Star Trek: Death of the Federation

[Marcao]

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System, IRW S'harien

"Riov, the Riskadh informs us that our cloak appears flawless to their sensors." His communication officer said with a hint of pride.

"Good. Let us hope that the Borg do not know of any tricks that the Riskadh does not know about." In the alpha and beta quadrants no other people had as much knowledge about cloaking devices as their own respective nations. The Klingons had devised clever methods to utilize on their cloaks, but the cloak had originated in Romulus. The Scimitar had achieved near perfection of the technology although the Reman design had never been adequately replicated by the Star Empire. Nonetheless, cloaks had been refined over the years and the S'harien had possessed the latest enhancements before the Borg had come.

"All decks report full readiness." His erei'riov stated.

"And now we wait." Galan said.

The S'harien slid into its desired position with unseen grace and waited for the impending arrival of the representatives of the Borg. The Warbird seemed to hold its breath for the precious few minutes that it took the Borg transwarp conduit to unravel near the edge of the system. Within the span of seven breaths, the sensors systems of the were able to begin to report the true extent of the encroaching forces on the system. The information was instantly available to all officers in the bridge. No one made a sound but eyes did harden.

A cube, two spheres and four exterminators. A single Cube had been too much to hope for after all.

The thought made its way to the surface of his mind before it was ruthlessly suppressed as it threatened to take root in his heart. The Borg force composition certainly complicated matters and he immediately became aware that his overall plan had to change. Nonetheless, it was something that all survivors readily understood. The Borg constantly demanded a singular truth: Adapt or die. He had no intention of dying this day.

"The system is being hailed. Standard Borg communication." His communication officer said.

"It is nothing that we have not heard before." He responded as his mind raced taking into account the incoming telemetry, his ship's capabilities and the likely outcomes as the sensors of his Warbird informed him of the relative positions of all non-cloaked vessels in the system. "Helm, take us to the following coordinates."

"Riov." The helmsman responded and immediately carried out his orders.

The S'harien began to move underneath the anonymity of its cloak crossing the space between stars akin to a shadow crawling in the dark beneath a new moon. The S'harien had made it half way towards its desired location before his sensor officer broke the silence in the bridge.

"I have an energy spike coming from the Vigilance!" His sensor officer called out in a rush. A moment later, all bridge officers could track the fire from the Galaxy class. As the Federation ship fired, the weapons it was using were tracked, categorized, catalogued and presented to the bridge crew of the S'harien.

"Plasma torpedoes?" His weapon officer stated.

"They could be from the Cardassians." Galan responded.

"Communication from the Riskadh Riov." His communication officer stated, the message in full made available to the Riov's console.

Galan arched a brow as he realized that Kadon was maneuvering his forces in a similar fashion as he himself was moving. The Cube was an enormous threat of course, but the exterminators and Spheres were complications that they could ill afford. It was unlikely that an alpha strike would destroy a cube, the other forces were not as impregnable. He hesitated for only a moment before his hands darted over his console a series of keys pressed in quick succession.

"Send this through the encrypted channel, burst transmission. I don't want to give the Borg a chance to detect us." The encrypted burst transmissions were designed to blend in against background channels, making the chance of discovery slim. If the worst were to occur, the S'harien would not be on its destination as it moved towards the flanks of the incoming Borg forces.

"Message sent."

Galan nodded and remained silent. He had sent the Riskadh an acknowledgement of the orders as well as an overview of the weaponry in the possession of the S'harien. The Sword of S'task was highlighted in red as it was the most salient point. His Warbird did not possess an overgrown kinetic cannon like the S'harien, nor did it possess tricobalt torpedoes like the Riskadh. What it did possess was the largest concentration of heavy disruptors of any surviving Warbird. Information on the power core was not mentioned. He had no doubt that the Riskadh would quickly realize that the S'harien was capable of generating and sustaining forty percent more power than the theoretical maximum of any other Valdore ever built.

Another Federation warship began to fire this time the Spector. His console emitting a familiar series of sounds as the volley was tracked as they made their way towards their target. His attention flickered towards the Borg forces. Their reactions to the incoming ordnance would be crucial to his next actions. He had every intention of using the confusion around him to his best advantage. When the Heritage joined the mix he focused intently on the Borg lines.

Give me an opening and I will make you regret it.

As the thought danced and cavorted in his mind, the S'harien continued its movement seeking an advantageous position. When the Gilgamesh and the Riskadh acted, he would be able to support that attack. All that he needed to do was wait and see what sort of havoc those two ships would cause and what sort of counter move the Borg would use.

[General Havoc]

The first shots were fired by the USS Vigilance.

The phasers were operating beyond maximum range, barely with the capacity to warm up the hull, but the torpedoes were different, flung like darts at a target at the extreme end of their weapons range, but still more than capable of striking. The cube made no effort to avoid them, no pedantic attempts to swat the incoming missiles from the sky. The range was such that accuracy was not all that could be desired, but the target was five kilometers to a side. There was no chance of missing. With a shimmer of ethereal light, the first volley of plasma torpedoes exploded against the Cube's shields, drenching its facing for just a moment in green plasma fire.

For a split second, the Cube hung in mid-air. And then the already-open channel broadcast the Borg's final verdict.

"Resistance," it repeated, "is futile."

And then it fired a return volley.

A dozen heavy plasma torpedoes blossomed from the Cube like camera flashes, hurtling towards not the ship that had fired first, but the one from whence all of the communications traffic was detected, the Immortal. Making the leap of conclusion that this ship had to be the center of the squadron that had so-foolishly chosen to resist, the Cube collectively decided to eliminate that ship first. Immortal, unmoving, seated in the middle of the squadron of Federation ships, was an easy target.

The entire ship rocked as the volley burst against its shields, sending cascades of sparks from protesting power conduits in the walls and ceilings. The shields bent under the weight of firepower that washed over the entire foreward quadrant of the battlecruiser, yet ultimately held, albeit barely. Within the ship, lights flickered and inertial dampeners struggled to compensate for the intense blast waves. Like a toy boat rocked by heavy seas, Immortal shook, forced backwards in space a hundred yards by the sheer force of the Borg barrage.

And then everything became crazy.

Waves of torpedoes flew past in the opposite direction as the Spector opened fire on the Sphere, as ordered. Moments later, and the Argonaut joined them, and the Heritage, and the Immortal, returning fire towards not the Cube itself, but one of its accompanying Spheres. A barrage of some twenty-two torpedoes of mixed warheads flew at the unsuspecting Cube, which had, if nothing else, expected its larger cousin to draw the fire. Two torpedoes missed wide. Two more malfunctioned and corkscrewed into the Cube itself, to nearly no effect. The remaining eighteen smashed into the Sphere like a hail of fire, knocking it out of alignment with its fellows, its shields protesting vehimately a moment before they collapsed altogether.

As Heritage closed to phaser range, the Sphere threw itself into reverse, backing up to draw behind the Cube itself, its fellow moving to cover its retreat, flinging a quartet of plasma torpedoes back at the Heritage as it went. But in advancing, Heritage had placed itself in range of the Cube's energy weapons. Bereft of any other target, they selected her.

Eight disruptor beams smashed into the foreward shields of the Heritage, scouring them like enormous spikes of light. The effect was not crippling, nor even heavily damaging, but it was a warning of what was to come, as the Cube lazily closed with the Federation ships, disruptors pulsing at the Heritage, even as the torpedo tubes reloaded to bathe Immortal in more fire, the two Spheres retreating behind their larger brother, placing the Cube between themselves and the Federation ships.

The Exterminators on the wings, meanwhile, formed up in pairs, one to starboard, one to port. The starboard wing came about to move towards the lighter Spector, while the port side force swung inwards, making for either Heritage or Immortal. It could not be determined reliably which. The Cube advanced apace, closing now to medium range with the Federation battle line, into the range where energy weapons would become effective, as it turned corner-on to the Federation ships, and prepared to fire.

[Charon]

The Barbarossa

The ship was deadly silent as it sat and waited for the Borg to approach. As the opening shots were fired Reis' eyes darted across the screen and quickly locked on the position of the fleet again as they began to move to address the threat. The Barbarossa was running silent, no transmissions sent, nor any received if they could help it. They already knew what the Borg would say, and thus it was of little use to open the comm, only worry the men more.

The Barbarossa stood silently amidst the chaos, even if the Borg sensors were good enough to detect a cloaked vessel, it would be nearly impossible to detect the Barbarossa while she stuck so close to the rest of the strike force. Ereiss did her job, keeping the ship close enough to not get separated while still keeping far enough out to not get in the way of any sudden maneuvers. Reis watched as the Borg cube steadily advanced, not bothering to evade or to even slow down.

"Come on then. Into the jaws of hell you bastards. Let them know who sent you to the grave."

The Barbarossa waited. Silent and invisible.

[Cynical Cat]

The Riskadh had broken to port, which meant from the perspective of the Borg Cube it was about to engage the starboard Exterminators.

"Helm, plot an attack course," ordered Kadon. "Keep us well away from the Cube. On my mark, bring the reactor to full power and charge disruptors. Ten seconds after, transfer cloak power to shields and get a target lock." Active sensors were another risk under cloak and that especially meant high powered targeting scans.

"Tight spread torps, both launchers, on that one." He stabbed an icon on the repeater display, causing one of the Exterminator icons to be encased in a red triangle on the tactical feeds. It was the leading element of the pair that was closing on the Spector and her fighters. "Disruptors as we close on it until it dies then fry the other. Hard evasive away from the Cube after that or if we get too close, in support of the Roms if they need it. Aaveroke, signal the Gilgamesh. Action."

Power flooded through the mains, charging the Vor'cha's forward disruptor banks. "The cannon and the mains are hot," said Kallor. There was only a partial charge in the banks and the reserves were dry, but that could not be helped.

"Decloaking," announced Arikel a moment latter.

Space shimmered and rippled and out of nothing appeared the Riskadh, engines burning on an attack vector. Power surged into the battlecruiser's shields in anticipation of violence.

"Acquiring target lock," said Kallor. "Locked. Torpedoes away." Torpedo after torpedo shot out of the ventral launchers, two tight clusters of three torpedoes heading towards one of the Exterminator frigates.

[SirNitram]

"No detectable damage to enemy Dreadnought." Came the report. The term had been picked as a proper military title to a Cube. Moreover, it reduced the Borg to just another navy, a psychological attempt to make the fight seem less impossible.

"Wide apart hits, phasers at harsh insult range. It'll do for what I wanted. The Sphere moving to replace the wounded one, keep an eye on it. In the meantime, ruin those Frigate's days. Maximum phaser refire, focus on their sensors. I want their eyes burned out."

[rhoenix]

A single word, spoken by Lieutenant Commander Nevola, was transmitted along the tight-beam encrypted comm-link set up between the Riskadh and the Gilgamesh: "Acknowledged."

Where there were only a few ships visible in-system when the Borg arrived, suddenly that number was changed. The Riskadh emerged from cloak like a leviathan breaching the surface of the sea, to the land's horror.

At the same time, the Gilgamesh faded into existence as well, the darkness of space seeming to only reluctantly let the ship leave the artificial nothingness within which it hid, as an anxious lover might.

As the small escort ship seemed to shimmer into view from the seeming nothingness of the cloak, a shield appeared invisibly around the ship a few nanoseconds later as the ship appeared to move even faster than before, aiming for the other side of the Extermination Frigate that the Riskadh had selected as its first victim.

Captain Solheim spoke up, more to inspire his crew than because they needed orders. "Swift, do what you do best, and complement the Riskhadh's movement patterns. Adranis, turn it into a smoldering hulk."

The Riskhadh and Gilgamesh, at first flying from a single vector, had now split into two to catch the first Extermination frigate in a pincer attack.

[Dark Silver]

"Incoming!"

The Heritage's bridge shook as the Borg disruptors flared against the ships shields. A power fluctuation caused the lights to momentarily dim to near darkness then return to the standard "Red Alert" levels. Already, the ship was reversing out, pulling away from the Cube, and taking themselves out of energy range.

"Status report!"

"Forward shields at 87%, shield attenuation is still ongoing, We'll have to take a few more hits from the cube before they've Adapted to their Disruptors."

"Full reverse, try to bring us back around to the Immortal, targets at your discre.."

Alvin's command was interrupted as his first officer called from her sensor station, "We've got incoming, two Exterminators, but they look like they're going to try to hit us or the Immortal."

"Status on the Spheres?"

"Behind the Cube can't get them yet."

"Let's hope the cloaked ships can spring a trap on them. Helm, bring us into optimal weapons range of the two Exterminators. Tactical, weapons fire at your discretion. I want one of those ships gone!"

--------------------

The Heritage turned in space, not as quickly as the Cube itself could, but in it's own graceful way. Impulse engines flared, as the Hephaestus-class starship changed it's course, moving for the two Exterminator-class Frigates the Cube had brought with them.

The starship moved relatively upward, to the Borg ships, bringing itself into a higher plain, before bringing to bear it's "nose", and began closing the distance two it's two opponents. Phaser arrays sparked and crackled, energy charged, as torpedoes were launched, spreads of three, as quickly as the crew could reload the only forward firing tube, creating a destructive baseline to the song the Heritage meant to sing. Once optimal range had been reached, the Phasers joined in with their chorus, lances of brilliant energy striking into the darkness at it's foe. Each blast came through a different Array, each array cycled to a different resonance frequency, all within the upper EM bands, to slow the Borg adaptation to the weapons.

After two complete salvos from each of the four phasers which could fire in the forward arc, power crackled in the Disruptor Cannon mounted on the upper section of the Heritage's saucer. All other weapons had been cycled down for this, power rerouted from the Phasers, Torpedo no longer firing, before a bolt of boiling green plasmic-death shot out, looking to strike it's target and send it to death.

[LadyTevar]

Spector

"Direct hit on Alpha, shields down!" came the cry, and Kirk's fist lifted in triumph. "Alpha is retreating behind the Cube, three waves of torpedoes still on target."

"Then it's up to the Ghosts," Kirk said, trusting her expert pilots to take advantage. "Get targeting data on Beta, send the next five waves towards it." Friendly Fire Isn't -- Kirk did not want to lose one of the Ghosts, which had taken a lot of scavenging to build.

+++++
Ghost Wing

Four cloaked Federation fighters moved in the darkness of space, spread out like drew in a spiders web, waiting their chance to strike. It came in a blaze of torpedo fire upon a Sphere, and the tell-tale sparkles of a shield failure. A burst of coding sent the message, although the pilots already knew what to do. As one, the cloaked fighters flanked the Exterminators and went for the wounded Sphere, continuing to keep their distance from one another. It was all part of the plan.

When the first had a shot lined up, he dropped his cloak, fired his first double-salvo, and then cloaked again, pulling a hard and sharp arc to evade any possible return fire. From a different angle, the second fighter repeated the maneuver, decloaking, firing two torpedoes, then cloaking and evading.

Another angle, another fighter, another two torpedoes, all aimed at the unshielded Sphere. The third fighter cloaked and evaded, vanishing from site before the final fighter uncloaked and sent the final volley. Then it too cloaked and evaded, arcing up and over to take the next position the pilots had rehersed. If all worked to plan, they would regroup and strafe from another angle.

[Marcao]

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System, IRW S'harien

The S'harien arrived on its position and seemed to hold its breath as the first attacks reached the Borg lines. The phasers of the Vigilance flared and sought to spear the massive Borg cube but accomplished little. The range was too long, something that Galan instinctively understood before the Galaxy class ship fired. Its torpedoes were not as hampered, the plasma approached the Cube and it made no effort to avoid them. The plasma torpedoes detonated seeming to bathe the Cube in familiar green fire. The Borg's response to the attack was contemptuous.

The Cube's retaliation focused on the Immortal. The Federation ship had chosen to eschew the encrypted communications of the squadron and it had drawn to it the full attention of the Cube. Perhaps that had been the plan of Captain Anderson all along. It was possible that the Sovereign possessed a greater capacity to absorb damage than the others. Regardless of the reasons, the Immortal took a frightful amount of fire and while its shields seemed to hold he could not imagine that it could continue to absorb such punishment for a prolonged period of time. The torpedoes fired by the predominantly Federation forces arrived and the situation in the system became more chaotic.

A single sphere seemed to draw the bulk of the fire, the sensors of the S'harien tracked twenty two torpedoes quickly approaching the Borg lines. Their target was elusive at first although it quickly became apparent of who their true target was.

"That one." Riov Galan Cretak commanded.

His weapon officer did not say a word, but immediately targeted the Sphere that had been chosen by the Federation forces as the target of the torpedo salvo. The S'harien moved, its impulse engines propelling it towards its target in a predetermined pattern. It approached the sphere like a Valkyrie prepared to pluck an honorably slain enemy from the field of battle. The Warbird glided beneath the anonymity of its cloak, choosing an angle of attack that would take it around the edge of the Cube's perimeter and into a proper firing position.

The torpedoes arrived. Of the original twenty two only eighteen torpedoes managed to reach the sphere. The results were predictable, the Sphere seeming to reel as the explosions knocked it out of alignment with its allied forces. Its shields flared, seeking to dissipate and redirect the maelstrom of energy that had been born against them and ultimately failing. There were times where resistance was not futile. The Sphere had learned that fact. The Sphere threw itself into reverse, its sensors likely aware of the charging USS Heritage. The move may have saved it from the wrath of the Federation warship, but it could not save it from the approaching messenger of death. The S'harien continued its approach, a shadow on the edges of the battlefield that drew ever closer to its chosen prey.

As the Sphere sought to back up and move behind the Cube, the S'harien adjusted its heading by less than four degrees. Galan Cretak stared at his tactical screen as the Borg Cube lashed out against the Heritage much like a parent would seek to protect a wounded child. The Federation endured the torment against its shields admirably. The Riskadh dropped her cloak, proudly singing a song of death and victory as it loosed a series of torpedoes towards the exterminator frigates. Galan Cretak admired the apparition for only a moment, before the Riskadh was joined by the Gilgamesh. He was certain that if the exterminate frigate was capable of despair, it would suffuse every bulkhead and corridor. With the Riskadh and Gilgamesh revealed, he concentrated fully on his own task.

Now you will learn what the name of this Warbird means.

As the S'harien reached a threshold that placed it just outside of short range the S'harien dropped its cloak and began its attack run. As it did so, a series of events transpired that would have surprised many individuals who were aware of the capabilities of the latest class of ship the Romulan Star Empire had produced. The transition between a cloaked and non-cloaked state was limited by several factors but chief among them had been power. The power drain of an active cloak had always been significant. The Scimitar had been the sole vessel that had in recent memory managed to fire while cloaked effectively. Its secrets had died with its destruction and even decades after the loss of the warship, Romulan science had been unable to replicate it completely. The S'harien could not fire while under cloak but two systems in particularly allowed it to transition out of cloak and fire far more quickly than expected.

The Borg enhanced power core did not only generate enormous amounts of power, but it could do so far more adeptly than any existing Romulan design. As the S'harien began to drop its cloak, the energy was more deftly redirected. The bulk of this energy was redirected to the shields and sensors, bringing them back online with improved alacrity. The fact that the Sphere had been following a predictable vector as it sought refuge behind the Cube simplified targeting equations. As the S'harien targeting sensors reached out and kissed the hull of the wounded Sphere, the second aspect of the transition was already occurring. The six energy batteries incorporated into the power grid of the Warbird. Their original intent had been to allow the S'harien to move and cloak for limited amounts of time while her power core was turned off. It had also been used as a means to share powers with other Romulan settlements and outposts when these locations had been in need. They had provided a means to harness their greatest advantage, their seemingly endless supply of power. These batteries could also be used offensively. As the S'harien transitioned into real space, energy from these batteries seethed through power conduits and filtered and redirected through the assimilated engineering deck. From the engineering deck, the torrent of energy was channeled directly into the S'harien's disruptors. Originally, each battery had allowed for over thirty shots for an individual type 16 disruptor before being depleted. When powering the Sword of S'task and the remaining four type 16 disruptors, they could barely manage ten full salvos. When fully over charged, they could barely power six salvos. The end result was simple. The S'harien transitioned from its cloaked to attack state in half the expected time and began firing almost immediately.

As the S'harien reached a distance of ninety eight point seven kilometers from the Sphere, and space still shimmered as it transitioned from its cloak the Sword of S'task fired. Six emerald pulses of energy were accelerated towards the wounded Sphere promising retaliation for the loss of the Romulan home world. Mere fractions of a second later, these six pulses were joined by four smaller and less intense bursts from the smaller type 16 cannon as well as six plasma torpedoes fired from three separate launchers in groups of two. Each disruptor shot was overcharged by forty percent, the maximum allowed by the Warbird. The Sword of S'task alone in this state represented the type 20 disruptor fire of nearly three separate Valdore class warbirds. That one salvo drained twenty percent of the total energy stored in all six batteries.

"Riov, ship dropping cloak dead ahead!" His sensor officer called out as a fighter manifested where nothing had existed moments before.

"Evasive Action!" Riov Galan Cretak yelled.

The S'harien twisted in space, the helmsman pressing a series of keys that channeled the entirety of bonus energy generated by the core directly into the engines and reinforced the structural integrity field. The Warbird turned, doing so with a grace that no vessel of its kind had ever possessed as energy was redirected into its propulsion system. The Warbird managed to avoid a collision with the diminutive fighter by less than four hundred and thirty seven meters. Even as it maneuvered, twin type 16 cannons continued to fire on the borg sphere. The S'harien continued maneuvering performing a turn that would have been impossible for any ship of her kind and crossed the threshold that placed it in medium range of its target, its twin sphere and most importantly of all the Cube. As it completed its turn, four type 16 disruptors managed to fire on the Sphere as a quartet of plasma torpedoes erupted from the Warbirds aft and began to cross the space that separated them from their intended target.

The S'harien began to turn away from the Cube and Sphere seeking to rejoin its brothers and sisters now that it had announced itself in the battlefield. As it did so, it sought to keep the Cube at an angle allowing the possibility of his tractor beams to be brought into play against potential retaliation. Continuing an assault against a Cube and Sphere on its own would have been a losing proposition.

That will have to do for now.

[frigidmagi]

"Comm, orders to missile squadron, open up the range between them and the cube. inform all uncloaked ships to concentrate fire on the Cube if they can't fire on Sphere Alpha. The cloaked squadron can handle the frigates with fighter support. Helm, evasive manoeuvres, no pattern, but get us into support of the Heritage. Tactical, all weapons expect the NRA on the Cube. Punch a hole in that shield." Captain Anderson paused to key his chest comm. The bridge was quiet, despite the noise of sputtering electronics and harsh breathing.

"Engineering, Captain here, Divert what power you can to the shields please."

Enigineering

Commander Higgins suppressed a curse. She had damage control teams running throughout the ship trying to patch up the results of the Captain deciding to let the Borg use her darling girl as a pinata and now he wanted more power to the shields.

"Working on it Captain, but if they hit us like that again I'm not sure the shields will hold." She reported.

Bridge

"Understood Commander, give me your best." Captain Anderson replied cutting the transmission. He stood as the ship began to move.

The Immortal moved trying to bop and weave through the void in an effort to generate misses. It's phaser banks and tubes opened up a full barrage against the Cube in a silent show of light and fury.

[Hotfoot]

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System

DuBois watched as the volleys of fire slammed into Sphere Alpha, frustrated that it had not yet erupted into a shower of debris, but thankful that, so far, neither had any of the ships in the fleet, despite the fire taken by the Immortal. Breaking the silence, Stone analyzed the report of the action at his console. “Sir, Alpha appears to be badly damaged and is continuing to take fire, we may get it before it orbits. Heritage and Immortal are taking heavy fire, and the Fastballs are breaking up, two closing on our position, two forming on the line. Sphere Beta is orbiting, sensors indicate it may be a boarding variant, reading higher than normal life signs on board. Tagging it for Anderson.â€

[General Havoc]

It was, as always, impossible to determine what the Borg were thinking, either collectively or as individual ships. Men sought to bring some understanding to their enemy, the better to reduce him to a problem with a solution. It was, by necessity, an exercise in assumption, projection, and more than a little wishful thinking.

Still, it was probably fair to say that the Borg were not expecting this.

What had been a handful of ships defiantly opposing the advance of the unstoppable Cube was suddenly transformed into a wholly different situation as ship after heavily-armed ship began decloaking from what appeared to be all around the small Borg formation. First a Vorcha battlecruiser appeared, slinging barrages of torpedoes at the as-yet unmolested Exterminator frigates. Then, from the opposing flank, a Federation destroyer, bristling with firepower, which it flung at the Exterminator in a crossfire. Nimble and fast, the small swept-wing ship might have managed to evade the strike had it possessed the slightest inkling that it was coming. It did not, and moreover, just as the cloaked ships appeared, Vigilence's opening volley smashed its forward sensor array, blinding the Frigate at just the wrong moment. Every torpedo and cannon strike hit home at once from either flank, and the result was predictable. Armed with Borg technology the frigate might be, but it remained a frigate, and the volume of fire simply crushed it like an egg in a hydraulic press. In a heartbeat, the ship imploded into a gyrating fireball, as bits of wreckage continued to tumble forward like the aftereffects of a shooting star.

And just as the Borg were attempting to react to this situation, from the other flank, things got worse.

The Spector had launched multiple waves of torpedoes at the damaged Borg Sphere, before it managed to duck out of sight behind its larger companion. The torpedoes were built to handle such situations however, and deftly flew around the Cube's bulk, pursuing their prey under local control. Light weapons systems on the Cube opened fire on them, using targeting data fed from the Sphere, and swatted four torpedoes from the sky. Two more swung to evade the Cube and collided with one another in a bright explosion. One miscalculated the angles and clipped a corner of the cube, blossoming against its thick shields. The last four torpedoes located their target and changed course to engage it. A last-second shot from one of the Exterminators brought one down, seconds before the final three smashed into the sphere's hull.

Only three torpedoes had hit home out of twelve, but given that the target was no longer even visible, it wasn't a bad yield.

Had that been it, the Sphere would have survived, for Borg ships were tough and redundantly-equipped, and despite the terrible scarring on its hull, a Sphere was built to take it. However, to put it mildly, that was not "it".

That was not even a small fraction of "it".

Had the Borg possessed the capacity to express surprise, there would no doubt have been expressions thereof as four cloaked Peregrine class fighters appeared out of nowhere and fired torpedoes, moments before an entire Romulan battlecruiser of a class thought extinct joined them. Power in frankly absurd volumes flowed within the Battlecruiser, power in such quantities as to be visible to the multi-spectral sensors aboard the Sphere. Given the time required to flood weapons of that scale with power of that magnitude, the Sphere had just enough time to fire a pair of heavy disruptors into the S'harien's forward shields. Moments later, the torpedoes from the Spector's fighters obliterated both weapons mounts, just before the S'harien's main batteries hit the Sphere with a single, overcharged volley, and blew it to matchsticks.

With two ships annihilated in as many seconds, the Borg now found themselves in a slightly different position than what they had anticipated.

But that being said, they were still the Borg.

The Heritage turned to engage the incoming Exterminators, launching torpedoes and firing phasers at the incoming frigates. The phasers scored home, despite the ducking and weaving of the two frigates, sending shimmers through their shields. The disruptor shot however missed high, as the ship it was aimed at dove like a kingfisher and ducked beneath the beam of green death. Its counterpart flew straight on towards the offending vessel and the wedge of torpedoes it had deployed. It made no attempt to evade.

The reason why became clear shortly thereafter.

The nose of the ship began to shimmer, moments before a wide indigo cone emerged from it. It was no weapon, but the effect was instantaneous, as every torpedo scattered like bowling pins struck by a stampeding elephant. Several torpedoes corkscrewed into the Cube's shields, one spiraled out of control and blew up against the Frigate's forward shields, but the majority were either hurled off into deep space, or captured within the tractor net, where they squirmed and darted like live worms.

Seconds later, the Cube got into the act.

Heritage had taken itself out of horizontal alignment with the other ships to engage the inbound Exterminators, but a Cube had no "front" so much as it simply had another facing. Its topside had previously had no targets available to it. It now had one. It struck, not with disruptors, but with a massive tractor beam, snaring the Heritage out of the air like a fish speared by a harpoon. And as the Exterminator closed in, bearing a handful of Heritage's own torpedoes, the Cube leisurely dumped eight more disruptor beams into the ventral and port shields of the stricken Destroyer, moments before it launched a full spread of twelve heavy plasma torpedoes at it.

Even as it was performing this action, the Cube's frontal facing began firing at Immortal once more, launching a rain of another twelve torpedoes at the now-high speed Battlecruiser. Seven missed entirely, an unusually high number, perhaps due to the multitasking required to engage this many ships. One was caught by one of Immortal's own phaser blasts and burst into a cloud of high-energy plasma. Another managed to miss Immortal only to crash into Vigilance's forward shields, barely shaking the venerable heavy cruiser. The last three hit Immortal on her starboard flank, shaking the already battered shields, but failing to penetrate, even as disruptor beams joined in the fun, scoring strikes across Immortal's entire hull.

Pursuant to Immortal's orders, the Argonaut now opened fire in earnest, launching wave after wave of photon torpedoes and a hail of beam fire into the center of the Cube's forward facing. The Exterminator that had evaded Heritage's attack tried to interfere, strafing the old war wagon with disruptor cannons and a pair of plasma torpedoes, but cruisers were built to take it, and Argonaut brushed the shots aside and contemptuously ignored the dancing frigate, save for a pair of torpedoes from her aft launchers that scarred its shields and sent it scurrying away for another pass. To this din was added the thunderous guns of Immortal herself, desperately shifting facings and headings to deploy maximum firepower into the Cube. Yet, for the moment, this barrage had no effect, as the shields continued to hold against the storm, accepting gigatons of explosive force and terrajoules of energy with all the aplomb of an umbrella warding off the rain.

The last Frigate, ignoring the warships that had just imploded its fellow, continued to streak towards Spector and Empyrean. Yet when it finally selected a target, it directed its weapons at the motionless Science vessel rather than the Torpedo cruiser. Two torpedoes, then two more, and a hail of disruptor fire rained down on the Empyrean, yet oddly enough, despite the ship's lack of motion, the disruptors missed high, barely grazing the shields, and of the four torpedoes, only one scored a direct hit on the starboard nacelle, enough to shake the ship, but not enough to meaningfully damage it. Closing at rapid rate, the Frigate attempted to correct its thwarted aim, yet it managed only to land two solid disruptor hits, both on the starboard flank, before flying right past the Federation ships, and coming about for another try.

And finally, even as all of this transpired, the last Sphere broke cover, and made high impulse speed, not towards any of the erupting battles, not towards an enemy ship, but in the direction of Nivoch IV itself.

[Agent Fisher]

Katara

Tarka had received the orders from the Immortal. And he had been preparing ot follow when the fight began. The Gul ordered his ship out of the way, circling around the fight to find a better position.

"Gul! Two frigates on an intercept course with the USS Spector!" Came the shouted exclamation from a secondary sensor operator.

"Bring us around, prepare to drop the cloak. Get me a targetting solution on the lead frigate." He ordered.

On the viewscreen, a display popped up and started ticking down, range to the target. When it went green, Tarka turned to his XO, about to order the cloak be switched off and the ship start fighting.

"Gul, the second sphere is making for the colony."

Tarka snapped his attention to the tactical display. "Damn, break off the frigate, swing us around, heading towards the sphere. As soon as we're within torpedo range, drop the cloak and open fire." He stated.

Tense moments ticked by, the range on the sphere increasing as they couldn't match that speed but soon the range was closing as the sphere slowed over the planet. Finally, the display switched to green.

As the Cardassian Keldon shimmered back into view, it suddenly began spitting torpedoes at the sphere. A set of six torpedoes streaked out, racing through the inky blackness of space. Then the tubes switched to individual fire, each one firing as soon as it reloaded.

[Charon]

The Barbarossa

Hizir watched with a seemingly infinite patience as the battle played out. The Immortal was struck repeatedly and began to move under cover again where it could get out from under the withering fire of the cube. The second strike had started and now the Borg were reeling. It was time for another blow.

"Khoal, shields up, weapons armed. Danava, get to the secondary bridge now."

The Orion woman looked for a moment that she would argue the point but a single glare from her captain was enough to quell it. She stormed off quickly.

Khoal looked up from his terminal. "Ready when you are captain."

Hizir's grin turned feral as the one sphere broke cover to charge the planet. "Decloak."

Suddenly, space shifted and shimmered and within seconds a massive red-beared D'deridex was just there, slightly off from the rest of the main force, and dwarfing every ship in attendance save for the mighty cube itself.

"Ereiss, open comm. Let everyone hear this."

Ereiss pressed a few buttons and nodded to her captain.

Hizir took a deep breath, his eyes shining in exhilaration. "Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! Show these Borg why they should fear the name Barbarossa! Fire!"

The Barbarossa had turned as best she could to keep her gaze on the sphere as it sped towards the planet, which hadn't been much considering she was between the planet and the borg. There was only a second of pause before the fist of God itself seemed to strike out from the Barbarossa. Two red beams of destruction, by far the most powerful beam weapons shown on the field thus far, perhaps the most powerful ship born beam weapons in the quadrant. The cutting beams launched out towards the second sphere that was still speeding towards Nivoch IV, intent on causing the most destruction possible. The beams were far from alone though, a full spread of torpedoes and disruptor blasts targeted the lone sphere, as though the Barbarossa seemed intent on wiping away the errant sphere in the first volley.

[SirNitram]

"Dammit.. The Heritage got too close to another facing." Markson grunted. "Knew! Haul as fast as this tub can, we need to close range for full effectiveness of these torpedos!" The great Heavy Cruiser began to turn, moving to get to the side of the Immortal. "Weapons control, Phasers to point-defense. Prep torpedo volley for the frigates, fire when ready. Let's see if the plasma weapons have been adapted to yet."

Markson desperately hoped not. They'd still be usable, but they had been integral to his successes. After that, all they had was combat upgrades; and that couldn't tip big moves like this.

[LadyTevar]

Spector

"Captain, Sphere Alpha destroyed, Sphere Beta is making a run for the planet." Another crewmember would have shouted the warning; Serin stated it in authoritative calmness. "Exterminator targeting the Empyrean, ignoring us for now."

Kirk reacted normally. "Hard over! Target the Sphere with all forward tubes!" The Spector rotated in space, the scarred disc with its fully functional photon tubes turning to lock the running Sphere in its forward arc.

"Captain!" An interruption, not a shout from Serin. "D'Deridex uncloaking near the planet. The Empyrean is now showing a loss of engine power."

"Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! Show these Borg why they should fear the name Barbarossa! Fire!"

Kirk grinned grimly. "Send message to the Barbarossa -- HAVOC. Photon tubes on the Sphere, three waves. Phasers, lock on the Exterminator and give it something to think about besides the Emyprean."


****
Ghost Wing

The Sphere blew with surprising force, and the Ghost pilots celebrated silently. Cloaked again, they flew defensively, avoiding the firefight between the Immortal and the Cube by remaining on the 'backside' ventral facing. However, it was impossible to miss the plight of the Heritage.

This would be interesting. Coded burst signals, designating the target as the Exterminator above them, heading for the Heritage. As one, the cloaked Peregrines changed course to intercept.


***
Wraith & Phantom wings

Eleven Peregrine fighters, the remainder of the Spector's diminished complement, had been positioned to protect Novich IV by a far-seeing Captain. As she predicted, the Borg were making a run for the planet. The sudden appearance of the Barbarossa was a surprise, but it also gave the fighters something that all fighters love. -Cover-

"All Wings, full impulse," ordered DemonPrime, the SquadLeader. "Use the Dd'Dredix as cover. Phantom, use torps, Wraith strafing runs. GO GO GO!"

[Cynical Cat]

The Exterminator exploded on the Riskadh's main display. A shout rang out from several junior officers. They had scored a kill, another addition in the Riskadh's long list of victories. The other bolted ahead, darting towards the Spector and the Empyrean.

"Helm, stay with that one!" ordered Kadon. "Hard turn, evasive, keep us away from the Cube!" The Riskadh groaned as thrusters fired on full and the structural integrity field kicked in at full power. The mighty battlecruiser made a tight turn away from the general direction of the Borg Cube and towards the Federation squadron. The deck rumbled as her engines roared.

"Weapons!" Kadon roared. "All forward disruptors! Action!" The Riskadh swooped towards the Exterminator like a stooping hawk on a mouse.

It took Kallor a few seconds to find a firing solution he was confident of scoring multiple hits with. The Riskadh raced forward on the wing of the S'harien, so close that the ships were just barely visible to each other with the naked eye. The Vor'cha possessed eighteen heavy disruptor mounts and a fearsome main cannon. As was typical with warships, especially Klingon ones, while the disruptors mounts provided total coverage, there was a bias towards the front.

Disruptor beams blazed from the Vor'cha's guns, stabbing lances of molecular disruption that tore matter apart on an atomic level. The Sound of Destruction had been the nickname for the mains in the Klingon Navy for a hundred and fifty years. Every crewman stationed near a forward mount heard them howl as they poured countless terajoules of destructive energy at the Exterminator frigate.

[rhoenix]

Simultaneously watching the Borg Exterminator Frigate explode on the holoscreen, and watching its contact tag disappear from the tactical radar caused the entire bridge staff of the Gilgamesh to smile grimly, if only for a moment.

"Telemetry updated sir. Riskhadh is headed toward Exterminator Frigate designate 3," Lieutenant Adranis reported tersely.

"Follow on their wing - we'll catch the Frigate in another vice," ordered Captain Solheim. To this, both Swift and Adranis nodded, nearly simultaneously saying "Aye" in response.

"Commander Inzeti to bridge," the comm suddenly echoed with Samara's voice, sounding slightly echoed due to being spoken within the helmet of a hardsuit. "Engineering teams suited up and on station, damage control teams are prepped and in position. Life support for all decks is now at minimal except for the bridge - we have nearly 150% power available now."

"Dump 25% into weapons' power, and the other 25% into shields," Captain Solheim ordered. "Swift, Adranis, make an attack solution that complements the Riskhadh - this fight will go much faster if we concentrate fire."

Working together, Swift and Adranis seamlessly crafted their attack pattern as they closed on the next Frigate. The results of this were very suddenly obvious as the opening salvo began - the Gilgamesh loosed a rapid-fire burst from all four forward phaser cannons that only added to the withering assault launched by the Riskhadh, as the two ships closed in on their next prey.

Once the alpha strike had finished however, the Gilgamesh suddenly broke to the Frigate's side, firing constantly as it strafed the Frigate's ventral side, seeking to catch the Frigate in a crossfire between the Riskadh and the Gilgamesh.

[frigidmagi]

"Heritage is tractored. Orders?"

Captain Anderson gritted his teeth and took a breath.

"Comm, inform the Argo and the Vigilance to move in with us to the Cube facing that is pulling in Heritage. Helm, get us there fast and twisty. Tactical all weapons on the tractor area." The Captain ordered.

The Immortal dipped and began a swerving "dive" towards the Cube Face that held the Heritage opening fire as it swung into range.

[Hotfoot]

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System
Empyrean Bridge

“Engineering to bridge, we just lost the engineering crew.â€

[Marcao]

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System, IRW S'harien
Bridge

Riov Galan Cretak took a great deal of satisfaction when the Sphere exploded. Its last gasp attempt to prevent the inevitable had been insignificant compared to the torrent of fire that the S'harien alongside the others had unleashed upon it. The twin heavy disruptor shots had plowed directly into the Warbirds fore shields and the S'harien had merely shrugged. Nonetheless, although their primary target had been removed from existence dire threats still remained. As the S'harien maneuvered away from the remaining sphere and cube, the sensors of the Warbird meticulously gathered as much data as possible regarding the performance and situation of his allies. Galan frowned as the information regarding the USS Heritage became available.

This can easily get out of hand.

The Federation ship seemed to have made a series of mistakes that had placed it in a perilous position. He could clearly see the adjustments made by the battle line as they sought to liberate and ideally save the Heritage from a fate that he had seen too many ships suffer. A part of him wanted to help, but the positioning of the S'harien on its current vector would not easily allow him to intervene. He tracked the Riskadh as it moved towards him and immediately understood that he would have to leave the Heritage to other ships more ideally situated to intervene on the ships behalf. His left hand moved, his tactical console touched and manipulated as he selected his next target.

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System, IRW S'harien
Primary Engineering

Arrain Arrenhe Velal frowned and shifted on her seat a series of screens placed optimally before her tracking the ebb and flow of power as it moved throughout the S'harien as well as a myriad of other relevant data. If the Bridge was the brain of the S'harien, then primary engineering was its heart. It was here that the quantum singularity beat sending torrents of energy to wherever it was needed. It was her job as well as that of her subordinates, all nine of them to monitor the life's blood of the S'harien and finely tune the flow through the conduits and relays that formed the arteries and veins of the Warbird. Under ideal circumstances, the miles of relays that composed the energy relays and power distribution nodes of the S'harien was a manageable job. In a combat situation, the task became significantly more difficult. The latest energy spike when power had been fed to the sword of S'task at maximum tolerance a series of warnings had been tripped. The warnings had remained just that, although she had contacted three separate engineering teams and guided them to a problematic junction after she re-routed power around it.

Junction D-19 again?

She sighed softly, her left hand reaching out and pressing a familiar glyph on a nearby console.

"Bridge, Engineering. I am getting some warning lights on the Sword. I do not recommend another overcharge of that magnitude at this time Riov. I have three engineering teams looking at the problem, until then standard combat levels are recommended." She said aware that 120% power to weapons and 120% power to engines was the normal power distribution for the S'harien in a red alert situation.

"Confirmed Engineering." The Riov responded.

Arrenhe allowed herself a small smile before she focused on her work. It had taken some time, but Galan no longer questioned her about the specifics. His trust in her was apparent and it sent ripples of pride through her. She sought to harness that pride as her hands glided over two separate consoles.

Alpha Quadrant
Nivoch System, IRW S'harien

The S'harien maneuvered into position alongside the Riskadh and the Gilgamesh. The placement was accidental but once in close proximity with the Klingon warship and the familiar Gilgamesh he felt oddly at ease. The Riskadh swooped towards its target talons stretched out. The sensors of the S'harien tracked every disruptor shot and used these shots as an extra data set as it calculated its own targeting solution. The Gilgamesh fired next, raking its target with rapid fire bursts from its phaser cannons before breaking off and strafing the frigates ventral side.

"We have a solution." His tactical officer stated.

"Fire." was his reply.

The armament of the S'harien was not designed to deal with an exterminator frigate. It was designed to contend with ships that lacked its maneuverability and speed. It was however, capable of working in conjunction with the Riskadh and Gilgamesh. In a one to one scenario, only the type 16 disruptors at close range had a chance of reliably hitting an exterminator in full evasive mode. The type 20 disruptors even in beam mode, were generally unable to gain solid hits on such vessels. Working in conjunction with other forces however, the situation became a bit more forgiving.

Six emerald beams lanced out and sought to remove the Exterminator from existance. Not every shot was aimed directly at the exterminator however. Instead, four of the shots were aimed to cut off potential avenues of escape. In essence, two third of the type 20 shots were aimed to discourage rampant maneuvering from the exterminator in essence forcing it to take the fire from the nimble Gilgamesh and the raging Riskadh. The two type 20 disruptors located near the beak of the S'harien sought to target the exterminator directly. The type 16 disruptors added their own fire, seeking to erect a prison of disruptor fire around and near the Exterminator.

[rhoenix]

It was then that the Barbarossa's visage was revealed, and Hizir's battlecry was heard once again, confirming to Captain Solheim that this was indeed the same ship he'd run into a few years back. "Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! Show these Borg why they should fear the name Barbarossa! Fire!"

With that, the massive d'Deridex unleashed two malevolently red beams, tearing into the Borg Sphere that dared threaten the colony of Nivoch IV, a sight that made Captain Solheim smirk as he observed it out of the corner of his eye on the tactical holoscreen.

Meanwhile, as the S'harien closed in on the Exterminator Frigate that the Gilgamesh and the Riskadh were currently targeting, Captain Solheim smiled slightly. "Like old times, eh Galen?" he thought to himself.

"Swift," Captain Solheim said out loud, "take us behind the Frigate, and tear into its rear shields. Let's herd it into either eating the S'harien's beams, or the Riskadh's guns," he ordered. Both Swift and Adranis murmured their acknowledgement, as the ship whipped around with frightening speed, its guns warmed up and pointed at the hind end of the Frigate.

With that, the four forward-mounted heavy phaser cannons unleashed a deadly orange torrent of fire into the Exterminator Frigate's rear shields as it finished turning from its pass along the Frigate's ventral side.

[frigidmagi]

The Immortal corkscrewed and slew over towards the Heritage pouring in fire at the uncaring dark face of the Cube. Captain Anderson could feel the shields straining and see the the distance closing, to slowly. They weren't gonna to be able to save the Heritage this way. He ground his teeth, weighing variables and coming to a decision, likely wasting to many precious seconds he didn't have.

"Comm, open an encrypted channel to the Argo, deliver message as follows. Commander Kalpov, this is not an order. I repeat, this is not an order. My ship cannot reach the Heritage in time and remain in fighting shape. I request you move to shield the Heritage. I say again I request. Captain Anderson out." The Captain ordered through gritted teeth. This fight was getting bad.

[General Havoc]

Perhaps the Borg had assumed that, having been ambushed once already by cloaked ships, they had seen what the Federation and her allies had to deploy in this system, and were now acting accordingly, having drawn out what hidden reserves had been in store for them. If so, for the second time in as many minutes, the Borg were rapidly disabused of this notion.

Another ship appeared, its sleek hammerhead design and orange-beige trim identifying it as a Cardassian Keldon-class cruiser. It appeared from nothingness with the shimmer of a cloak, and began to fire torpedoes, first one full salvo, then an unending rain of self-propelled projectiles. The Sphere was, as before, not expecting it, but this Sphere was already in motion at high speed, racing away from the enemy cruiser, and it had time to react to the incoming torpedoes, firing a blistering hail of light disruptors at them. Two torpedoes were scythed down and one missed entirely, before the remaining three hit the Sphere and exploded against her shields. Moments later, the Sphere retaliated in kind, flinging four plasma torpedoes back up the same vector of attack at the Cardassian cruiser, spinning in mid-space as it flew on to deploy more torpedoes and shake its errant pursuer off like a flea.

And then something very unpleasant happened.

From the depths of empty space, yet another armed warship appeared, a massive ship, a Romulan Heavy Cruiser, the famous D'Deridex-class Warbird. Like a flying space station, it arose from nothing, its jutting, beak-shaped prow staring down the Sphere like an angry deity, displeased by that which it beheld. Red energy built up within its cavernous hull, and moments later, discharged, screaming across the void in a fraction of a heartbeat.

The Sphere was too small for both mining lasers to strike home, and one of them missed high, boiling off into interplanetary space. The other hit the Sphere with a glancing strike, striking on an oblique facing just as the Sphere's second round of torpedoes were being launched. Primitive though lasers were by comparison to some of the weaponry on offer here, the energy deployed was simply catastrophic. All four plasma torpedoes simply evaporated, not even deigning to explode in violence. The shields of the Sphere, crackled and sparked for a moment, as they struggled to hold the monumental firepower at bay. A second's effort and they collapsed entirely, unable to withstand a beam designed to rip moons apart. The oblique angle saved the sphere from being cored, as the laser gouged a furrow down the length of one side. And then the Sphere leaped away from the beams of death, frantically rotating to try and bring shield facings back up on its starboard flank, the one facing the Warbird, and it fired an almost desultory handful of disruptor shots back into the hulking cruiser as it continued to speed on its way, pursued by disruptor and torpedo shots from the Romulan-turned-pirate.

And then, as though the Sphere had not enough to worry about, there came fighters.

Damaged and fleeing, pursued by a half dozen different types of weapon and torpedo, the Sphere either did not see Spector's fighters approaching, or found itself unable to do anything about them. Faced with cruisers and heavy battlewagons, the relatively nimble Sphere could have simply rotated damaged sections away from its pursuers. But though it was faster than the cruisers, the fighters were faster still. They swarmed around the damaged Sphere like a pack of predatory wolves, and tore at its exposed vitals with micro-torpedoes and phaser cannons, neither one of which the Sphere had had a chance to adapt to. The Sphere spun and gyrated violently, firing back at its nimble tormentors in an attempt to defend itself, but it was no use. A disruptor beam tore the wing off one fighter and sent it spiraling into the Sphere's latticework hull after ejecting the pilot. Another was caught squarely by a heavy antiship disruptor and vaporized. The remaining nine discharged their full arsenal of fire just as the torpedoes from the Spector herself caught up with the Cube. A series of internal explosions were quenched only by the combined barrage of the second wave of ordinance from the Katara, Barbarossa, and Spector, which broke the Sphere into a tight cloud of distended debris, left to sail past Nivoch IV and into the depths of the stellar system, Empyrean's afterthought Quantum torpedoes detonating within the wreckage as a final counterpoint to the folly of assumption.

*-----------------------------------------------------*

The Exterminator that had targeted the Empyrean twisted and dodged at best possible speed as two battlecruisers and a heavy destroyer came hurling themselves after it. It twisted and ducked, trying to work its way back around to make another attack run on one of the Federation ships. Perhaps it saw the heavy warships that were pursuing it, and perhaps it did not. Either way, it had enough time only to come around and fling a single plasma torpedo at the Spector before several kinds of concentrated Hell opened up and vomited forth fire and death.

And an instant later, it was over.

The Riskad'h was a Battlecruiser, with guns quite capable of striking anything flying, but designed to destroy cruisers and other large ships. It was not easy to hit an object as small, fast, and maneuverable as the Exterminator Frigate, but the Klingons, as usual, found a way.

With one, spectacularly skilled (or perhaps just lucky) shot, the Riskad'h hit the Exterminator amidships with every single gun aboard, cannons designed to break the shields of Dominion battleships, Galaxy cruisers, and Romulan Warbirds. The Exterminator Frigate was none of these things. The shields protested for a fraction of a second before the Klingon Battlecruiser's main batteries blew the Frigate cleanly in half, seconds before the Gilgamesh's cannon barrage vaporized the stern section. The bow section tumbled off into space, shedding debris and fire in its wake. S'harien's shots, fired fractions of a second too late, and targetted in the assumption that the Frigate would be both maneuvering to evade fire and ambulatory, missed cleanly, lighting up the night sky in the wake of the broken Frigate.

Unfortunately, not all was well in the victorious warships, for within the bowels of the Gilgamesh, something went drastically wrong. No sooner had her shots been released, then the surge of excess power into her defensive and offensive systems hit a power conduit that had simply taken too much abuse for too long a time. When a surge of power far in excess of design limitations reached it, the insulation and surge capacity, called upon for one more supreme effort, proved unequal to the task. In a fraction of a millisecond, the power surge exploded through the Gilgamesh's shield systems, shattering circuit-boards, exploding surge capacitors, and ripping out the fragile guts of the generator coils. Before anyone could react, before anyone could even think about reacting, Gilgamesh's shields short circuited, and collapsed entirely.

Had anyone been shooting at the Gilgamesh, the result might have been utter catastrophe, but the Cube was occupied, and the Frigate had just been eradicated by the Riskad'h. However, pending an hour's repair time, the Gilgamesh's shields were irrevocably offline and would remain so, a testament to the risks entailed when overcharging systems of such fine tolerance as weapons, shields, or other such.

*-----------------------------------------------------*

Back nearer the Cube itself, things were going much less swimmingly.

The Vigilance was moving, clawing for relative altitude and speed, its mighty phasers entering a point defense mode to ward off projectiles directed its way. There were none. The Borg were arrogant and linear of thought, but even they knew better than to waste ordinance battering down the thick defenses of a Galaxy-class Heavy Cruiser, not while there were softer, more tempting targets in play. The Vigilence's own torpedoes, flung at the Frigate that had just finished strafing the Argonaut, were deflection shots from an un-maneuverable cruiser firing at a nimble frigate in close range. By rights, none of them should have hit. In practice however, the torpedo approach vectors co-incided with the Frigate making a sharp turn to starboard, preparatory to lashing Argonaut again, or perhaps to engaging Heritage. The torpedoes ended all talk of such nonsense, caving in the Frigate's forward shields and sending it flipping end over end backwards, its plasma torpedo volley flung wantonly off into empty space.

As with all of the other little engagements that made up this fight, the Borg had come off the loser, and on a tactical scale, every engagement had been a resounding success... so far. Five Borg ships had been destroyed, one damaged, and all for the loss of no Allied vessels, nor even any badly damaged. From this perspective, it looked perhaps like a victory already won, or at least one well advanced in the winning. To the extent that any of the captains realized what the problem with all of this was, none were now in a position to make good the mistake. So it was, that the true problem with all that had just transpired was masked, and hidden, and only revealed now.

The firepower of the allied formation, new though it was to one another's presence, was immense. Perhaps even more immense than the Cube it faced down. But with ships wandering in every direction, hither and yon, chasing this Sphere and that Frigate, that firepower had been drained away, progressively, from the vital point of the formation. Though the Spheres had sought to attack the planet, and the Frigates to harry the flanks, the Cube itself remained functionally inviolate, packed with weaponry, and with plenty of targets available to it. Of all the Allied ships present, Gilgamesh, Riskad'h, S'harien, Spector, Barbarossa, Katara, and Empyrean had all been drawn away, chasing this ship down, evading that one, or reserving their fire for ships other than the Cube. Of the four that remained in close proximity, Vigilence had deployed her fire against other light ships, though remaining on station, maneuvering to try and help, and Heritage was seized by a Tractor beam, no longer a predator but prey for the enormous warship. This left only two vessels, Immortal and Argonaut, two of eleven, who still retained freedom of action to stand before the Cube and try to thwart her. Two ships to stop a Cube, fewer than had chased down the single Frigate that Riskad'h had just blown in half, fewer than those who had stopped the Sphere that had broken away towards Nivoch IV. Fewer than any other Borg vessel had to face.

Two ships, alone, tried to save the Heritage, while the fleet fought on around them, slaying the smaller vessels that the Borg had sent forth to sow mischief and death. Two ships were in a position to fight the Cube itself. And for all the valor of their crews and the ruggedness of their systems, for all the desperation with which they might have fought, there was no warding off the cold equations.

Two ships were simply not enough.

Immortal dumped fire into the Cube's top facing, slinging volleys of torpedoes followed by the fire of the most powerful phasers in the galaxy, and the Cube's counterattack of disruptor fire beat against her shields to no avail, for Sovereigns were built to take it. Yet for all the thunderous violence of the federation Battlecruiser, her weapons were not sufficient alone to break through the shields of the enormous Cube, and the tractor would not break, not even when Argonaut, flying in Sovereign's wake, added her own photon torpedoes to the mix. The shields were too thick, the tractor too strong. There was nothing they could do to stop them.

An entire volley of heavy plasma torpedoes smashed into the motionless Heritage at once.

It was like watching a leashed puppy getting drop kicked by a Tarkalian Razorback. The explosion crushed the Heritage's struggling shields like an eggshell under the foot of an elephant, and cast meter-long sections of hull plating off into the distance. The entire ship bucked and shook and seemed to twist like a creature writhing in pain, its nacelles sparking and falling dark. Heritage was not a destroyer, but neither was it a hulking battleship. It was a creature of flight and speed, and it struggled in a death-rattle within its energy field bonds, for bad as the battery was, it was merely the opening salvo of the Cube's attack.

And as the two ships desperately struggling to save Heritage watched, the Cube launched a second volley...

*-----------------------------------------------------*

Commander Kalpov, this is not an order. I repeat, this is not an order. My ship cannot reach the Heritage in time and remain in fighting shape. I request you move to shield the Heritage. I say again I request. Captain Anderson out.

The bridge of the Argonaut was not quiet, for the Klaxon alarms continued to ring, as officers and reports rode through the com system with terse and crisp quiet, the better to mask the fear of her crew. Yet as the sound of Captain Anderson's 'request' faded, not one person spoke. Not the bridge crew, not the Aenar in the first officer's seat, and not the Commander to whom the message had been addressed. Nobody spoke, nobody dared to, and all eyes slowly turned to the person who would have to make that decision.

Commander Kalpov said nothing, sitting as though glued to his chair, only his eyes moving from face to frightened face, to Leutenant Commanders who should have been Enseigns, to Leutenants who should have been mere Cadets. The viewscreen before them showed the stricken Heritage, crippled and sparking, and behind it, the vast background menace of the Cube itself, the Cube that had just crippled her, and her beam of green death that was the instrument of her terror. And as the Commander hesitated, he turned to his first officer, who sat in equal mute hesitation at the notion of what they had just been asked to do.

"Sir," she ventured, and for all she tried to hide it, her fear was palpable within her voice. "Heritage is... she won't survive another salvo, Commander."

The entire bridge seemed to hang, faces turned white, no matter the race or species of their owners. Kalpov permitted himself a single, deep breath, as he closed his eyes for just a moment.

"Take us..." he paused again, seeing his ship on fire, the frightened eyes of his crew dancing before him. He whispered a prayer to anyone that might be listening that this was the right choice, for once made, it was irrevocable.

"Take us in."

*-----------------------------------------------------*

Night became day when the Argonaut detonated the Torpedoes in the Frigate's net.

It was a precision strike from a well-aimed beam array, striking the captured torpedoes in a wide-angle beam that blew them all up at once, sending a visible shockwave expanding through space. It was not enough to damage the Frigate who had captured the torpedoes, but it was enough to spoil her aim, and throw off her attack run. As though in a rage, she turned on Argonaut herself, raking the Cruiser's starboard shields with disruptor fire. But the venerable Ambassador was not impressed, and returned the volley with a broadside of heavy phasers that sheered off the Frigate's port disruptor and sent it scurrying away trailing conduit plasma.

She flew on towards Heritage at best possible speeds, her nacelles glowing brilliant white from the extra effort, yet there was no breaking the tractor beam. Not with six times her firepower could she do this, yet still she advanced, oblivious to what else the Cube might throw at her, as the torpedoes closed on the striken ship.

Argonaut could not stop them, nor extract the wounded Heritage, but there was one thing she could do, the only thing she could do. And at the command of her crew, she did it. With engines churning and phasers firing on broad dispersion, Argonaut flew straight into the Tractor beam that was grappling Heritage, missing the smaller ship by barely a dozen meters, and with one last burst of her maneuvering thrusters, turned her Dorsal side to the Cube, and came to a complete stop.

A second later, all dozen heavy plasma torpedoes, the shots meant to finish off the Heritage, smashed into the Argonaut's Dorsal shields, shoving the ship back with such force that her saucer's underside was forced against the Heritage's hull, shaking both ships and throwing crews off their feet. Yet titanic though the strain was, her shields contrived to hold against them, and before the Borg could follow up, Argonaut wrapped her shields around Heritage, blocking the Borg's firing line on the striken warship with both her shields and her physical hull. Now trapped by the same tractor beam that had imprisoned Heritage, Argonaut let loose a fresh volley of phaser and torpedo fire into the Cube's own shields, as if screaming defiance against the implacable enemy dreadnought. Yet if the Borg were nonplussed, they gave no sign, immediately launching another volley of torpedoes at the two paralyzed ships, while simultaneously clawing at Immortal with disruptors and cutting beams, beating against her shields until they threatened to collapse altogether.

Against this, Argonaut could do nothing but sit and hold, yet one more action she did perform. From her deflector array, another tractor beam shot out, striking not the Borg but the Heritage. The Argonaut's tractor was many times less powerful than the Borg's, yet it managed, just barely, to drag the striken ship towards her, maneuvering Heritage around until the smaller vessel was nestled securely beneath the saucer of the large cruiser, leaving the Borg no firing solution whatsoever on Heritage, unless they contrived to physically cut through the Argonaut.

But given the firepower on display, such an eventuality was only a matter of time.

[Charon]

The bridge of the Barbarossa exploded in cheers as the sphere was turned into a fine mist of debris. Only two on the bridge were unmoved by it, Hizir and Khoal.

"Shut up." Hizir barked and the bridge went dead quiet. "Ereiss, move us and get us into position to charge the cube."

"Sir?" Ereiss glanced back.

"Do it! Now!"

The navigator knew better than to question again and quickly got to work.

Hizir meanwhile madly typed on his chair and called up engineering.

"Brothers!"

Three Ferengi looked up from their constant work to keep the engine in running condition. "Yeah boss."

"Give us everything you can into the engines."

"Sir, we're already giving it all we-"

"Give it more dammit! You get us going any faster and there's a bottle of 2364 and first choice of Borg wreckage in it for you."

The three Ferengi brothers looked at each other for a few seconds and then all smiled and nodded. "Well why didn't you say so in the first place?" The three Ferengi immediately got to work at giving the engines a bit more power.

Hizir turned back to Khoal then. "Keep torpedoes on that Cube, we're letting the power for the other weapons divert to engines. We have to close that distance now."

Khoal simply nodded and set for another launch of torpedoes at the Cube as the Barbarossa slowly turned to face the cube and gave it everything she had to close the range. She was still going painfully slowly though.