Chapter 6

"Second cube in range." Monroe said to his Captain.

"Fire." Picard replied, he watched and hoped as the Transphasic warheads slammed into a second Borg cube and obliterated it. He was both amazed and shocked that Starfleet had such a potent weapon and had so far failed to deploy it. He was going to have serious words with command.

"Vessel destroyed." Madden reported unnecessarily. "The three remaining ships are grouping together."

That wasn't good, it meant they could cover each other from the Enterprises approach. Picard smiled thinly, they had adapted.

"Bring us in on one of the flanking vessels and standby torpedoes."

The Enterprise turned gracefully around and sped forward toward the remaining Borg, who in turn turned to face the small ship coming to challenge them. Long range fire began to streak towards the Enterprise, at this distance it was easy to avoid but as the range closed and the volume of fire increased things were going to get messy.

"Torpedoes armed and ready."

"Good, fire on my command." Despite the power of this new weapon Picard knew the Borg, and he knew that they would already be adapting to this particular form of attack. He had to act fast.

The Barrage was becoming more and more intense as the Borg weapons began getting closer and closer to hitting the Enterprise. Each new volley rocked the ship more, forcing it to take ever wilder evasive action.

"Captain, if this fire keeps up we aren't going to be able to close the range." Monroe reported. "There's just too much fire heading our way."

Picard quickly went through his options, he could hurt the Borg badly with these torpedoes, but the Borg could still swat him out of the sky with contempt. He was torn by his desire to destroy the enemies of the Federation and the sure and almost certain knowledge that if he tried to take on three cubes at once he was going to die.

"Captain, I have some survivors from the second fleet offering to cover us." Madden relayed the message. "Forty ships."

"No," Picard was resigned to the inevitable. "Order them to retreat, then get us out of here."

"Captain?"

"We can't take on three cubes alone, and the other ships will just be lambs to the slaughter." Picard closed his eyes, hating to leave the colony but facing no choice. "Continue on to rendezvous with the sixth fleet as soon as we are clear of the Warp inhibitor field."

The small group of Federation vessels broke off and headed away, finally going to warp outside the system and leaving the Borg in control.

Not long after pulling back the Enterprise found the first stragglers of the first and sixth fleets limping back into Federation territory, soon they picked up the Defiant and the Titan and moved to intercept.

"Captain Picard." Riker beamed. "Good to see you, when we lost contact we feared the worst."

"Glad to see you too Captain." Picards smile was genuine. "What happened?"

Riker relayed the whole sad tale, dropping Picard deeper and deeper into his own thoughts and memories. The Borg had changed from what he knew, his experience with them in the past may not be the war winner it once was. When Riker had finished Picard paused for a few moments letting it all soak in before speaking.

"The Borg have taken the Ateega system, I've ordered the survivors to regroup at Deep Space nine, I suggest you head out there too get yourselves patched up." Picard returned to his chair. "I have to see Starfleet command."

Praetor Tal'aura read over the reports again as she waited. It said the same thing it had done when she first read it, the Borg had attacked the Romulan border world of Arusu and the fleet was mobilising to engage. The Praetor was still fairly new having taken over after the Reman incident, despite unsavoury connections with the conspiracy she was technically the only living senator and so the only logical choice.

Finally the door chimed as her visitor arrived.

"Enter." she announced.

In walked a small Romulan female, green blood fresh beneath a bandage on her head and her uniform still stained with more dried on green blood from her wounds. Admiral Donatra had rapidly risen through the ranks thanks mainly to the strong patronage of the new Praetor and her own skills.

"Praetor, it is my duty to report that the Arusu system has fallen to the Borg." She cast her eyes down. "I must also report the loss of two hundred and nineteen warbirds sent to reclaim the planet."

"That's almost every ship we sent!" Tal'aura exclaimed.

"Yes Praetor, we were ambushed by three cubes, they have a way to disable warp drives. We were surrounded and cut to pieces. Eight ships survived."

"I am pleased to see you survived." The Praetor remarked. "Political allies are hard to find."

"Yes Praetor."

"Find Admiral Suran and begin laying plans for a defence of our inner worlds incase the Borg make a move inwards."

"Will we be asking for outside help Praetor?"

"Leave politics to me." Tal'aura smiled, "Go find the Admiral, I expect a report tomorrow."

Donatra saluted and left. As the door closed Tal'aura waved her hand and a second door opened behind her.

"You heard?" the Praetor asked.

"Yes." Replied a female voice from the new entry way.

"You failed," the Praetor continued. "You failed to predict the Borg attack and you failed to predict that they would use tactics."

"Yes Praetor."

"Remind me of the price of failure in the Tal'shiar?"

"It would be death."

"The price of your failure is two hundred and nineteen loyal warbirds."

"Praetor, we could not have predicted this." The female voice continued, "The Borg are methodical but erratic, once they arrive we can predict their actions but before then we are blind."

"I do not care for your excuses commander."

"Before we lost communications we received reports that the Borg had been sighted in Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, Breen, Gorn and Tholian space with unconfirmed sightings in a dozen other areas. Praetor I believe this is a full scale Borg invasion of the civilized quadrant."

"So why are they attacking border worlds, why not just assimilate Romulus itself? They must know we can't stop them."

"Perhaps Praetor, but there are a lot of pieces missing from the puzzle. I intend to find them."

"Make sure you do commander." Tal'aura faced her. "Or you will pay the same price as the crews we sent to face the Borg."

"Of course." Commander Sela returned the way she had come and desperately tried to decide how she was going to infiltrate the Borg collective.