The stars streaked by Voyager's viewport as Captain Kathryn Janeway gazed out into the cosmos, her mind abuzz with thoughts of a nearby temporal anomaly they'd picked up on the long-range sensors. She leaned back in her chair, the gentle hum of the ship's engines a comforting backdrop to her musings. The investigation had taken them a few days off course leading to some grumblings, but Janeway knew that they had to investigate it. Just the chance at cutting the journey home by any amount was to great o miss out on
"Captain's log, stardate 54058.6," Janeway began, her voice calm and measured despite the turmoil brewing within her. "We've encountered yet another temporal anomaly, and the crew is working tirelessly to analyze its effects. I can't shake the feeling that we're on the verge of something significant, something that could alter the course of our journey home."
As she spoke, Janeway's thoughts drifted to the countless hours she had spent poring over data, she'd been down in astrometrics with Seven searching for patterns and clues that might unravel the mysteries of the anomaly. She had always been drawn to the unknown, to the tantalizing promise of discovery that lay just beyond the horizon.
But this anomaly was different. It sounded crazy to say but some of her crew swore the anomaly whispered secrets that eluded their grasp, its enigmatic nature a testament to the boundless complexity of the universe. That was of course not literal, she hoped, but Janeway couldn't help but feel a sense of unease gnawing at the edges of her consciousness, a nagging doubt that refused to be silenced. Humming to herself, she picked up a PAD and her coffee walking out onto the bridge.
"Tuvok, any progress on our analysis of the anomaly?" Janeway asked, she held a mug of black and boiling coffee, fresh from her ready room's replicator. Tuvok had volunteered to continue working with Seven on the anomaly while Janeway went to get some shut eye before her shift.
Tuvok, ever the picture of Vulcan composure, glanced up from his console, his brow furrowed in concentration. "We have identified several temporal fluctuations within the anomaly, Captain," he replied. "But the origins remain elusive. It is as if the anomaly itself is resisting our attempts to understand it, as such no definitive energy signatures beyond standard and expected temporal energies."
Janeway nodded, she mulled over potential risks they already had temporal issues such as the future 'timefleet' ship. "On screen." As the anomaly was brought up there was a cold tension across the bridge as they looked at it. Janeway's stomach twisted in a knot looking at it, the flashing, purples, blues, reds and greens dancing seeming to clash together then break apart. She could have also sworn she saw a face or 2 swirl about and a lance of energy in the shape of a grasping hand lashing out.
"Well, that's ominous." Tom Paris looked to his copilot who nodded nervously; Janeway knew that they couldn't afford to let this anomaly slip through their fingers, not when so much was at stake. The fate of Voyager, of her crew, hung in the balance, and she was determined to see them through whatever challenges lay ahead.
"We'll keep at it, Tuvok," Janeway said, her voice firm with resolve. "We won't rest until we've unraveled the secrets of this anomaly, whatever it takes."
As she spoke, Janeway couldn't shake the feeling of unease as if she was looking at a dangerous animal, something that would thrash and bite them if it felt cornered. But she also knew that they were ready, that they had faced worse odds and emerged victorious. Afterall not many can say they'd essentially held the borg to ransom with their own tech.
With a final glance out into the endless expanse of space, Janeway turned back to her console, her fingers flying across the controls with practiced ease.
As Voyager began to move closer to the anomaly, a brilliant prism flash of light engulfed the ship, causing alarms to blare and crew members to scramble to their stations. Captain Kathryn Janeway gripped the railing tightly as she felt the ship lurch beneath her feet, her heart pounding in her chest with a mixture of anticipation, "Red Alert on screen." she bellowed out as her coffee spilled over the floor, 'not again'. She reached over to touch a selection on her console when she heard a low humming and clicking? She looked at her hand realizing a transporter had locked on her, "Tuv-" too late she was gone. Tuvok looked over to Tom Paris Voyagers pilot.
Janeway looked to her left then to her right she was strapped onto something in a strange and frankly disgusting looking room, her surroundings shrouded in an eerie glow with a fog or haze, she could hear a liquid dripping. She blinked, trying to make sense of her surroundings, but everything seemed to blur together in a disorienting murkiness. For a moment, she felt as though she had been cast adrift in the void, lost to the currents of time and space.
Meanwhile, back on Voyager, chaos reigned as the crew struggled to regain control of the ship. Commander Chakotay freshly arrived from his quarters barked orders as Lieutenant Tuvok attempted to stabilize the systems, his cool demeanor a stark contrast to the growing sense of panic that hung thick in the air.
"Captain Janeway is gone!" exclaimed Ensign Kim, his voice tinged with panic as he frantically scanned the sensors for any sign of their missing captain.
"We need to find her," Chakotay replied, his jaw set with determination. "Ensign scan nearby use the old school method, tachyon bursts for cloaked chips and try to get a lock on her coordinates and prepare to beam her back aboard."
But before they could initiate a rescue mission, Voyager was ensnared by the alien vessel, Tuvok's brow furrowed in confusion, "the tractor beams energy signature matches that of the borg however the tachyon emissions from the cloaking match older Romulan models." its sleek and menacing design casting a shadow over the stranded starship. Trapped, the crew could only watch helplessly as the aliens boarded Voyager and seized control, the creatures clicking and chittering as they set to work stunning the crew.
As Janeway's consciousness began to reel from the shock of her sudden displacement, she slowly awoke on the alien vessel, Captain Janeway found herself face to face with beings unlike any she had ever encountered. They spoke in hushed tones of temporal experiments and fractured timelines, their intentions shrouded in mystery and menace.
"I won't cooperate with you," Janeway declared defiantly, her chin held high despite the uncertainty that gnawed at her insides. Her eyes darting to and from the different Aliens around her.
"You have no choice," one of the aliens replied, its voice dripping with malice. "You will assist us in our experiments, or you will suffer the consequences." It spoke bringing up an instrument table, Janeway swore she saw ooze drip from a mandible underneath a hood.
Back on Voyager, Tuvok was leading security teams against the boarders, "Tuvok to Chakotay, unknowns have been cleared out crew members under the effect of a stunning pulse have been sent to the med-bay." There was an insane chittering and screeching as the last creature charged the team with Tuvok before getting hit with phaser beam in the back, howling as it fell. B'lenna Torres stepping over the body she simply shrugged at Tuvok, "engineering's cleared."
"We can't take on that vessel head-on," Chakotay muttered, his brow furrowed in thought. "We'll need to come up with a more creative solution."
As they brainstormed ideas, a faint blip appeared on the sensors, catching their attention.
"What is it?" asked Lieutenant Paris, his eyes narrowing as he studied the readout.
"It looks like the temporal distortion," Kim replied, the adrenaline kicking into high gear. "But it's it is fluctuating." Chakotay tapped his badge, "Chakotay to 7 of 9, please confirm the status of the anomaly?"
Already checking her console in the Astrometrics lab, the resident Borg calmly replied, "the anomaly appears to be 94.82% stable it is fluctuating lower and higher." she said awaiting a response over the comms.
Before they could investigate further, Voyager was rocked by a sudden explosion, sending shockwaves rippling through the ship. With their situation growing more dire by the second, Chakotay knew that they had no choice but to act.
"Prepare to engage," he ordered, his voice steady despite the chaos unfolding around them. "We're going in."
As Voyager hurtled toward the temporal distortion, the crew braced themselves for whatever lay on the other side. Little did they know their journey would lead them into contact with the truly Lost and Damned. With sons whose rage and anger decried naught but vengeance.
Meanwhile, aboard a vessel belonging to the Alien creatures, Captain Vok'la Drakonn led the strike team on a daring mission to infiltrate the enemy's ranks. With Centurion Shrade Cerrul, the Raven Guard silent as the shadows they embraced, Jagon, the Son of Horus Blackshield, Cailean an Iron Hands warrior selected as their technological specialist and finally Olygan a younger Ravenguard warrior selected by Shrade. They moved with lethal precision, their every step a silent testament to their skill and determination.
"Stand fast kinsmen," Vok'la whispered, his voice barely audible over the hum of the alien vessel's engines. "We're in hostile territory now."
Shrade nodded in silent agreement, his eyes scanning their surroundings for any sign of danger. Jagon stood at attention, his hand resting on the hilt of his power Gladius, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Cailean, a specialist in Xenos tech, analyzed the command center surrounding them with a critical eye, his cybernetic enhancements allowing him to interface with their systems effortlessly.
"This is unlike anything I've seen there's a blend of different systems," he remarked, his voice tinged with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. "But I'll do what I can to make sense of it."
As they crept through the labyrinthine corridors of the alien vessel, tension hung thick in the air, each member of the strike team acutely aware of the stakes of their mission. With every step, they drew closer to uncovering the secrets that lay hidden within the heart of the enemy's stronghold, their resolve unshakable despite the dangers that lurked in the shadows.
The team followed a faint beeping and small flashing on their helms augurs, a signal emanating from a subdermal implant in the lost Mechanicus adept they were trying to find. The adept belonged to a renegade forge world they had recently raided, according to the records they found, this Signus Pax-6 had been quite keen on genetics and working on Astartesian Gene-seed. This piqued Vok'la's interest as he and his warriors were fighting for more than vengeance, it was now survival as far as they were aware, they were all that remained of their once mighty legions. Arriving in the laboratory they stopped by some kind of table, they found a mass of blood and removed augmetics, one of which was the implant.
Looking at Shrade, he nodded to his brother to advance...'brother' once Vok'la had thought only those of the Salamanders could truly be brothers to him, those who had known Nocturne, of its darkness and its people, of Vulkan and his creed but now in this burning galaxy anything was becoming possible.
There was a soft thunking and clunking as the vessel appeared to dock at whatever this damned station was, it had remnants of Imperial design here and there from what Vok'la could see through vessels viewports, the vessel itself was slick appearing more akin to an Insect exo-skeleton than a void worthy ship. Internally it was damp and wet, again appearing organic, but everything Cailean examined seemed mechanical. That lead to more confusion, the xenos seemed to be attempting to turn the vessel into something more livable. "This is not their vessel?" Shrade voiced out.
"It would appear that way." Vok'la responded, as the hatch on the side of the vessel opened a cold wind blew in. Jagon moved first, "allow me battle-captain." He shouldered his bolter and moved out panning left and right as he descended the ramp. "The runts keen." Shrade voxxed, "He's keen for redemption, brother, the sins of the father should not necessarily be the sins of the son." Vok'la kept looking ahead at the young cthonian, "maybe, maybe not, maybe it depends on the sin." Shrade stated as he moved after the blackshield's all clear signal.
As the team moved into the hanger bay, they formed up on what they could only assume was the entrance with it being locked Cailean set to work on opening it. "Captain Vok'la..." It was Jagon, he and Olygan were standing over a crate staring at its contents. Vok'la simply nodded at Shrade the orders were understood the need for verbal commands where little, Shrade was terran-born, he'd served in the 19th before the finding of Corax.
Vok'la moved closer with a hand on the chainblade on his hip, combi-bolter mag locked to his thigh. He stopped in between the 2 with Jagon looking at him. "I do not recognise the regiment." he stated, they were looking down at a crate filled with frozen bodies, all in different states of decay, some were skeletons, others were fresh appearing only minutes dead. The top corpse was a young man his face twisted in fear and anguish wearing what appeared to be auxilia fatigues the symbol of a hammer and sickle on a field of red, it was not one he was familiar with either.
"Nor do i." Vok'la stated, he saw a small metal necklace around the neck of a rotten corpse just under him this one had a uniform belonging to a member of the 3rd expeditionary fleet, he removed it to see small inscriptions in what appeared to be gothic, he could barely read it, the words faded and rusted due to the detritus and decay. "This man was of the 3rd fleet, have the xenos attacked Terra?" Vok'la looked down at the young man, shaking his head. "This is the result of Isstvan, the innocent are left to suffer at the hands of xenos monsters." He raised his hand placing it on Jagon's shoulder. "Remember this Blackshield, this is failure, these people represent our ideals, the imperiums ideals, his ideals, without them there is no need for us." Vok'la said no more and turned back to the entrance. Jagon simply stared down looking into the horror on the faces before him, these people had died alone and in fear, the betrayal at Isstvan has removed the Astartes from what should have been their duty, not the petty bickering and rivalries, not the hatred and disdain his brothers held for mortals. No, not his brothers, not anymore.