A New Collective

Posted on Tue Aug 25th, 2015 @ 10:30am by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & Commander Jonathan Roebuck IV & Lieutenant Nick Archer & Colonel Danny Lennox & Master Chief Petty Officer Mark Branson & First Ramata`tar & Admiral Deela T'Lar & Major General Thomas Jackson & Commodore Leon `Lee` Pike & Commodore Andrew Clifford & Commander Jonathan Coleman & Captain Jack Solomon & Major Percival 'Percy' Morris & Lieutenant Commander Holly Gillo & Lieutenant Nuala Takabe & Admiral Phelan Ward & Commodore Alexandra Harrison & Lieutenant Zhao Quan & Lieutenant Ariel Gilmore & Master Warrant Officer Gaius Aquila & Sergeant Maal son of Torg & Lieutenant JG Frank Doyle & Ensign Brandy Ragen & Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Ermey & Gunnery Sergeant Agtx & 1st Lieutenant Taz & Corporal Warner Schmidt

4,546 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: Episode 89 - Futility's Return
Location: Various, Task Force Ships
Timeline: MD2 1224hrs, Following 'Facing the Borg'

ON:

USS Pegasus, Bridge

Mike stood from his chair. "Pike you have the Bridge. Nuala, try to use the remnants of the second Sphere's transwarp conduit to track back to their base." Mike ordered. "Alex, when the other COs beam aboard, have them meet me in the Observation Lounge. Also, send a message to Starbase 400 with our current situation. Mark it for Fleet Admiral Sevlek and Major General Hurd. Jonathan, get damage control teams on any issues we might have. Also work with the Essex's Engineers to help them with any damage as well. We need all ships fully operational. Archer, continue sensor sweeps of the area for any survivors from the Houston and continue recovery efforts. Looks for any sensor buoys that might have their logs."

Alex nodded in acknowledgement, "Right away Admiral." She turned back to her console and started sending the message to Selvek and Hurd.

Coleman nodded in acknowledgement as well. "Aye, aye sir. Coleman to Repair Teams Alpha One and Beta One, prepare to beam over to the Essex and assist in any repairs. Repair Teams Alpha Two and Beta Two, meet me in Engineering, immediately." With that, Coleman took his leave to Engineering.

Nuala's fingers moved across her control screen. "I have an ion trail we may be able to follow, although it is only trace elements. It will be difficult but possible."

Lee rose from his chair:"Aye sir" Lee then stepped over and sat down in the command chair.


USS Essex, Bridge

Clifford reported, "Damage control teams on deck seven report that they should have repairs completed in a few hours or so. Damage on decks four to six is minimal."

"Good to hear." Deela sighed softly, "Since Bremer wants the COs to beam aboard the Pegasus, you are in charge. R'nard, keep an eye out for trouble. And Mr. Solomon, go to deck seven and assist damage control teams. See if you can hasten the repairs." They all acknowledged her. She got up and left for the transporter room. When she got there, she spoke to the tech, "Pegasus" was all she said.

Jack nodded as Deela ordered him to join the damage control teams on deck seven. He grabbed his tool kit from under the Engineering Station and took a turbolift from the bridge down to deck six. From there he made his way to deck seven through the Jeffries tubes and found a pair of engineers working away at a wall conduit.

"What's the status? Where are we at?" He asked them. One of them, a red haired female, turned to face him.

"Ensign McKay,Sir. Myself & Watley are repairing the EPS conduit that blew out here. Further down the deck Murphy & Olan are working on the damaged Shield Generator that took the brunt of the borg fire, but we're having trouble re-directing the powerflow through the secondary systems to speed up the repairs," she explained. Jack nodded as he was brought up to speed.

"Sounds like thats my job then. Keep working on this, I'll work on the powerflow issue. Admiral T'Lar wants this deck repaired asap," Jack explained as he headed down the corridor. He found himself a working control panel and began working on re-directing the powerflow through backup systems on decks five and six to speed up the process. He ran checks with his tri-corder to make sure the flow was steady whilst running a diagnostic on the auxiliary system on deck six.

"Solomon to Engineering teams on deck seven. Powerflow has been diverted through decks five and six, get your repairs & replacements sorted asap," he ordered over the comm.


USS Pegasus, Observation Lounge

Both K'Temoc and Roebuck had beamed over to the Pegasus and made their way to the lounge.

"I have Saith in command of the Yorktown right now. We took no damage and she is keeping an eye on the sensors." K'Temoc reported.

"Venator is fully operational as well, no damage. Mister Quan is looking over sensor data from the Borg Spheres to see if he can find any weaknesses or other information that we might can use."

Mike nodded to both, noted things on his PADD and waited for the others.

Jackson left Major Morris in command when he beamed aboard the Pegasus. He made his way to the lounge, and spoke to Mike, "Admiral, besides some strained shield generators, the Saratoga is fully operational. All of Colonel Sullivan's ships made it back aboard. She can give you their status."

When Deela walked in, everyone was already there. She walked over to the group, "Thanks for the assistance. These are the times when I wish I still had the Sovereign class. I am told that it will be a few hours before they have completed repairs." You could hear the stress in her voice.

Mike talked over to Deela, “How’s the Essex?” He asked with concern.

T’Lar shrugged, "The damage is minimal. The shield generators got the worst of it."

Mike nodded, “Do you feel the Essex needs to withdraw to Starbase 400?”

"They assure me that the repairs will be complete in a few hours. We will be fine." Deela was confident.

Bremer patted T’Lar on the shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. He motioned for everyone to take seats and turned back to the monitor on the far wall. With his back turned, the opposite door opened and in walked General Korok. The Borgified Klingon looked around the room for a moment as everyone stood and eyed him. The Security Officers that had escorted him to the Observation Lounge nodded to T’Lar and took positions outside the door.

Mike knew he was there, but he didn’t turn around for several moments. Once there was silence in the room, Mike slowly turned around. He eyed Korok, and it hurt him to see his father’s old friend as a Borg. Even though he was liberated from the Collective, and had been for nearly fifteen years, he still had all of his implants and looked much more Borg than Klingon even if his individuality was intact.

Korok also eyed Bremer, looking over the man’s features with his ocular implant. After what seemed like hours, Korok finally spoke. “K’Wor?”

Mike finally took a step forward, “General, it’s good to see you again.” It had been so long, Mike really didn’t know what to say.

“Your father would be proud, you have grown into a fine warrior.” Korok then looked over the room again, stopping his gaze on K’Temoc. “And you must be K’Temoc.” He flashed a toothy grin, “ma’gh would be very proud.”

Korok then turned back to Bremer, “We have bigger problems that we believed previously. We were able to access the Tactical Sphere’s communications node before it was destroyed. Not only are the Borg building a base nearby, but they are also building a transwarp hub, here.” He pointed to the map of the area on the wall display Mike had been working on. It was ten light years from DS14 and between Federation, Romulan, and Krazzle space. “We need to destroy that as well”.

“We just passed through that area on our way here, we didn’t detect anything.” Roebuck replied.

“The Borg have concealed it within Bra’val Badlands, you wouldn’t detect it unless you were actively looking for it.” Korok replied.

“The Bra’val Badlands...the star there went Nova, what, three hundred years ago? Ships still can’t travel at warp through there or within two light years.” K’Temoc added.

“What better place for a Borg transwarp hub, they can see any attack coming long before it arrives.” Mike replied in a very serious tone. He knew his task force couldn’t eliminate the Borg base they already knew about as well as the hub. He didn’t want to pull ships away from their defensive positions either, he needed another option. He walked over to the window and looked out for a few minutes with his arms crossed before turning back around.

“General, you said ‘we’ a few minutes ago. Are there other liberated Borg ships with you?” Mike asked.

“Yes. We have three Spheres and a few Probes. No Cubes. That’s all that is left of the Unimatrix Zero drones that Captain Janeway and USS Voyager helped to separate from the Collective. At least, all that we know of.” Korok replied.

Mike looked around the room, then a thought crossed his mind. “Is the hub online?”

“No, but it is estimated to be functional within thirty hours.” Korok replied.

“All right. General Korok, transmit all the data you have on this new Collective to all the ships present. I want all vessels ready to move within an hour.” Bremer ordered.

Korok gave a respectful nod. “It will be done, but all we know of the new Collective is that it was started by the crew of a Borg Cube that somehow lost contact with the main Collective a year before its annihilation. They assimilated a planet within the Delta Quadrant, built a Unimatrix, grew, and at some point moved into the Beta Quadrant. They haven’t attempted contact with known powers until the USS Houston stumbled upon their location. We believe their Collective is still relatively small however we all know the destruction just one Borg Cube can cause.” He looked around for a moment before continuing, “Our forces can be here within the hour as well. However, the base is not space borne, it’s being constructed on a planet, but we’re not sure where.”

“We do.” Mike replied, “Ms. Takabe has been able to locate and track back the last Sphere’s ion trail and we have a location. It’ll take us about forty-five minutes to get there at slipstream. General Jackson, since this is a planetary base be prepared to deploy ground forces, fighter protection, and the new tanks.”

Jackson responded, "Yes Sir!"

Mike nodded, “General, make all arrangements to not only destroy that facility, however your personnel need to be not only on the look for any possible USS Houston survivors that might be down there, but we also must recover the missing computer core of the Houston too. Meanwhile, we’ll be dealing with any ships they have.”

"Understood Sir. I will use the Saratoga for off shore fire support. That, along with Phoenix's fighters should cover all of our bases. Admiral, is there any way Commander Coleman can send an Engineering Team to the Saratoga to accompany my Marines during the assault? Somebody with knowledge about computer cores would be nice.", Jackson said.

Mike nodded, "I'll have Coleman and a small Engineering team beam over once we're ready to depart." He didn't want to loose his Chief Engineer, especially when taking the Pegasus into battle, but he also knew whatever information was encrypted on that core needed to be recovered. "Once we have the Borg ships neutralized, then the Saratoga can support her ground troops. She's going to be vulnerable enough when beam down Marines and launching fighters." Mike added.

Jackson nodded, "Understood. I will have the Saratoga hang back until you give us the signal to proceed with our ground phase. "

“We know they have at least five Spheres, a few Probes and they are building a Cube.” Korok replied.

“What’s the plan for the Hub?” K’Temoc asked.

“I’m calling in a favor.” Mike replied. “Questions?”

When no now asked any, Mike continued, “All right, let’s get to work. Dismissed.” Mike replied before everyone left the Observation Lounge to return to their ships. Mike also left the lounge, passed through the Bridge, and into his Ready Room without saying a word.

Once the doors to the Ready Room closed Mike tapped in monitor on his desk. “Archer, open a secure channel to the Alpha Centauri and the Office of the Governor.”

“Channel open and secure sir.” Archer replied before the comm was closed.

“Computer, encrypt message using code Bremer-three-nine-five-Bravo.” Mike ordered.

“Encryption enabled, record message.” The computer replied.

It was too far from the Pegasus’s location to Alpha Centauri for a standard subspace chat, so a recorded message would have to do. “Ward, I’m calling in one of those favors. I know you’re award of the situation with the Borg. I’m including in this message information about a transwarp hub being built close to the Federation’s Reayan Expansion area. It needs to be taken out, but it’ll be a difficult mission, so I need an experienced commander. I can’t afford to pull ships off the line for this. The Sentinel is at your disposal. She was upgraded with slipstream drive last year, before Starfleet command decided to mothball her, but she hasn’t been decommissioned yet. I’m including signed orders for you to take command of her. I want you to rendezvous with Captain Greenwood and the USS Avenger at Starbase 400 as soon as you can. We’ll have some additional ships there to support you. God speed Phelan.” Mike tapped commands to stop recording and send the message.

Mike then sent a similar message to Captain Greenwood at Starbase 400 to have the USS Avenger ready and to rendezvous with Admiral Ward and the USS Sentinel. Mike advised Ryan to take Commander Stark with him as an Engineer and an experienced Tactical Officer. Mike also included a list of six ships that were currently being held in reserve to also be a part of their task force. After sending the messages Mike leaned back in his chair. Neither mission could fail...


USS Saratoga, Bridge

"Major Morris, we just received a message from General Jackson. It reads: Prepare all ground units and Star Fighters for action. Unit Commanders report to the Briefing Room ASAP."

Morris stood up from the command chair, but stayed at the central spot. "Alright, let's get ready to do what we do. Gamma team, you have the bridge."

Zaiya was going over some basic formations with the track commanders when she heard the intercom. She acknowledged the other commanders and headed off to the briefing room.

T'Lyn walked into the briefing room and took her seat and sat quietly.

Lennox soon followed and took a seat.

Percy eventually made his way to the briefing room once the alternate crew were in place on the Saratoga.


Briefing Room Five Minutes Later

Jackson did not take long to make it to the Briefing room once his return to the Saratoga. "Take seats." After looking over everyone, he had two Borg provided images put on the view screen. One image was that of a Class M planet. The other image, which was larger, was a terrain map. "Ladies and Gentlemen, soon our fleet will be going to this planet. It is about a 45 minute trip on slipstream. Upon our arrival, we go to war. "

"General, not that I would mind fighting for the sake of fighting, do we have an objective once we land or are we to simply kill the Borg?" Zaiya asked.

T'Lyn thought for a moment as to what was being said in the room. She did have to agree with Zaiya on her question.

Jackson gave a faint smile as he answered the question. "That is an excellent question Soghla Zaiya. Presently, we have two Main Objectives. Objective 1 is to seize control of the base, and render it inoperable. We are talking about a Borg Base which would normally be in space, under construction on the ground. The target site also has production facilities for producing more Borg ships. Objective 2 is to secure the USS Houston's Computer Core. There will be a team of Starfleet Engineers with the ground force to help with that. We also have one Secondary Objective to rescue any Houston survivors IF practical. Upon departure, demo charges will be set up on what is left standing, and make it all go away."

"Now when our ships arrive over the planet, you can bet the Borg are collectively going to go completely ape. The other ships will engage any space born targets. We will hang back until the Pegasus signals us to commence the ground phase. The Saratoga will send the Borg base some Tri-Colbalt party favors to hopefully soften them up."

Jackson pressed a few buttons, and a 3D holographic map appeared on the table. "There is a large flat clearing behind a range of hills 10 kilometers North from the target. Chief Aquila and his Group will make a parajump into the Landing Zone, secure it, set up both landing beacons and transport amplifiers on the LZ. Signal us when they are in place."

"Yes Sir," said Aquila.

"When I give the order, Captain Lennox, your Battalion will start Combat Beaming into the LZ, and set up a perimeter."

“Undersood sir.” Lennox started working out in his mind who he wanted with him on the initial beam in, and who would follow from his unit. He knew if they couldn’t secure a ‘beachhead’ then follow up beam ins would be caught in a crossfire.

"Phoenix, you will launch your Squadron when the regular Marines start beaming down, and provide Close Air Support and Air Cover as needed. "

"Major T'Lyn and Soghla' Zaiya, On my order, you will take your units via shuttles to the LZ. I will be with you, as well as Commander Coleman's Engineers."

"Understood, we will be ready." T'Lyn stated then looked at Zaiya.

"Acknowledged General." Zaiya then gave a quick nod to T'Lyn.

"Major Morris, you will run the Saratoga, and provide fire support as needed."

Morris looked a tiny bit surprised, but he hid the emotion well. "Yes sir, general," he mustered officially. While he'd love to be sniping Borg and helping crush implants, perhaps another spin at starship command couldn't hurt his skills.

Jackson knew this would not go well with Percy, but he needed someone he could trust covering their backs, and Major Morris was that someone.

"Once the landings are complete, MARSOC will take Scout Vehicles, and scout ahead. The rest of us will advance on target at my direction. Major T'Lyn and Captain Lennox, you can work out with Soghla' Zaiya as to which part of your units utilize her APCs. She will need her Main Battle Tanks and Medium Tanks freed up for an assault."

"We brought a few vehicles from the headquarters element. A command vehicle, an engineer vehicle, an anti-air vehicle, and a medic vehicle to be exact. The infantry can use those to enhance their force." Zaiya told them. "The tanks will move faster without the support vehicles."

Lennox replied, "We should even out the distribution of the APCs. We don't know how many Borg we might face on the surface, so we could be moving in on a swarm."


Governor's Residence, Athens, Alpha Centauri IV

Governor Phelan Ward sat at his desk, signing off on more paperwork when he was interrupted by an alert tone on his screen. The computer then spoke, "Incoming Priority 1 Message from Starfleet. Awaiting Authorization Code for decryption and playback." Phelan dropped the PADD he was holding on his desk. It has been years since he has seen a Priority 1 Message, let alone an encrypted one. He had to think hard to remember is personal code. "Authorization Ward one-four-one-one-Alpha."

"Authorization code recognized." The blue screen was soon replaced by the image of an old friend, Mike Bremer. He realized quickly that Mike was calling in a favor. After the message finished playing, he sat in silence for a moment. Even though he was still listed as an Admiral in the Reserves, he has not set foot on a starship for years. But he was a man of honor, and would go where Mike Bremer told him to go. Plus the Borg made it a serious matter. He pressed his intercom button, "Melissa, tell Lieutenant Governor Spurlin that he is in charge until further notice. And advise Centauri One that we are going to Earth Immediately." Alpha Cetauri was very close to the Sol System, so it would not take long to get there.


USS Pegasus-B, Admiral's Ready Room

After sending the messages to Ward and Greenwood, Mike also sent updates to Starbase 400...one for Sevlek and a more generalized one for Hurd. He also included a message for her to give Janice as well, he knew she would be worried.

Mike then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was starting to get a really bad headache, and almost thought he could hear someone else talking. But after a few moments the ‘voice’ went away but the headache lingered. He stood up and ordered a raktijno from the replicator. Taking a sip of the hot Klingon coffee his thoughts drifted to General Korok. It bothered him to see his father’s old friend as a Borg, not just because he was his father’s friend but it also brought back unpleasant memories of his own assimilation eleven years before. In some ways, Mike was glad Korok didn’t seem to know about Mike’s own assimilation in 2380, a few years after Korok’s liberation from the Collective, but he had a feeling that would be a demon he’d have to face before the mission was over.

A few moments later, his desk top display beeped, Korok had indeed sent over all the data they had on this new Collective. They estimated the new Collective controlled nearly a dozen worlds now, mostly former Borg planets in the Delta Quadrant. A Queen was in place, they had a fleet of ships...Cubes, Tactical Cubes, Spheres, Tactical Spheres, Probes, and Diamonds. Their technology level was consistent with the now annihilated Collective, making them extremely dangerous even if they were much smaller in numbers (planets, ships, and drones).

Since it appeared the new Collective had no information on Federation Types II and III Ablative Armor or Transphasic Torpedoes, he sent word to the Essex, Yorktown, Venator, and Saratoga to refrain from using those systems unless things deteriorated into a win or lose situation, he then sent a copy of that information to Admiral Ward and Fleet Admiral Sevlek.

Mike took another sip of his drink, then returned it to the replicator and proceeded to the Bridge.

“Admiral on the Bridge.” Archer announced.

“As you were.” Mike replied. “Lee, send to call ships. Make ready for departure”

Lee stood up from the command chair:"Aye sir" He then stepped over to his chair and sent a message to all other ships letting them know it was time to depart."

“Admiral, we have incoming Borg ships!” Archer spoke up from Ops, “General Korok is hailing us.”

“On screen.” Mike replied.

“Fleet Admiral Bremer, the rest of our fleet has arrived.” Korok smirked.

Everyone on the Bridge relaxed, at least a little. While they all knew these Borg were liberated, they were still Borg. After a moment, Mike replied. “Very good. We depart in ten minutes.”


USS Essex, Main Engineering

Deela returned to the Essex and walked onto the bridge. Clifford moved over to let her sit down in her chair. She briefed Mr. Clifford on what the meeting was about, "It's far from over."

Mr. Clifford smiled then nodded, "Is it ever over, Admiral?". He never expected reply so got up and left the bridge to take a short break before they departed.

After repairs were completed on deck seven, Jack headed to Main Engineering and decided to work from his station there. After initial final checks throughout the damaged decks and Main Engineering, he was satisfied the ship was back to its best possible operating state. Jack pressed the comm.button on his station.

"Solomon to Bridge, all damage control teams have reported in and all damaged systems on decks four to seven have been repaired or replaced. We're good to go," he reported.

"Well done. Please get back here to the bridge so I can talk to you about what is going on."


USS Yorktown, Bridge

K'Temoc was had already briefed his crew and was now looking over the ship's systems.

"Holly, once we arrive in the system, transfer power from any non-essential systems to the shields and SIF. Saith, once the Borg move in to engage, let's thin the heard out and target any Probes they may have. We don't want those little ships swarming over the Pegasus or Korok's Sphere's. They'll have their hands full enough.

"Understood sir." That was the answer that Holly gave to the order as she was use to this type of situation. This was something she went through before. Granted this operation was with different people but to her it felt familiar. She was not looking forward to it but then again who ever looked forward to conflict.


USS Venator

"Mister Quan, ship's status?" Roebuck asked one more time as they prepared to depart.

Quan looked up from his console, "We're all good, Captain."

"Very good." Roebuck replied. "Ramata'tar, we're going to try to stick close to the Essex. They took damage earlier so let's try to keep her covered."

Ramata'tar gave a respectful nod, "It will be done."

Quan thought about the Essex then chipped in, "Not surprised the Essex took some punishment, Sir. You can't take 20% out of it's shields in one go and not have things get a little over heated. That Sphere was packing quite a punch."


USS Pegasus-B, Bridge

Coleman's comm beeped at the Main Engineering Station at the rear of the bridge. His repair teams were back from the Essex, helping Commander Solomon to repair all ship systems.

"Admiral, my teams have finished helping with repairs within the fleet, including the Essex. Our ships should be battle ready when you give the word, sir."

Mike looked back at Coleman, then walked up the ramp toward his Engineering station, "Acknowledged, good work. I need you to take a small Engineering team to the Saratoga, they are going to need help recovering the Houston's Computer Core when it's located. Choose five, go heavily armed."

Coleman nodded. "How armed, sir? Standard type-2 phaser or the type-3 phaser rifles?"

"That would be preferred. The Marines will be there to escort you in and out, when they find the Core." Mike replied.

Coleman nodded once again. "Aye, aye. Sir. I'll have my team meet me in the armory before heading over to the Saratoga. I'll make sure that we get it back safely and make sure that the Borg get a little payback." With that, he gave a sly grin and headed to the turbolift and made his exit.


USS Saratoga, Bridge

Percy made it back to the bridge and relieved the acting marine in charge. He took a seat and punched his access codes into the chair arm. "Open up to the General and the fleet, please."

"Done, sir."

Morris grinned. =^= "This is Major Morris of the USS Saratoga. The 1st Marine are preparing to deploy presently, and the Saratoga is standing by."



TBC....

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