larger and intimidating. To the right a trio of damaged Cardassian ships also attacked, from above a Nebula class vessel spiralled out of control as a torpedo struck its forward shields. Captain Maxwell remained focussed, he had a reputation as an excellent combat captain, which is why he found himself once more helming a ship during the crisis of the Dominion war. Despite his past insubordination, some would say mutiny, Starfleet had needed every experienced officer and so he had been given the chance to redeem himself, a second chance to serve the fleet. Now he was still living that chance, only the faces of the enemy had changed and now he was fighting alongside the Cardassians to protect a Cardassian world. Fate had such a odd sense of humour.
The Vigilante opened fire, an awesome spectacle of phasers and quantum torpedoes illuminating the pale little ship. It pulled a high G turn to bring its port side launchers to bear, unleashing more torpedoes. Borg tractor beams grazed its shields, the frequency adaptors probing the federation ships defences. The Vigilante rolled becoming inverted and training its starboard tubes on target, all the while firing bursts from its phasers as more ships turned and fought around the cube. Finally she turned her back on the Borg and sped away, her aft tubes having the final parting words. Despite the violence of the attack, and the audacity of its method, damage to the cube was less than spectacular. It continued slowly on towards the colony, the thinning line of Cardassians powerless to resist but unable to give up kept on attacking.
"helm," Maxwell reclined in his chair, a picture of measured calm. "Bring us about for another run."
"Have they spotted us?" Captain Picard asked his bridge crew.
"No indication sir." Commander Madden replied. "The cube is still focusing on the surviving Starfleet vessels and slowly heading for our colony."
The Ateega system was a mess, ships and defence platforms littered the space around the Enterprise, growing ever thicker as they headed further in system to confront the borg.
"Scans show over a hundred ships destroyed." Madden reported solemnly.
"Are you sure?" Picard wondered, "that's a hell of a lot of ships."
"Confirmed sir." A science officer reported.
"Is that a standard cube?" Picard was very wary, there was no way even the Borg could destroy so many ships so quickly.
"Yes sir." Madden answered. "it has taken moderate damage. I read fifty ships continuing to attack it, most are damaged and I can't get a signal to them."
This wasn't adding up, the cube should be burning from stem to stern, even if not destroyed it should be showing heavy damage from an entire federation fleet.
"Commander, I want you to keep a close eye on sensor returns, something is very wrong here." He paused, crossing his arms. "However until something comes along to ruin our day we will proceed as ordered, target the cube and ready a pair of transphasic torpedoes." They were supposed to be one shot kill weapons, but Picard was taking no chances.
As the Enterprise raced forward Picards suspicion was shortly rewarded.
"Captain, readings from the planet!" Madden called out.
"Type?"
"Borg."
Picard left his chair and ran to the tactical station. It showed a Borg cube emerge from behind the main colony world.
"That makes more sense." Picard said quietly. "Two cubes."
Madden paled noticeably, the concept of fighting the borg was bad enough, but fighting so many of them…
He was interrupted by another chime from his station.
"Captain! A third Borg ship!"
"Three?" Picard was worried about engaging two, even with his experience and the new weapons, but three was a bit too much.
"Correction, five ships!" Madden couldn't believe it, the entire bridge was silent allowing the news to thoroughly soak in, each mind racing to calculate their odds of survival. They weren't good.
"Five cubes." Troi shook her head. "How do we fight that many?"
Picard stuck out his chin a little. "Same way we would fight one. Geordi, I need more torpedoes, I don't care how…" He cut off any questions, "… But our lives depend on it. Helm, stay on the first cube and prepare to attack, then plot a course to intercept the other vessels, try and keep us out of their line of sight, use the wrecks, the planets, the other cubes. Every trick you know." He returned to his chair, tugged down his uniform jacket and glanced around, focused and business like.
"Engage."
The USS Titan was hurled backwards by the force of the exploding Steamrunner class ship, debris bounced off the shields as the Helm officer fought to recover.
"Get us back in the line!" Riker shouted. "We have to continue the attack!"
The tactical cube was shrugging off most attacks, its shields and armour unspeakably strong, but finally it was showing signs of weakness, tiny chinks developing in its armour for the Klingons and Starfleet to exploit. But at a high cost.
The Titan rolled over once more before stabilising, then she powered up and pressed on again once more unto the fiery battle, darting around wrecks and debris with phasers blazing as she came. The cube saw Rikers approach and dropped gigatons of firepower his way, only Berlez's exceptionally piloting ability prevented the ship being overwhelmed. She dodged back and forth, lashing out at the cube. To her right the flagship USS Dauntless was doing the same thing, and close behind was the Defiant and four more of her class, all concentrating on one weakened spot of the cubes face.
"Meyer! Torpedoes!" Riker didn't need to explain further, the tactical officer putting a full spread right on target. They hit at the same time as a volley from the Dauntless, collapsing part of the cubes shields. Before they could recover the area was blasted by the Defiant, opening a breach in the cubes surface. Cheers sounded on the bridge.
"Break off, get us out of here!" Riker called to the helm, who was already yanking the ship round. There was still a long way to go.
Worf roared with pride as his guns carved out a hole in the Borg cube. The Defiant had found first blood of the fight with this new and powerful enemy and he rejoiced. The Defiant cork screwed away, beams and torpedoes trying to catch it but failing. She wasn't Jadzia but Ezri Dax could sure handle a ship.
Worfs celebrations didn't last long. A sensor report popped up on his screen and totally punctured his mood.
"Captain!" Mallard yelled to Riker. "Transwarp conduit forming!"
"Show me." Riker watched as the viewscreen turned to empty space. A moment later a Borg ship arrived, and then another. And then more.
"Sensors show sixteen cubes!" Mallard barely held back from screaming.
"Dear…" Riker was interrupted by a signal.
"Captain, it's the flagship."
"Put him on."
Admiral Ross's grimacing face arrived on screen.
"Captain, you've seen the new arrivals?"
"Yes sir, we are now facing eighteen cubes, it's a full scale invasion." He was disbelieving, unable to conceive of such a thing and what it meant.
"I'm ordering a full retreat," Ross sighed. "We can't face that sort of firepower, regroup at the Ateega system, its our nearest colony."
"Understood." Riker sure wasn't going to argue with that. "And the Klingons?"
"Martoks heading back to the empire, we don't know where this ships will go next." Ross was in a turmoil, trying to plan some sort of strategy for this nightmare.
"And the Colony?" Riker referred to the Cardassian world they were fighting for."
"There's nothing we can do." Ross shook his head, the bitterness of failure finally hitting him. "Begin retreat by wings, damaged ships first."
Riker nodded and switched off the viewer, his own mind trying to grasp just how bad things were and searching for some hope.
"Helm, plot a course back to the Federation. Stay as long as we can."
"Aye sir." Belez's female voice replied, strong despite the shocking arrival of the Borg.
"We can't form a warp field!" Mallard shouted
"What!" Riker demanded.
"I can't explain, massive subspace disturbances, we can't form a warp field!"
"The Borg." Riker looked down. "They tricked us, they wanted us here, all the fleets together. It's a trap…the Borg set a trap." He couldn't believe it.
"Sir, those cubes are closing in, orders?" Berlez looked to him, the entire crew looked to him.
"Full impulse, push it as far as we can." Riker was still shaking his head. "Get us out of here."
He hoped they could fly out on impulse past the interference and then escape to warp, but to do so he had to escape the developing frenzy as the fleets began to dissolve.
And then the Borg attacked.
