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[Lieutenant Junior Grade]

Greetings Disco,

As we begin this new year, I would like to acknowledge the newest promotions to start the new year of 2402:

Ensign James Ramort is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.

Ensign Lorut Vila is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.

Lieutenant Malik Grippen is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Please join me in congratulating these officers for their service to the fleet!

Captain will be here to help. 

He was silent as he let his officer talk about her past, using the simulation as a means of letting her air herself out.  Meanwhile, the Bajoran was slinking away around the debris, using the covering fire as cover.  He was still listening to her, and trying not to drown in his own memories.  He was at least shaken out of any stupor when she shouted for him to tell her his plan.  With that, he jumped from cover, flanking the cardie firing on her and taking him out.

"A plan?  This is just a training program.  The plan is to just to shoot, kill, and let off steam.  Like our own version of a Klingon relaxation program." he said, gunning down another two holographic enemies.

"Here.. there's a defense nest in the building ahead of us.  We should have access to more powerful arms in there.  Enough to take out a shuttle." he stated, looking over where the street started.  He made a quick count... there were only two left before the shuttle.  Nevir grinned.

"Just two left in this round, down the street.  I think its time they saw the faces of their rebels." he said, standing up and showing himself in a different light as he walked boldly towards them, firing at the two Cardassians until they were finally taken out by the two of them.

Nevir walked up to the two fallen combatants, firing at them for a bit until they vanished.  The shuttle on the horizon turned around and headed out.

"It'll be back.  This is the part where they call for reinforcements." he said, turning to her.

"You had a hell of a life, Lorut.  Are you saying you have an issue with science officers because of one man?"

Captain's Log, Supplemental

In my career, I have seen the fleet suffer three devastating losses.  The first one was the Dominion War, where the Federation was always on the back foot for most of that conflict.  Losing entire taskforces was commonplace.  The second was after I had made it into the command track, when a Romulan plot destroyed our entire rescue fleet before they could launch.  But those pale in comparison to this.  A crippled fleet, vast casualties, and it was all caused by controlling half of Starfleet personnel.  I can say with certainty that this incident will last far longer than anyone will care to admit.

My own ship wasn't spared from the horror.  Maybe of my older officers were victims, including a few of our longest serving.  And most of our younger officers will have trauma for years to come. In times like this, it is especially important to reflect on the lights in the dark.  Spacedock is destroyed, but it can be rebuilt.  Our defenses can be rebuilt.  And according to Admiral Picard, the last of the Borg once fears throughout the galaxy, crippled by the likes of Picard and Janeway, are finally a nightmare behind us.

Discovery will be in drydock for months, but with Lek having survived this ordeal, I know the ship is in good hands.  My first order for him was probably the best one he had in months... Starfleet agreed to rip out the fleet mode networking. I've already informed Captain Galloway of the events that happened, just to make sure he has the bragging rights he deserves for seeing the flaws that were purposely put in and exploited.

Starfleet has taken the data recorded by the Enterprise and started enacting changes, including creating a new medical branch to work with security.  It had been revealed that we all had had our genetic code rewritten with Borg code, which only was viable before the age of full development; in other words, our youth. Anyone who had ever stepped in a transporter; in other words, everyone. Its been uncomfortable knowing that we all carry Borg DNA, but the technology is pretty developed to restore our DNA.

In the meantime, with the command structure severely disrupted, the remaining Captains and higher who survived have had the interesting opportunity to step on one of the most famous starships of the era...

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[Deck 1 - Bridge -> Conference Room - USS Enterprise-D]

As the Turbolift doors open, Nevir almost had to shield his eyes.  The Enterprise was so much brighter than the modern ships; he hadn't realized how much the lighting had dimmed over the years.  But with the bright lightning, the bridge of the Enterprise felt... hopeful.  It was once the beacon of the Federation; the flagship of Starfleet and the symbol of everything the Federation tried to portray.  The bridge was surprisingly manned by the famed crew that made this ship the legend it was.  It was a childhood dream to be here.  The Enterprise was the first ship to support Bajor.  She held some of the first Bajoran officers for a time. And now with Spacedock and Starfleet HQ a mess, the Enterprise was considered a safe location for the surviving command structure.

Nevir was lead into the conference room, and was dismayed at seeing the relatively small number of Captains and Admirals around the table.  At the head was Admiral Picard, sided by Captain Riker and his wife, and a woman who he knew he should remember the face, but couldn't place the name.

"I do want to assure you all that there are more commanding officers than are in this room.  You all are the first group; Admiral Patel thought it wise not to put the remaining command staff in one location, especially since the Enterprise is very much an outdated ship."

"One that kicked the Borg's ass, but-"

"Will!"

There were some light-hearted chuckles in response, but it was silenced when Patel stepped forward next to Picard. "We do owe the Enterprise for our lives, and that is a debt that can really never be repaid.  But they aren't the only ones."  Nevir was suddenly aware that Picard was staring right at him, even though it was the admiral speaking.

"Captain Tekin of the Discovery, your crew not only fought your own, but you were the only group to make it off your ship and to Spacedock.  And because you made it there, I owe your crew my life.  Your entire senior staff will be getting accommodation for your service to Starfleet.  Commander Hans- Seven, you found a weakness and exploited it to prevent your ship from remaining in control of the Borg, and by doing so you were able to give us valuable time to save lives, not to mention defeat the Borg."

Nevir smiled a bit, and nodded.  And then the admiral spoke.  "They won't be the only ones I imagine, as we sort through this mess.  But right now we have priorities to handle.  Most of our ships have been damaged seriously in some ways, and our crews greatly more so.  We are going into emergency staff mode effective immediately; minimal ships out along the borders, travel only when needed etc.  At least until we can rebuild our fleet.  We need what ships are still viable to remain here in case someone decides to take advantage.  We already know this incident was with two of our enemies. I don't want a third to try and swoop in for an easy win. That brings us to our crew.  I imagine we will lose many of our younger officers due to trauma and injury.  The crews that you all represent in this room are officially on medical leave. This is non-negotiable for the assimilated officers, but essential senior officers may opt to remain working.  We will just reassign them to some sort of clean up crew.  We have a lot to rebuild, both in machinery and in minds.  Based on your skills, some of you Captains will be called up for expert roles in this transition period.  Which current estimates put at six to eight months to even a year.  It will depend on the final assessment of damages.  For now, you all, and your crews, are hereby relieved of duty.  Thankfully most of the drydocks were considered not as threats, so we will be assigning different bays for each ship.  Bring your ships in to dock, and then relieve your crew.  All medical staff, especially counselors, will need to be assessed before returning to duty to help with our younger crew.  Dismissed."

Nevir turned and was able to file out when he heard the voice of Picard.  "Captain Tekin?  Before you go, if I recall you were primarily a science officer with additional interest in engineering, correct?"

Nevir found himself alone with the command crew of the Enterprise, and was stunned to answer at first.  "Uh.. yes sir.  That's right... I didn't know you had seen my record."

"Excellent... we could use some help with the restorations of the Enterprise, and our Mr Data will have enough on his plate with Operations.  After your crew is relieved, I want to temporarily assign you to the Enterprise to get her finished for both defense, and a well-deserved retirement.  Currently at the bridge is Commodore LaForge, you may know him as the curator of the fleet...."

(Fin)

[Spacedock - Shuttle Bay 47]

The silence was both eerie and deafening.  With no more threat out there, Nevir looked over at Lorut, being assisted by Novi even with her stubbornness.

"Vila..." he said calmly, using her first name.  "You did well.  Rest and let medical take care of you.  I think this nightmare is finally, finally over."

The Captain stepped towards the back of the shuttle, where the Admiral was semi-conscious but stable.  He went for the door controls and opened them, holding his Bajoran disruptor just in case.  Outside was chaos; a welcomed sight from the unnerving order that was Borg unity.  One of the junior officers, who looked like she had red puffy eyes already, looked over at him and shouted that there was a Captain on deck. He stepped down just as the station shuddered.

"At ease.  The fleet has destroyed Spacedock, it's only our own mass and inertia that has kept us all alive.  The engineering section and the lower decks are gone.  Make for the escape pods or the shuttles.  Avoid the ships... we don't know if the fleet mode has been deactivated yet..."

As soon as he said so, the comms chattered.  On the normal channels, not 99Delta.  It seemed comms were back.

"Commander Seven of Nine to Spacedock... are there any survivors?"

The Bajoran could have dropped to his knees in relief.  "This is Captain Tekin Nevir of the USS Discovery.  We have the survivors of the Operations center in Shuttlebay 47, including the Fleet Admiral.  Most of the senior brass didn't make it.  We were attacked by a changeling posing as Captain Tuvok."

There was a pause, and then the comm chirped again.  "I'm sorry Captain.  We couldn't get our warning out in time."

"Warning...?  You're on the Titan?  Shaw's ship?"

"Yes.. but Shaw didn't make it.  We've been able to make contact with the Enterprise F and got fleet mode disabled.  Picard and his Enterprise are on their way back to Earth.  It looks like the station's current descent gives it 14 hours before it starts reentry, and we don't know the state of the fleet.  I recommend evacuating Spacedock until we can regroup."

"Understood... how is my ship?"

"Currently adrift.  Its taken a beating from Spacedock, but she's intact.  And I'm reading lifesigns.  She has power."

Nevir thanks Seven, and tapped his comm badge.  "You heard the commander.  We have 14 hours.  Get off this station." he stated, before turning around and stepping back on to the shuttle.  With many of his crew in triage, he walked over to the helm and took the empty chair he occupied.  The shuttle's engines came to life and they left the derelict Spacedock, aimed for Discovery.

"Discovery.  This is Captain Tekin. Does anyone read this?  Any senior officers?"

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[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
(Ensign Ruthie Falleq-Tekin)

The horrible memories were already settling in to her psyche, but she forced herself up when Rayek asked her to release the comm locks and open a shipwide channel.  She couldn't look at him, but walked over to an ops console and started tapping controls.  At first nothing happened; the fleet mode was still locking them out.  But just before she could say anything, the screens turned green with a message "FLEET MODE DISENGAGED", allowing access to the ship systems.

"C-channel open, sir." she said meekly, still trying to keep her face away from him. Instead she turned towards the viewscreen.  Outside was a complete mess.  The space station did pretty well; many ships were just floating free with their own debris cloud.  She didn't want to think about it, but she could see that some ships just weren't ships anymore.  The number of innocents killed, and an unknown number by her own hand.  She looked down at her hands and she could sear she saw nothing but blood dripping down her fingers.

The only thing that knocked her from that stupor was the voice of her father coming in.  She looked at the source and saw it was a shuttle from the station.  At least her father wasn't killed.  Especially since he was one of the first she was forced to target to kill.

[[USS Discovery-B - Deck 1 - Ready Room]]

Spacedock
Ops center-shuttle dock

Vila pulled away as the doc tried to stop her.

"No," she said, simply, standing up and stepping out of the shuttle. She knew she ws injured but there wasn't time. "When the Captain is safe, I'll come back. If I die, I die."
It was as simple as that.
She made her way towards Addams, firing as she went, finally ensuring that everyone from the Discovery was accounted for. Finally, the doors shut behind her, and she collapsed in pain.
"I need a doctor," she said, aloud. Damn it, she hated when she had to admit she was hurt. She usually just skipped medical altogether, relying on her own first aid skills to help her. She had recovered from many thing in her life, a few phaser shots were nothing.
Hopefully.

[Spacedock - Shuttlebay]

The fight to the shuttle bay was thankfully relatively easy.  They were able to avoid the areas where the Borged crew had gathered, and now with the Spacedock no longer a threat they were not focused.  It was frankly a surprise when they entered and started loading the shuttle bay.  The Captain looked back as his crew boarded what they could, and glanced at the uncertainty of what was going on. It was eerie that they had made it this far.  That they-

"We got incoming!" Nevir shouted, as he started firing at the incoming young officers.  Covering fire as the crew boarded, he looked behind him momentarily to see his fellow Bajoran firing back and covering him.

"Best you didn't expect you would be fighting for you life against the Federation, did you?" he said, as they backed up to and into the shuttle.  Once the doors closed, and the shields were raised on the shuttle, he relaxed.  At least for a moment.

"We better try and get out of here.  The fleet is going to make short work of Earth.  If I wanted to be vindictive, I'd run this shuttle into Discovery... at least keep her from committing genocide..." he stated, actually sounding defeated.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck 1  - Ready Room] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

Once more, Rayek found the lack of an individual presence in the Borg mind very disturbing.

His lungs strained from the lack of oxygen, urging the Romulan to take in a breath  - but Rayek held off as Kinley screamed and then released him.  He pushed her back even as she crumpled to the floor.  Once she was down, he withdrew his mind and focused his attention on finding the missing rebreather.   He mentally made a note to have the devices redesigned to be attached to a lanyard - so dropped units couldn't be lost in this manner in the future.

The rebreather took several long moments to locate - having been knocked under Tekin's desk during Rayek's scuffle with the Kinley-borg.   His lungs felt like they were on fire the entire time he searched.  The one saving grace was that he was mostly out of sight from the bridge because he was down on his hands and knees feeling about underneath the Captain's chair and such. His vision was beginning to fade by the time he laid hand on the unit.  Ignoring all proper hygiene and even the infamous '5-second rule' - Rayek put the rebreather back in his mouth and took in a much needed draw of air.

With oxygen came a clearer mind, and it was then that Rayek realized that there were other borg converging on him from the Bridge!  Too many for him to distract with his telepathy trick, though he was tempted to try anyways.  There was no where to run.  The Romulan rose, not willing to be shot down in a perceived position of weakness  - as if he was pleading for his life.  He braced, anticipating a fury of phaser shots to take him down.  However, before that could happen... and before the drones could fire upon him, they all just stopped.

Rayek blinked once, confused, before taking advantage of their pause. He charged the nearest Borg in a semi-tackle and hefted them up bodily to carry over his shoulder.  The Romulan then used the assimilated crewmember like a shield while he ran towards the blocked doorway.  If he could get out onto the Bridge it was only a few more steps to the turbolift.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
(Ensign Ruthie Falleq-Tekin)

The signal was still there, but the commands were gone.  It did not matter.  They still had their directives.  The most recent would do.  The fleet's weapons were ready to fire.  Drone 056239 had been slowly walking towards Rayek, ignoring the drone that he was holding. She fired one.  Twice.  Then silence.  The signal just vanished, and Ruthie's face began to clear of the black veins around her face. She twitched as her body once again became her own, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, she was able to move of her own free will.  She was able to see what she was doing.  Aiming a phaser at the First Officer of the Discovery.

"C-commander...?" she squeaked, before she started to shake and dropped her weapon to the floor.  Her knees trembled and she dropped to the deck, a sobbing mess.

Across the fleet, the Borged officers were regaining themselves, and the fleet itself just stopped.  Instead succumbing to the horrors on each ship, as the realization of what they did started to take hold.

[Spacedock - Shuttle Bay]

Before they had been able to take off from the shuttle bay, Nevir had noticed something.  The shields were no longer being impacted, and the computer didn't register weapons fire.  He raised his hand to quiet people and moved up to the cockpit, looking out the windows.

"They've... they've stopped." he said, wasting no time in taking a seat and bringing up not the engines, but instead the scanners.  He aimed them at Jupiter, and his heart skipped a beat as he relaxed finally.  He put the sensor readings on the shuttle's viewscreen so that the rest could see.  The signal for the Enterprise D was showing as en route to Earth.  There was a massive explosion registered on Jupiter, and the Borg cube... it was gone.

"They did it... Prophets they did it."

A blast of thick, sickly-sweet gas engulfed her as the doors  to the ready room opened, causing her to cough and  briefly choke on the  vapors.  What was that?!    She asked the Collective, however, the sudden  dizziness  and lightheadedness answered that question. Some kind of sedative.  Symptoms pointed to anesthezine.  She tried shaking off the effects of the gas, but the more she tried to fight the effects, the more it seemed to work.  346572  was already down,  registering intense reactions of sensory effects rendering him inoperable.

She took this moment to strike now at the Unassimilated, grabbing him and pinning him to the  wall with a force that seemed unnatural for her small frame,

She would have shot him, but her vision had already begun to fade, and she fumbled to grab her phaser.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
(Ensign Ruthie Falleq-Tekin)

As soon as the Spacedock was covered in fireballs, Ruthie, or rather Drone 056239, no longer had any attention or concern for the object.  Instead, while the other two bridge drones were handling the unassimilated intruder, Ruthie had done a number of things.  One, called for more drone support.  Two, access environmental controls.  Three, finally received new instructions. The gas being emitted into the Main Bridge was starting to be siphoned.  At least at the front of the bridge.  Drone 056239 continued to work as the Discovery took its position facing the planet below.

"All defenses destroyed.  We are the Borg.  Resistance is Futile.  Eliminate all unassimilate."

"Target Lock: Los Angeles."

"Target Lock: Ottowa."

"Target Lock: Indianapolis."

The comms were filled with the sounds of the Borg recieving their instructions; tens of thousands of orders targetting the major cities of Earth.  The largest to the most insiginificant.  If there was something the Borg understood about humanity, its that even refugee camps like Boseman, Montana in the 2060s could prove to be a threat later.  They housed unassimilated.  So they would have to be destroyed.

The Borg grabbed a phaser and stood up.  Their ship could be remote fired, so they didn't need someone at Helm, or weapons, or even command. Ruthie slowly walked towards the back of the bridge, holding her phaser up as she scanned for the unassimilated.  She heard the turbolift doors open as several more drone stepped onto the bridge, all vying for the First Officer. Before she could fire though, she froze.  They all froze.  Something happened.  The directives from the collective just... stopped.  There was a noticeable absence.

"Signal interrupted..." she and others stated, still frozen, until her foot came down for another step.

"Continue last directive." she stated, as the Discovery charged her weapons and ready to fire on her selected cities.  The Borq started to converge on Rayek as even the gas was no longer a thread.  This looked like the end.

[Spacedock - Ops]

Nevir looked up at the view angled above them; the transparent aluminium that was showing the fleet and Earth, though Earth was slowly starting to turn away as the station's orbit and the conservation of energy was pushing the station off its own axis. The fleet had stopped firing completely; instead, the ship formation was moving, reangling, as they turned to face... Earth.

"Prophets... the planetary shields are down.  There is nothing between the Borg and Earth.  There's nothing we can do." Nevir stated, pushing himself to a standing position and carefully moving towards on the offline panels.  He wasn't the only one, other station officers were trying to restore power.  The Fleet Commander was nowhere to be seen.

He glanced over at his crew, already hard at work trying to release the door locks.  Good, it meant they were trying to secure escape.  The massive station would take some time to drop past the stable orbit limit and go through reentry, but without power or thrusters it would happen.

"Most of the reactors are down... some are gone.  Station engineering is... gone.  The lower decks were blown out. We don't even have emergency power.  Sensors and life support are the only systems still functioning.  I think... I think the Enterprise went in to the cube. There was a firefight and it then just turned inward.  We'll lose long-range sensors in 30 minutes."

Nevir nodded at the report from the Lieutenant who did have a working console.  Nevir gave up trying to reactivate his console and moved to join his crew.  He paused for a moment as he stepped over the Commander of the station; the man was lifeless.  At least the Admiral was still alive.

"I did hear you, Lorut.  Its not a bad idea.  Let me get a piece of debris to try to pry it and put strain on your beam spot." he said, looking for a fallen shard of a beam and sticking the thin end near the bottom of the door away from the beam.  He, with assistance, started applying lever pressure, which at the moment was still very resistant.  It took some time, but slowly there were sparks from the sides of the door and a tiny gap as the door sides were loosening.  Then with a snap, the seal that was under fire broke, and the doors almost flew open.

"Good job everyone.  It looks like the fleet is not going to bother us.  We'll probably have assimilated crew to contend with, but otherwise we should be able to get to either the escape pods or the shuttles.  We should go."

[He took your form... but that means he can't countermand my orders.]

[Sol Station/Spacedock - Main Ops]

A firefight inside the large operations center of the largest space station in Starfleet was certainly not ideal, especially since ops was currently the only way any of the survivors had any clue what was going on with the fleet outside.  Nevir was still firing out of cover, acting more like his parents did so many decades ago, fighting for their lives in close combat with Cardassians.

"We need to secure Ops!" Nevir shouted, mostly to the surviving high-ranking member of the brass. The Bajoran took the moment to glance over at his crew surrounding the Admiral.  It looked like he was lucky, and he could barely see the signs of breathing.

"He took your form... but that means he can't countermand my orders." the Fleet Commander stated, grabbing a PADD off the desk and quickly marking Captain Tuvok as compromised... locking out his authorization codes.

"Computer!  Secure Operations.  Isolate all Borg and Changeling lifesigns!  Everyone!  Get inside before the doors are locked!"

It didn't take long for the doors to Operations to be shut and locked down.  Turbolifts were sent away from Ops and forcefields were thrown up in the halls outside. That meant there was a limited number of attackers, and the survivors had a chance of winning this firefight.  Just as the Commander predicted, the changeling gave up Nevir's visage for Tuvok's and tried to use his code to remove lockdown, but his codes were rejected.  He tried shifting into the Fleet Commander and the Admiral, but without their authorization codes, the voiceprint was useless.  The Changeling was trapped with them.  Worst still, the being wasn't registering on sensors as a Changeling either.  The computer was only reading an anomalous humanoid.  This one was able to replicate beings down to their cellular structure, fooling sensors.

Finally, the Borged crewmen were stunned, leaving just the Tuvok changeling.  One that had severely pissed off Nevir.  He dropped the Starfleet phase pistol and looked over at Vila while reaching behind him.

"Lorut!  Militia!" he shouted, hoping she would understand what he meant as he pulled out a Bajoran phaser.  This one was more lethal in his opinion.  "Let's take him down!"

Nevir stood up and out of cover, firing at the Changeling as he advanced toward his enemy.  Tuvok had the weapon shot out of his hand and stood there for a moment, absorbing the blasts from the non-Starfleet weapon.  But those shots began to add up and finally Tuvok went down.

Nevir didn't stop.  He stood over the fallen changeling, firing into the body until the shapeshifter was sufficiently full of scorched holes.

With the firing now over, the survivors got up, rushing to recheck the station systems and divert whatever power was needed.  Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough.  Nor was there any power left to transfer.  Within a short time following the first docking ring to be destroyed, the shields were in the single digits.

"Mayday, mayday! Shields are down!"

The Lieutenant at the comm station wasn't able to say much more than that as the entire station shuddered and moved.  Shields failed and the station was pelted with phasers and torpedoes, tearing it apart.  From the outside the shape of the station was covered by explosions.  Thanks to the mass of the ship, however, the survivors in the Ops center at least were alive... for the time being.  But they were dodging structural collapse and exploding consoles. The grav plates failed, pulling the objects on the station towards the Earth, which meant as the station drifted backwards, they were thrown against the wall.

"I... I don't believe it.  We need to get off this station!" Nevir shouted, as he tried to get his bearings.  But the fact that the lights were now out, and only the transparent aluminum was bringing in light from phasers and the reflection of earth, told them that the doors were probably not going to open on their own.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
(As Ensign Ruthie Tekin-Falleq/ Drone 056239)

"Calculating.  Calculating.  There. Fire." stated Drone 056239, as she fired phasers and torpedos at the Titan, able to lead it before the ship vanished again.  They received a signal from the Borg on the Titan. The ship had a cloak.  Drones were enroute to eliminate it.  The Discovery shuddered as it was hit by a stray weapon from the station.  It looked like they were the next ship targeted by the station.  It did not matter, however.  Even if Discovery was eliminated, Spacedock was close to falling. Once it went, the planetary shields would fall.

"Retargetting Spacedock." stated Drone 056239, as the Starfleet battleship fired again, this time on Spacedock.  It didn't take long.  Spacedock lit up as the shots penetrated the shields and the hull , obscuring it in light and explosive decompression.

"Spacedock eliminated.  Cloak device found.  Cloak eliminated.  Neutralize Titan."  Discovery retargeted and fired on the last obstacle between them and Earth.  Titan didn't last long.  Its systems were down almost immediately due to the limitations of the Klingon species cloaking device.

"Titan neutralized.  All defenses eliminated.  Awaiting new directives."

[Bridge ]

[As One]

Unsanctioned movement in Jeffries tube.

She grabbed her phaser to follow him should she have to fire, but before she could make a move, a cloud of thick, hot steam billowed out of the vent, sending her reeling slightly as the thick cloud filled the bridge.  For a brief moment, she couldn't see drones 056239 and 346572 due to all the steam billowing from the tubes.

Quickly moving to the nearby operations console, she began regulating the bridge life support systems to dispel the steam and shut down the jet of water streaming from the pipes.

[Jeffries tubes]

[ As Murphy]

Murphy nodded when he heard why Jettis was staying.  He understood all too well.   He did admire Jettis's bravery. He was a lot braver than Murphy felt right now. Odds were that this was impossible and for all they knew, their friends and loved ones were just"¦gone. Or any of them would make it to the end of the day?

Who knew if Vinny - The real Vinny who liked rattling technobabble about microbes-  was still in there? One minute he was there, and the next, he was trying to kill them all. Like some puppet on a string.  He would do anything to get that Vinny back. The thought made him sick to his stomach. "œI'm - I'm staying with you. Once we find escape pods  or something, I'm gonna try to help you find them. We-we're not leaving anyone behind if we can.

He couldn't believe he was saying that. Here he was, in a Jeffries, running for his life with only a wrench as a weapon, and most everyone he knew  on the hunt to kill him. He was terrified and exhausted, and definitely claustrophobic, but he had to try.

Murphy could hear some more movement coming up in one of the tunnels ahead. It was impossible to tell anything in these tunnels, much less if someone was assimilated or not. Harrington noticed, however. "œ Guys! It's a Borg! Run!"

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
(as Ensign Ruthie Falleq-Tekin)

Ruthie stood up with phaser in hand, as the three of them stood up as one, but she hadn't moved when gas started to flood the bridge. At the same time, two new directives were sent to the Borgified crew.

Eliminate all Unassimilated

Target lock: Spacedock

Secure Discovery Bridge

Find and destroy the Titan.

As the Kinley-drone moved to retake the Discovery Bridge, and Dem-drone was moving to find and intercept the unassimilated, Ruthie-drone, aka 056239 moved to the weapons station and began typing controls into the targetting system.  Both the Borg hivemind and the existing intelligence of the science officer was being used against the wayward ship.  Another order came in, an alteration.

Sulu, Galaxy, Lemenche, Discovery, Savak.

Redirect priority of objectives.

Find and control or destroy the Titan.

The rest of the fleet will finish Spacedock.

The Discovery stopped firing on Spacedock and started predicting where the cloaked Titan was before its weapons could be used on Discovery.

[was]

Discovery Shuttle Ozark-Spacedock
Day 1

Vila turned "off" her console and, in a single fluid movement, detached her phaser, set it for "max stun" and followed the others off the shuttle. She hated not knowing her enemy. It was much easier to kill Cardassians (and other Alpha Quadrant weirdos she'd run into in her time) because she knew how they fought, had learned their tactics, and how to outsmart them. THIS was new. She was crazy as hell, and she was always ready for a fight, but still. It was best to know what she faced.

Going in hot? OF COURSE she was. She moved forward. She'd considered pushing him aside so she could go first, but she was already on thin ice, and so she left it alone. He was fully capable of taking care of himself.

"I am ready," she murmured, her face tightening slightly as her jaw clenched and she prepped herself to fire at will.

She stepped off the shuttle, firing, as promised, at anything that wasn't in a Starfleet uniform.

"CAPTAIN," she yelled, moving him out of the way, and to the floor, firing as she went down, too. After a moment, when she was certain it was safe, she barrel-rolled out of the way slightly. "Sorry about that," she said, aloud, but stood up quickly, firing as she went.

Nearby, bodies littered the ground, and she bent quickly, pilfering a phaser rifle off of some poor redshirt schmuck. "Looks like you should've chosen better at the Academy, kid," she said, to no one in particular. She stood again, feeling slightly better having two weapons at once.

"TORRA?" She hollered. "Please check in!" She wanted to move down the corridors, but she realized that moving slowly and pointedly was her best course of action today. Even she recognized the need for patience and planning.

NPC Lieutenant Danjar-Torra Addams
[Spacedock - Ops]

The Grazerite, upon arrival at Spacedock Operations, didn't take exception to the fact that Lorut, her junior, took the vacant station - what the Bajoran woman lacked in rank she made up for with lived experience - something that the short-lived Grazerite knew was of more importance; so instead, Torra made use of her former medical training to help those injured - both in their group and those already in the Spacedock Operations room.

Torra was off in a quiet corner of the room with one such injured, her attention on her task not on the conversation of her superiors, when a shout of warning cut through her focus.   The Captain was in danger!?  A glance about showed Admiral Tuvok firing towards the trio of Command officers.    That made no sense to the Grazerite.  Did he think them Borg?!

A leap from Lorut took Captain Tekin out of harm's way but the others were not so fortunate.   While others dealt with the attacking Vulcan Admiral, Torra ran to the injured Command officers and dragged them out of the line of fire, behind a console, and then checked to see if they were still alive.  They were in a poor state but Torra did her best to stabilize them.

Hearing her name, Torra called back.  "I'm here.  I have injured that need medical attention."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck 1  Jefferies] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

Under the cover of the hissing steam, Rayek had quickly popped opened a jefferies panel that, according to the ship schematic he had memorized his first week aboard, opened to the side wall of the Captain's Ready Room head.  With his phaser still on maximum output he phasered a hole through that wall - avoiding the wiring and EPS lines and piping.  The hole was just large enough for him to wriggle his way through.  Once on the other side, then he reached back through the hole to refit the jefferies panel and 'tack-weld' it into place with short bursts of his phaser.

Rayek then backed himself into the far corner of the head standing just to the side of the hole he had made, ready to deal with any attacker that tried to approach via the head door or that hole.  He strained, holding his breath, trying to listen through the wall for movement in the jefferies tube.

[Main Ops - Spacedock]

His vision flashed as with a slight oomph Nevir's world spun as he was tackled by his own officer.  But the timing was more than admirable, as he was able to see the phaser shot sail over where he had just been standing.  He laid there on the ground stunned, barely registering that Vila just literally saved his life.  The Admiral wasn't so lucky, as he took a shot to the back and fell.  The Fleet Commander was also hit, but he ended up diving behind cover.

As the world began to make sense again, he could hear the action as phaser fire was exchanged.  Multiple shots.  And people were dropping as they had been caught unexpectedly.  Nevir looked across as he saw Torra dragging the limp body of the Admiral behind cover.  He hated to think that the man was dead.. but he assumed if Torra was moving him she noticed something he didn't.

"What is it?  Borg?" he shouted, pulling his weapon out. He heard multiple responses, but it was the same thing.  Tuvok had a bunch of officers with him, and he was firing into Ops.  He wasn't even trying to hide that he wasn't the real Tuvok.  As the Captain peeked over, he had to admit... there was nothing more unsettling than seeing the Vulcan give that creepy smile.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Nevir shouted, as he fired back from cover.  His response was a laugh.

"Just trying to correct a mistake Captain.  Your crew wasn't supposed to be able to get off your ship."

His voice was changing as he spoke, and when Nevir looked back up, he saw himself firing on his crew.  Finally the pieces fell into place.

"Changelings..." he muttered, as they engaged.

A giant shutter throughout the station alerted them to the fleet outside.  The Fleet Commander was shouting.  "Report!"

"Sir!  Station shields are down to 30%... we're losing shield coverage on the outer docking rings.  Phaser banks are fried, but we still have torpedoes.  There is a ship that has broken from the fleet... its the Titan. They... they can cloak?"

The station shuddered again... hard, and the officer who was reporting while in cover spoke.  "We're losing docking ring 7!"

[Six ships have been disabled and knocked out of formation. Two others have been destroyed with all hands. The five ships that came to our rescue were assimilated immediately and are assaulting Luna's defenses. Luna will be able to hold out, there aren't many powerful ships attacking her. We also know where the signal is coming from.]

(Going to push this a bit.  Don't want to lack too far behind)

Nevir had no idea how he made it, but a swath of stunned bodies carved a path from the shuttle bay to the central promenade.  And they weren't alone, as other security officers from the Starbase took advantage of the surge of new people to start securing areas on the Starbase.  The defenses of the Starbase were able to concentrate on the massive fleet pummeling them.  And as Nevir and whoever stayed with him ascended the turbolift to the Operations center, orders were changed from the President from aid to quarantine.

Nevir stepped onto the Operations center just as President Chekov signed out, for hopefully not the last time.  But it was clear from the reports in front of them that Paris was under assault and the Federation leadership was being evacuated.

"What's the status?" Nevir asked as he joined the Starfleet admirals who were suddenly in a position of being on the defensive.  The station was shaking and fires were everywhere.  All power from the lower decks was diverted to shields and weapons, bringing shield strength back to 60%... but that started dropping immediately.

"Six ships have been disabled and knocked out of formation.  Two others have been destroyed with all hands.  The five ships that came to our rescue were assimilated immediately and are assaulting Luna's defenses.  Luna will be able to hold out, there aren't many powerful ships attacking her.  We also know where the signal is coming from." Admiral Patel stated, bringing up a starmap of the system.

"The source of the signal is Jupiter, we believe there is a Borg cube there.  Or a couple of them based on how strong the signal is."

"The problem is we don't have any ships to send out there.  We tried to reactivate the Lemenche and her systems immediately were overridden by Enterprise. We had to disable her to keep her from blowing us up from the inside."

"We also don't have full control of Spacedock; the Borg crew are congregating to made it to the main reactors.  We have teams down there, but still there are way more of them then there are of us.  And we are losing our fight with the fleet."

"We need to stop that signal, Admiral.  We can't be completely helpless."

"We wouldn't have been if it wasn't for Admiral Jackass and his merry band of idiots."

That caused a silence broken with more shaking, as eyes went to the Fleet Commander who spoke up.  Admiral Patel's jaw set, and for a moment it seemed like there was about to be a conflict here.

"Admiral, with all due respect... he's right.  We said this was a terrible idea.  And Captain Benbassat died for saying it was a bad idea.  You brought us here and put us in the line of fire."

"That wasn't me, Captain.  There were a number of Admirals, including Clancy.  The only person who really fought against it was Janeway, until she suddenly decided to recuse herself, after Captain Tuvok gave his support for the project."

"It doesn't matter now... if we can't figure out how to-"

The Fleet Commander spoke up, looking at the screen.  "Admiral, there's a ship coming in... no wait, it's at Jupiter.  I don't think its controlled either."

"What makes you think that?"

"... because it's the Enterprise..."

The Captain looked shocked, and immediately checked the viewscreen towards the fleet.  Sure enough, the Enterprise F was still in the center, firing on Spacedock.  So Nevir turned back as the computer identified the ship.  NCC 1701.... D!

".... Picard got off the Titan.  Probably the same way we did.  They have to know something we don't." he stated, as the Admiral nodded.

"Then let's try to keep the Borg's attention on us..." the Admiral stated.

There were two things that happened about this time.  The first was that the Titan seemed to vanish from the fleet, both visually and its signal.  It was followed by flashes of phasers and torpedoes appearing out of nowhere as the Titan came into view flying through the fleet before... recloaking?

The second thing is that Captain Tuvok stepped into the Operations Center, both quietly and with an eerie smile on his face.  The three commanding officers hadn't taken notice as the phaser in Tuvok's hand raised up and fired at the trio.

Discovery Shuttle A-
Space Dock
Ops Station

She stared at the man. Was that supposed to be a...helpful response?!

"WELL, they're able to target us intermittently right now. Let me try something..." The Ops officer quickly entered the shield codes for DS9 but in the native Bajoran text language. It seemed to hold the best, for now.

As they got closer to Spacedock, Vila was a bit calmer-her backdoor code was holding, though she could tell the Borg tracers were fast working to decode it. Luckily, she spoke a dialect of Bajoran that had nearly died out during the occupation, so at least it was a stop-gap, though she had little doubt that the Collective would eventually figure it out.

"Systems are holding," she said. "Can someone take over here a moment? Need a headcall." She really just needed to move, not really pee, but it was a decent excuse and believable. She was itching for a fight, and she knew, in time, she'd get it so she needed to mentally prepare-get the little boxes in her head that she used to compartmentalize things emptied and ready to go.

[Shuttle Ozarks - En Route to Spacedock]

Nevir glanced out of the window at the other shuttle from Discovery.  The Blue Ridge, if he remembered correctly, these shuttles were named for mountains in North America.  To fit the theme of 'discovery' for his ship.  He shook his head to clear those unnecessary thoughts.  Instead, the Captain took Vila's seat as she excused herself.  He briefly shook his head; after the time spent on the holodeck, she was the last person he expected to need a head break, but he didn't say anything and concentrated on monitoring systems and chatter.

"This isn't good... the Sacramento and the Keldor just entered the system and went quiet.  They were responding to Spacedock's call for aid.  Those were just the closest two ships, at least a dozen others are on the way.  I don't think its limited to just the fleet ships anymore."

The cockpit lit up as one of the docking rings took a hit as they sailed under it.  The bombardment was now in full swing.  And Bay 47 lay just ahead.  The system panel lit up as the station began shuttle docking procedure. As they neared the edge of the bay, however, the comm went off.

"Discovery shuttle!  Its a trap! Stay away!"

It was too late to stop, and they could see into the bay.  There were small arms firing both in the bay, and now at the shuttle.  Nevir grimaced, but shook his head.

"A bit late to get that message.  We're going in anyway.  Phasers out, we're going in hot!" he shouted, as the shuttle was pulled in and landed.

"Be aware, guys... someone just tried to kill us.  Fight our way out of the bay and get to a security station, hopefully we'll find non-assimilated.  Our goal is to make it to Starbase Operations and see what they are doing up there."

With that, the Captain opened the shuttle doors, and started firing.

[Shuttle Ozarks - En Route to Spacedock]

"We have one big advantage; our fleet is not designed to be able to target craft this small.  This is why the Akira classes exist; fighters.  And lucky for us, those were retired from service." the Captain stated, as the shuttle shook from a nearby strike. They weren't the only shuttle in space, but there were very few left.  It seemed only the shuttles from the low-security areas were able to get out.

The Captain took a comm panel and changed the code to the maintenance channel, 99 Delta.  "Mayday, mayday, this is Captain Tekin Nevir of the USS Discovery.  We are in a shuttle under fire by our own ship.  The fleet is lost, I repeat, the fleet is lost.  Picard was right, we are under attack from the Borg.  Spacedock, do you copy?"

The shuttle shook again when the channel crackled (why did they program that??) and a familiar voice spoke up.  "This is Spacedock, we read you Captain.  We are also under attack, but we still have full control of our systems.  Its a mess here, but you're one of the first ships to actually report in."

"Its the fleet formation, with the Borg in control of Enterprise they have control of the entire fleet.  And thanks to our surviving science personnel, we think there is some sort of age limit.  None of our older crew members were assimilated, just the youngest.  Not sure where the cutoff is, but our youngest officer with us is..." he had to quickly pull up the records of Ramort, "25 in human years."

"25?  That actually makes sense.  We're mostly under attack by Ensigns and junior officers. We've- wait, the fleet stopped firing."

Sure enough, there was silence as the shuttle was just past the halfway point between Discovery and Spacedock.  There weren't any more shots near them, and Nevir had to look out the window.  "... why did they stop...?"

"Discovery shuttle, make for Bay 47.  The fleet is retargetting for us.  They mean to take out Earth's defenses.  47 should allow us to shield you while you make your approach."

"Acknowledged." Nevir stated, closing the channel.  He turned to his pilot.  "You heard them, shuttle bay 47, and push the engines as hard as they can go.  We need to be on the other side of those shields before they start taking hits." he stated, as the ship started reading a massive power surge coming from behind them, as the weapons of every ship in the fleet started to charge with targets on Spacedock.

The Captain nodded, even as holographic debris and shrapnel flew around him. "If I recall correctly from the announcement to the Ministers, the decision to stay neutral came directly from the Emissary.  We were too central to the conflict, either we ally with the Dominion and have Starfleet bombard us, ally with the Federation and have the Cardassians bomb us, or stay neutral and be a host to the controlling power at the time.  Obviously, all three of those were terrible options, but it was the difference between being at the top of the fire caves, or at the bottom of the firecaves.  Both got you burned, but one you could walk away from."

Nevir took her advice on aiming and had to force himself to reaim.  A group of cardies decided to spray and pray, and their overconfidence allowed him to pick them off easily.  He moved up in cover towards one of the structures of the Capital city.

"No... no you're right.  I am one of the lucky ones.  I made it through the Occupation with both of my parents intact. Not many in our generation can say the same. I'm sure there are people who would resent me for that." he answered.

He came out of cover and started firing at the Cardassians, giving the cover Vila needed.  Of the group of 5, he was able to knock down two, which when a kill shot was registered they vanished, and one was shot backwards but not registered as a kill. Of the remaining two, one fired back at him and the other.. vanished.

"Careful, possible flanking.  And we have a shuttle on the horizon." he said, gesturing towards the skyline.

"I'm going to drop rank for now, Miss Lorut.  What you are saying is a load of bull.  You do have thoughts, you are just hiding them.  I brought you here because I thought some good old-fashioned racial justice would make you less defensive about talking to me.  Thats also why I don't have anyone else here.  You said Starfleet doesn't understand... but I hope you don't think I'm more Starfleet than Bajoran." Nevir overcharged his phaser and fired a shot low... but it hit something flammable and explosive, taking out another guy as another group of Cardassians were coming from the alleyways.