Once More Into The Breach

Prologue

After the recent events on Starbase 989 with the Vexarak Spoilers which threatened to destroy the station and kill thousands of civilians and personnel, the crews of the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca embarked on some limited shore leave.

During this time, the crew also assisted in repairs to bring the starbase back to full strength and capacity. They also provided additional security personnel to discourage any possible rekindling of the Riots that rocked the station during the crisis.

Captains Alan Durand and Ahmed Ibn Salid attended the William Shakespeare play Henry V in the Auditorium aboard Starbase 989.

Duty Waits for No One

Near the end of the play, Salid and Durand were interrupted by an ensign from the Starbase staff, who advised them that there was a priority message from Admiral Richardson, from Starfleet Command. They were escorted to a small office, where the Admiral advised the two ship captains of a serious potential danger to the Federation.

The Darson Deep Space Array, a powerful observation tool used to monitor remote portions of the Federation - Romulan border in the Beta Quadrant had detected a Borg Tactical Cube and another unidentified Borg vessel dubbed a Borg Pyramid en route to the Dovek System.

The Darson Deep Space Array

As Borg Tactical cubes were only seen prior grouped with other vessels of the same type this immediately caught Starfleet's attention. The additional presence of a previously unseen Borg starship, also convinced command that they should be investigating. Admiral Richardson, assigned the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante to that mission.

The fact that the Dovek system was known to once belong to the Tkon Empire, a species that went extinct 60,000 years ago, added a level of concern as well. The Tkon were widely believed to be as technologically advanced, if not more so, than the UFP. The presence of the Borg in a now dead system, that once belonged to a dead civilization known for their technological achievements, raised considerable concern among the Admiralty.

For this mission, Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid was given overall command authority, with Captain Durand acting as the Task Force Executive Officer. Both Captains returned to their ships quickly, ordered all civilian personnel and pets off the ship, and gave orders to get underway towards the Dovek system.

The briefing to the senior staff was conducted jointly using the new communications equipment brought by the Tranquility. It allowed a complete real-time holographic interface between the two crews.

In addition, the SS Tranquility was stowed in the Rosenante's aft shuttlebay and Lieutenant Chance Raschen ordered to service aboard the Rosenante once again.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Once underway, the crews of the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca sprung into action. With the mission briefing completed, Engineering crews prepared for battle damage, while security and tactical teams remodulated shields and weapons as well as established strongpoints throughout the ship in anticipation of action against the Borg.

Operations teams began encrypting the ship's computers in a manner that would prevent the Borg from gain access to them, while medical teams set up secondary sickbays to treat any wounded in the event that sickbays were overrun or disabled.

While a conflict was not desired, the potential for such an encounter was very high and captains Alan Durand and Ahmed Ibn Salid gave orders for their crew to begin advanced logistical preparation as soon as possible.

Course was set for Dovek II, with the planned arrival in the area placing the Federation starships in a position high above the systems elliptical plane.

Arrival

Dovek IV

With roughly two full days of travel and a great deal of preparation behind them the small Federation Task Force consisting of the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante dropped out of warp just outside the Dovek System. The two ships arrived well above the systems elliptic plane as planned.

Passive long-range scans indicated that there was a Romulan Shuttle waiting just outside the system. The vessel hailed them. The ship was identified as the Private Shuttle Bloodwing and was captained by Ael Harkonnen T'Rillian a Starfleet Lieutenant. At first, Salid believed that she was a representative of the Romulan Star Empire and requested that she dock her ship with the Boudicca, as he had the SS Tranquility in the Rosenante's main shuttle bay.

Besides the Romulan ship, scans also indicated that the Borg Tactical Cube had taken up a position in high geosynchronous polar orbit or Dovek II. in addition, the Borg Pyramid was observed using some sort of Antiproton beam to excavate sites on the planet's surface. The fact that the Borg were looking for something was no longer in question.

The Asteroid Belt in the Dovek System

Salid ordered the small fleet to proceed along a preset course which would take them into the magnetosphere of the Class J supergiant Dovek IV. The hope was to mask the energy signatures of the two Federation starships as they made their way closer to their objective at Dovek II.

The risk was that the close passage through the magnetosphere would blind both Starfleet ships, as the interference from the planet would suppress their scanning abilities. It was hoped that the Borg would also be blinded as a result of the maneuver and the presence of the subspace interference caused by the Borg's use of the Antiproton beam. The maneuver seemed to work, and once both ships had traversed the magnetosphere, they proceeded towards the Dovek Asteroid belt.

Dovek III

The Asteroid belt in the Dovek system was a thick band of debris that orbited between the third and fourth planet of the system. despite the density of asteroids and dust in the field, Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid ordered both ships of the task force to maneuver through the Asteroid field at full impulse speed. This posed a massive risk to the two ships since even the smallest impact against the ship's hulls during the maneuver would prove disastrous. It was because of this very reason that Starfleet held a regulation against travelling through such a field at speeds greater than one-fourth impulse.

Salid's decision was spurred by the desire to gain as much ground towards the Borg position as possible thereby reducing the odds of detection. Both the Rosenante and the Boudicca made it through the field without difficulty, although several small repairs to the ship's Structural Integrity Field and Inertial Dampeners were conducted during the traverse.

Once they had traversed the field, the two federation vessels emerged behind the third planet of the Dovek System. This rocky Class N world served to shield the two ships against possible Borg scans as they moved closer to their target planet. They maintained a position behind the planet relative to the Borg until the rotation of Dovek II took the Borg craft to the far side of that planet. When that occurred, the Rosenante and the Boudicca made their way to the opposite side of Dovek II.

Dovek II

Now in place behind Dovek II's moon. The USS Rosenante and USS Boudicca began to prepare to undertake the first phase of their mission; data collection. With the radiation and interference from the Borg Antiproton weapon curtailing their direct scans, it was suggested by Captain Alan Durand that they use multiple options to collect their data.

The first option was to use a pair of Class VII Sensor Probes to attempt to collect data. If that plan failed he suggested refitting a Lorimar Class Runabout with a sensor pallet and gathering data using Starfleet personnel.

Both suggestions were approved, and the task of refitting the Lorimar Class Runabout was given to the Boudicca. The sensor probes would fall to the Rosenante.

Loss of the Probes

A modified Class VII Sensor probe

The USS Rosenante launched the two probes once the modifications were completed.

Despite the best eforts of the engineering teams to compensate for the massive ammounts of interference caused by the Antiproton Beam used by the Borg on Dovek II very little could be discerned and adequately communicated by the probes back to the Rosenante.

To make matters worse, it was believed that at least one of the two probes were detected and tractored into one of the two Borg Vessels for further study.

The Reconnaissance Mission

The Lorimar Class Runabout, "USS Lorimar"

As a result, Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid gave the green light for the Lorimar Class Runabout Lorimar to be deployed.

A mix of personnel from boths ships, comprised of Chance Raschen, Matthew McLaren, Robert Lorimar, Maria Holly, Joseph Willowbrook, Nickolas Romanoff, Andrew Maddox, and Brandy Shea were dispatched, under the command of Lorimar.

The shuttle had been modified by replacing several of the modular components with advanced sensor pallets. This was supposed to allow the Runabout personnel to be able to scan the area effectively, even despite the interference.

The Tkon Nanosphere

The shuttle was underway when the Borg suddenly disengaged the Antiproton beam. It became immediately apparent that the Borg Pyramid was excavating large sections of terrain in an attempt to unearth something of value.

At this latest site, the object that they were looking for was revealed. It was a Tkon Nanosphere, a device that was originally designed by the Tkon Empire to seed specially designed nanites into the irradiated atmosphere of a planet and absorb the deadly radiation sparing the biosphere of that world from radioactive death.

It was a solid sphere 300-meters in diameter and was comprised of a high concentration of Iridium as well as a tritanium compound that was phase bonded to some unidentified alloys. It was quantum dated to the Age of Makto, when the Tkon Empire collapse. It's exact age was calculated at 61,344 standard years by Romanoff. That meant that the device was firmly Tkon in origin.

After the beam was deactivated, it was determined that the Borg had transported hundreds of Borg Drones to the surface to continue a more fine tuned excavation of the site.

Volus

The Telepathic Interface Device as seen on the holodeck of the USS Boudicca

During the away mission, Lieutenant Detron Trei of the USS Boudicca gained access to the Holodeck where he programmed a Telepathic Interface Device which was designed to augment his natural telepathic ability and thus allow him to make telepathic contact with the Borg.

Trei managed to make contact with the Borg, but not in a manner that he preferred. His original idea was to implant a post-telepathic suggestion into the collective which would cause them to hallucinate and react to a perceived although non-existant threat rather than to the Federation starships and crew nearby. This backfired however, when the device was only able to contact a single Borg named Volus.

Volus was the leader of the Borg mission, granted a high-degree of semi-independence by the Borg Queen in return for betraying his species, the Varn (Species 6063) to the Borg. Volus recognized the contact as telepathic and as a result became aware of the presence of a Federation Task Force hiding behind the moon of Dovek II.

He was then made aware of the presence of the Lorimar by the Borg Collective. He believed the later to be a bait-and-switch trap, sent to lure the Borg ships into an ambush when they advanced beyond the moon.

He had no way of knowing that there were only two Federation starships hiding there, the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante. As a result he chose not to attack the hidden Task force but focused instead on the runabout, in an attempt to reverse the bait-and-switch tactic.

The Arrest

Trei meanwhile was arrested by Jessica Signos under orders from Captain Alan Durand, when his transgression was detected.

Trei was escorted to the Observation Lounge to explain his actions, where the discussion was joined by Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid from the USS Rosenante. He was questioned and ordered to undertake a full medical and psychological examination to be performed by Doctor Basil Candle.

The Runabout Imperiled

A Borg tractor beam.

Meanwhile, the Runabout had fallen under the scrutiny of the Borg Pyramid and more specifically Volus, who ordered the vessel assimilated.

The Pyramid activated a Tractor Beam and grappled the runabout as it was making scans of the planet's surface.

Only quick thinking by Commander T'Larah Sullivan, the First Officer of the USS Rosenante saved the craft from certain assimilation by the Borg.

Sullivan ordered a probe to be launched at the narrowest point of the tractor beam being emitted by the Borg Pyramid. This maneuver would later become known as the Sullivan Gambit.

When the Federation Sensor Probe intersected the beam, it interrupted it, just long enough for the runabout to break free. The advantage didn't last long, however, as the Borg were able to quickly re-establish the beam on the now fleeing vessel.

Fortunately for the crew of the Lorimar, the beam was weakened due to the extreme range and it only caused the vessel to drop into a flat spin. the shuttle, badly damaged, was spinning out of control without shields towards the surface of Dovek II.

During this chaos five Borg Drones beamed aboard the runabout and Assimilated Matthew McLaren before they could be stopped. One Borg drone and McLaren were beamed off the Runabout, while the starfleet crew managed to destroy the remaining Borg Drones.

The Runabout crashed a mere four kilometers from the Tkon Nanosphere. Borg Drones were dispatched to assimilate any survivors. Meanwhile the Rosenante and the Boudicca rushed to assemble a viable rescue mission as well as a mission designed to destroy the Tkon device using an Antimatter Mine built by Robert Lorimar.

Three Teams, Three Missions

Seeing little choice in the matter and refusing to abandon the survivors of the away team to the Borg, Captains Salid and Durand put together a bold and daring plan to infiltrate two additional away teams on to the surface of Dovek II without the Borg being any the wiser.

The plan was risky and fundamentally involved the two starships being used to draw off the Borg Tactical Cube that was still in a high polar orbit. With the cube in place, there was no chance of any of the runabouts making it to the planet's surface.

Survivors of the Crash

The Lorimar Crashsite

• Commander Matthew McLaren
• Lieutenant Commander Robert Lorimar
• Lieutenant Major Brandy Shea
• Lieutenant Chance Raschen
• Ensign Joseph Willowbrook
• Ensign Andrew Elliot Maddox
• Ensign Nickolas Romanoff
• Ensign Maria Holly
• Ensign Taylor Dolan

Knowing full well that they faced a strong chance of encountering the Borg if they remained with their crashed Runabout, the survivors of the Lorimar's crash set out to evade any chance of encountering an investigating Borg Patrol. Commander Robert Lorimar ordered a patrol to be established to watch for Borg while the survivors treated their injured and salvaged much needed materials from the crash site.

It wasn't long before Chance Raschen, Brandy Shea and Taylor Dolan encountered a Borg patrol approaching the crash site. While Taylor returned to the site to warn the rest of the survivors, Raschen and Shae, set up an ambush and drew the bulk of the Borg Drones away from the crash site.

Upon reaching the site, Taylor conveyed the information to Lorimar, who immediately ordered the survivors underway. They set off on a vector southeast of the crashed runabout.

After several hours of travel, they encountered a Borg ambush in a field littered with basalt columns. during the struggle, Taylor Dolan and Maria Holly were assimilated. Of those, only Holly was immediately recognized as being in the process of assimilation. Dolan, under the control of Volus had slipped out of the immediate area during the struggle and attempted to assassinate Commander Robert Lorimar in the hopes that his death would cause any last vestigaes of resistance to the Borg to collapse. He was however, unsuccessful in his attempt and Taylor was killed.

The Mine Team

The Antimatter Mine

• Lieutenant Ben Soma
• Lieutenant Thomas Jackson
• Lieutenant Steven Wade Matrix
• Ensign Jessica Signos
• Ensign Paulo Serrano
• Ensign JG Isra Caliel

Meanwhile, kilometers away, the mine team was facing challenges of their own. After leaving the Lorimar Class Runabout Blackwater to move towards their target on foot, the mine team led by lieutenant Ben Soma encountered the Borg guarding the remains of an ancient Tkon bridge. Jessica Signos eleiminated the sentries, but not before one of them managed a glimpse at the Antimatter mine that they were moving by anti-gravity sled.

This alerted Volus to the team's mission and he immediately ordered waves of Borg drones to intercept and destroy the team and the mine. They fought their way across the bridge and into an old irrigation chasm discovered by Isra Caliel. because of this, thy were able to avoid the vast majority of the Borg with the exception of a few parties here or there. On two separate occasions, the mine team was nearly overwhelmed in their travels, but miraculously managed to overcome the odds and press onwards.

The Cave where the mine was planted.

Finally, the team reached the remains of the city and located a cave that carved through a mountainside to overlook the city and the Tkon Nanosphere within. it was determined that the team would move through the cave and deploy the mine just beyond it. The proximity of the blast would guarantee the destruction of the sphere.

However, the borg were now alerted to the team's location and began to send wave after wave in assaulting their position. When the weapons ran out, the away team was forced to continue fighting hand-to-hand. To further complicate things, the Antiproton radiation on the planet's surface had caused the Antimatter mine to lose a significant amount of it's charge. As a result it did not have enough power to manage a detonation powerful enough to destroy the sphere.

While Caliel, Matrix and Jackson worked on that problem, the rest of the team defended the narrow cave opening.

The Rescue Team

A Lava flow like this was used against the Borg Drones

• Lieutenant Sanok
• Lieutenant JG Kimiko Ichijo
• Lieutenant JG Eian O'Neill
• Ensign Mike Rosenbauer
• Ensign Eva Saint Jean
• Ensign Basil Candle

After touch down in the Danube Class Runabout Rosencrantz the rescue team led by Lieutenant Sanok began to search for the remains of the Lorimar.

After some short time, they located the wreckage only to find that a patrol of Borg Drones were already searching the wreckage. Since they saw no indications of recent assimilation, the team deduced that the survivors had managed to elude the patrol and escape the crash. However, before the team could act on that information, they found themselves under attack by an element of that Borg patrol.

The team split, with Sanok, holding the rear flank of against the Borg, while Lieutenant Eian O'Neill led the majority of the team away towards the survivors. In that struggle, Basil Candle discovered a pocket of magma running just below the battle field. His quick thinking allowed the team to open up a chasm beneath the Borg and watch as they were incinerated by the lava.

The team continued to move over the rough terrain until they finally discovered the crash survivors engaged in a battle with a group of Borg drone. they lent what assistance they could until the Drones were destroyed. The combined team, then moved back to their runabout. With them they carried one of the Lorimar's power cells. members of the rescue team realized then that there was a chance that the mine may be suffering from a power drain caused by the high levels of Antiproton radiation on the planet. It was therefore decided that they would use the runabout to convey the power cell to the mine team in the hopes that they could help that team in achieving their mission.

Reunion

The Antimatter Mine detonating on Dovek II

The rescue team, now equipped with sensors on the runabout, were able to locate the mine team with relative ease. The team moved in quickly to lend their shipmates assistance only to find the area overrun by Borg.

Desperate to stop the detonation of the mine, Volus had ordered hundreds of Borg Drones to assault the cave where the mine team had taken refuge. Near exhaustion, the arrival of the rescue team proved to be instrumental in defeating the Borg at the cave.

An assault led by Mike Rosenbauer and Eva Saint Jean allowed Eian O'Neill to push through the resistance and deliver the power cell to the embattled away team. With reinforcements on site, the Mine team began to fall back towards the runabout as Steven Wade Matrix, O'Neill, and Isra Caliel managed to power the antimatter mine back to nearly full strength.

Ben Soma led the mine team out after Thomas Jackson ordered the general retreat while he set the detonation sequence on the mine. With only six minutes to get free of the blast area, Caliel used a phaser on overload to collapse the entry to the cave, preventing the Borg from gaining access to the mine. Back in the runabout, Sanok had used the small vessel's phasers to decimate the mass of Borg threatening to overwhelm his shipmates. Once everyone was aboard the Rosencrantz was pointed spaceward in the hopes of out running the blast.

just a few short minutes later, the mine detonated, destroying the Tkon Nanosphere.

A Jaunt through Time

A Temporal Vortex

With the detection of the antimatter explosion on the surface of the planet, the Rosenante and the boudicca break cover and make a run towards Dovek II in an attempt to pick up the survivors of the away missions and the Runabout crash before the Borg decide to attempt assimilation.

The Rosenante moves to recover the crews while the Boudicca, with her superior tactical systems is deployed as a rear guard against the attacks of the Borg Tactical Cube.

What happens next is both unexpected and deeply disturbing. Thinking that the Borg were defeated when their objective is destroyed, Captain Salid is dismayed to discovered that the Borg Pyramid is generating Chronitons and Seylerions, a very real indicator that the ship is planning on opening a Temporal Vortex.

The Rosenante uses it's Tractor Beam to grab the Rosencrantz and quickly beams the crews aboard her, just as the Borg vessel opens a vortex. With no time to recover their runabout, the ship is cut free and both the federation starships pursue their Borg opponents through the opening.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Already heavily damaged, and now pinned between two Borg vessels the federation starships take a beating as they return fire while the four ships travel through the vortex. The Borg Pyramid exits first followed by the Rosenante, the Boudicca and the Borg cube.

Upon exiting the vortex the Borg pyramid times it's attack to strike the Rosenante at it's most vulnerable moment. The ship is badly damaged, her shields fail and her port side nacelle shears away and plows into the surface of the pyramid.

The Boudicca fares much better, managing to destroy the Borg Tactical Cube, although not without suffering critical damage herself.

The damage done to the Pyramid is extensive and the ship is destroyed by the damage, but not before a massive party of Borg are able to board both federation starships and send a sizable force to the planet below to assimilate the Tkon Nanosphere in the past.

Age of Makto

The Borg have travelled backwards in time 65,000 years to the Tkon Age of Makto. a Period that was defined as the final era of the Tkon Empire. At this time Dovek II is a vibrant, vital world still untouched by the radiations of the massive supernova that destroyed the rest of the empire.

On that planet Chief Scientist D'askto and his assistant G-Rova are working hard to complete the semi-autonomous nanosphere to save their world from certain doom. Their work is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the borg, who being assimilating anyone they can find, as well as the technology behind the Nanosphere.

Close Quarters

A Holographic Samurai, part of a training hologram used by Ben Soma was activated without safety protocols as a trap from Borg Drones

Meanwhile on board both federation starships, the crew is fighting for their lives. large number of Borg, led by Volus have infiltrated both ships and are systematically beginning to assimilate the ship and her crew.

Despite strong resistance, the bridge, Main Engineering and the Main computer core are lost to the Borg. The Primary Borg hive seems to be located deep in the bowels of the Rosenante. Meanwhile, Medical, Main Engineering and the battle bridge are lost aboard the Boudicca.

Both crews find themselves hard-pressed to stop the onslaught of the Borg and are many times forced to supplement their normal security procedures with improvised weapons, explosives and techniques. Among these are creative uses of the Environmental system to monitor borg assimilation progress, holographic traps, booby traps and barricades, as well as acid and melee attacks against the Borg drones.

After a few hours of hard fighting the lines stabilize and finally the remaining senior staff begin to consider ways to put the Borg on the defensive rather than the offensive.

Assimilation and Injury

Among those members of the crew captured and completely or partially assimilated by the Borg are Matthew McLaren, Eian O'Neill, and Andrew Elliot Maddox.

Several members are injured in the attack, including Alan Durand, Xim, Mike Rosenbauer, Jessica Signos amongst others.

While sickbay is busy, there are very few actual serious injuries, as the Borg rarely leave anyone to escape for treatment. They are either assimilated or they are killed.

A Spirited Defense

Volus, a Borg Drone

Sanok and his security team valiantly defend the Primary computer core aboard the USS Rosenante before they are ordered to regroup in a smaller perimeter by captain Salid. Sanok and Ben Soma are ordered to conduct a reconnaissance for Borg Strength, locations and concentrations to supplement the limited information received by disparate and then reports.

Meanwhile Xim and a band of Security officers manage to thwart a Borg attempt to gain entry into one of the forward Torpedo magazines.

T'Larah Sullivan and Andrew Elliot Maddox conduct their own operation on the lower decks to ascertain Borg strengths, which results in Maddox's capture and subsequent revelation that he is an Android when the Borg attempt to assimilate him.

Eian O'Neill is captured during a nacelle repair operation and is taken to Volus who questions the junior engineer on religion and the concept of Hope. O'Neill is assimilated when Sullivan's unexpected arrival threatens to deprive the Borg leader from acquiring the data he seeks.

Thomas Jackson and Isra Caliel are ordered to make their way to sickbay to aid the wounded the and to laise with Kimiko Ichijo and Basil Candle in an effort to protect the Sickbay from Borg assimilation parties.

Captain Salid relocates his command center to Holodeck one and then to the Observation Lounge on deck Eight in an attempt to avoid being assimilated by the Borg parties.

He joins Jessica Signos, Detron Trei and other officers in establishing a beach head and command center around the hard docking clamps connecting the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca.

When captain Durand is injured in an attack on the Boudicca Bridge and rushed to sickbay, The Boudicca's acting First Officer, Jennifer Caskie assumes command and rallies several members of her crew into action.

She also relocates her command center to the Docking area aboard the Boudicca when the Battle bridge is over run by Borg Drones.

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