Season 15: Episode 4 - Vox Populai

[Tekin Nevir]

[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.

[M'Nia]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B -  Jeffries Deck 5 Ladder >>> Deck 3] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

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

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar/Drone 356698
[USS Discovery-B - Jeffries Tube Deck 11]
(*edited to remove Rayek, as he didn't climb down... but up)

Drone 356698 could hear voices outside of themself.  It wasn't the Collective they heard.   It was non-assimilated.

Their eyes opened showing the black of Borg assimilation.   They attempted to reach out a hand in either direction to grab at both the Caitian and the Human that were present, while at the same time pulling themself into a sitting position.  "All non-assimilated must be eliminated."

M'nia jumped back as Helga tried to grab her. "Roowr! Keep away from me! Nobody is going to eliminate me Lt. isn't there anything we can do? this is insane! How are they even assimilating these people?"

[Lek]

[Antimatter Pod Storage Compartment - USS Discovery]

Of all the things Lek least felt would be possible as he waited to be discovered and had to destroy the ship was boredom. He had two days of supplies from his cache, three if he stretched things. He truly didn't want to die, but he'd choose death every time over allowing the Borg to have him or the ship.

"Two days. If they don't find me and force my hand, I will wait two days and if the Captain hasn't restored control by then, I will destroy the ship."

Decision made, Lek felt a great weight lift from him, but he added.

"It would be nice to have some tube grubs though."

[Lorut Vila]

Discovery Shuttle A-
Space Dock
Ops Station

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.

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.

[Tanner Lachlyn]

As Helga sat up, her eyes transformed into pools of inky blackness, radiating a terrifying intensity that matched the darkness in her words. Without hesitation, Tanner's immediate reaction was to activate the nano shield. With a twist of her wrist, it seamlessly morphed, enveloping her fist as she launched it forward, connecting with a resounding impact against Helga's jaw.

Standing and pulling M'Nia back, Tanner pulled out her phaser and, ensuring the setting would stun her stronger physiology, fired.

I'm not leaving till I know... Till she knew what. Till she knew if it was entirely hopeless? Tanner sighed, Tragnar is confirmed Borg, I think she's unconscious. I'm going to do a few more deck sweeps but if I find survivors, I'll tell them to get to a central spot. I'll keep you informed.

Tanner moved further away from the body, taking M'Nia with her. Quietly she glanced about the room, "Sticking with me or going alone?" She asked, "I'm going to go see if I can find survivors. If we can get them to rally somewhere to be safely beamed out, then that's a plus. Otherwise, we need to hide you somewhere till we can get you safely out."

[Kinley Garrison]

[Corridorâ†' Shuttlebay]

[ As Murphy]

Eyes watering and coughing up the thick smoke, The two ensigns made it, wheezing  into the shuttlebay, only to see the last  shuttle  take off  before they could even get close. They were too late! A whole bunch of Borged people were still on their tails though after the smoke bomb, and while temporarily distracted, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up to them. That was our best shot out of here! We're doomed! No! Think, Murphy, Think! There's gotta be something we can do to keep them away from us. Harrington was rummaging around some of the tools left behind on the deck. A plasma welder, a wrench, some miscellaneous other tools.  Not a lot to go off of, but after the two science guys were safe inside, Harrington looked through the doors. They couldn't really lock the doors here. Not well enough. Even if they busted the panels, the Borg might still get through. Murphy could hear the marching sound of synchronized squads of former crew coming through. It was only a matter of minutes before they'd be coming in, and in this huge room without weapons and nowhere to hide, they were not in a good position to face off any hordes.    "œGet back everyone! I'm - I'm blocking them off!

With a strike of the match he was holding, he lit the fuse of the red bomb and tossed it into the hallway, There were Jeffries out of here to escape from, probably.

[Bridge | USS Discovery]

After hearing his orders from the collective, Dem walked over to the tactical controls panel. Sifting through the vast amounts of tactical information the collective had assimilated, Dem found it easy to synchronise with the other ships to attack spacedock, using a variety of armaments. Currently Discovery had scored three critical hits on the spacedock's superstructure, and one minor shot on the Titan.
An alarm sounded on his screen. Dem looked over and then talked to the collective

Shuttle has escaped from Discovery. Target with all necessary force.

Through the echoes of the collective, this phenomenon was happening fleet wide. Officers were starting to escape.

[ Meanwhile]

[ As Kinley]

Unauthorized movement.

There were several small crafts attempting to escape, as she relayed the orders to the rest of the Collective.  All attempts to target them would be taken in order to eliminate them.

The ship shook as the bomb exploded, startling One from her directions.

Unauthorized detonation on deck 10.

Unauthorized movement.

It appeared there were still Unassimilated that had not been eliminated. That situation would be rectified.

Drone squads 67932, and 46823 were sent to deal with any remaining trespassers.

[Malik Grippen]

[Second Shuttle | Space between the Formation and Sol Station]

He wasn't the only other person in the Shuttle but he was closest to the Controls. Shuttle Operations had been part of mandatory Academy Courses and he was thankful for that right now. He jumped into the seat next to the Flight Officer taking to the secondary controls, tapping into the Shuttles Systems.

"We sustained minor damage to structural integrity and long range comms are down. The Plating around the primary power assembly is also gone, we can't take another hit like that without this flight getting pretty rough. I am directing secondary power reserve to structural integrity for now to keep us together. Also mapping the incoming attacks and Debris so you can plot around it."

The Computer first came up with some errors that it found to prevent an energy redirect but it was an easy barrier to work around. He routed the power through a secondary coupling into the force fields keeping the Shuttle together, even under the stresses exerted onto it by incoming fire.
Then he instructed the sensors to engage a continuous scan of the surrounding area of space, marking pieces of debris from both their own hull and the Exploded remains of other shuttles and ships. The scanners also picked up on the energy signatures building up in the Fleet. Most of them directed at the Space Station in front of them, Sol Station, some stray through also pointed at them.

"There is an energy buildup in at starboard, probably a charging phaserbank, we need to dodge!"

He sent the new map of the flight path of the shuttle back to Lt. Grippen. The surrounding Dangers clearly marked to circumnavigate. Ramort then focused back on maintaining the shuttles systems, no sense after all in dodging new attacks if the previous once were enough to tear them apart in space.

The thought of dying was not one he could allow right now. As long as he was still filled with Adrenalin, he needed to perform.
The Vastness of Space was never anything that scared him but he never quite imagined he would be so close to coming into direct contact with it. Science was usually the Division the most removed from the Dangers of Space Combat but here he was and here he had to go on for there to be a future to be worrying about.

[Second Shuttle, Space between the Formation and Sol Station]

For a highly trained pilot, hearing the word dodge triggered their muscle memory on instinct. Almost like autopilot, Malik's hands engaged the necessary evasive pattern without him even having to think about it. Fortunately they escaped that hit.

"Good call! You just saved us from swallowing vacuum."

Grippen studied the incoming navigational data so expertly provided by his co-pilot scientist and directed the shuttlecraft accordingly, it made things a lot easier and their shields started to receive fewer impacts.

"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.

Their shuttle's communication system automatically picked up the chatter and relayed it through their speaker. Malik's brain was used to siphoning the various communications of a space pilot, honing in on the ones that mattered. This one mattered. He turned to James, "Hear that? We've got a chance...redirect all power save for life support to the impulse engines. If we don't make this window, we're royally fracked."

Malik finally managed to form up on shuttle-one's wing in a tight pair and punched the engines for all they had. They were now half way between the Discovery and Space Dock. Hopefully the little craft would pull together long enough to make it.

Unauthorized movement.

There were several small crafts attempting to escape, as she relayed the orders to the rest of the Collective.  All attempts to target them would be taken in order to eliminate them.

The short calm was once more interrupted as a new volley of phaser fire targeted them. What remained of the shuttle's shields dropped to 0% and Malik hoped that their hull plating would absorb the remainder like a Risan-sponge cake. He turned to James with a look that conveyed a sort of acceptance. "Today is a good day to die..."

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC Lieutenant Danjar-Torra Addams
[Shuttle]

"Affirmative. However, I need to confirm if there are any other possible survivors I can beam out.  I'll only have the one chance. Have you and the Commander found his family?  Do you need a beam out or are you and he staying with the ship? "

While she waited for the Lieutenant's answer, Torra began scanning for bio-signs.

"Ensign Ramort, is there anything in what you've discovered that I can use as a filter to scan for those that are not assimilated?"

When no answer was forthcoming,  Torra glanced up and realized in dismay that Ramort wasn't on the Captain's shuttle but had joined the second shuttle.  Why two shuttles were needed for such a small number of evacuees was troubling to the Grazerite.  Between them both, half the crew could have been evacuated, but now those that remained on board didn't have shuttles as an option.

I'm not leaving till I know... Till she knew what. Till she knew if it was entirely hopeless? Tanner sighed, Tragnar is confirmed Borg, I think she's unconscious. I'm going to do a few more deck sweeps but if I find survivors, I'll tell them to get to a central spot. I'll keep you informed.

"Understood.  I'll be waiting for your call.  I'm sorry to hear about Helga.  Addams out."

Oh well, hopefully, there would be enough space to beam everyone aboard.  The Allegheny could hold 40.  She hoped it would be enough.  If not maybe she could hold a few in the buffers?  Her head shot up.

"Captain!  What if we secure our Borg crewmembers in the transporter buffers?"

But the Captain was distracted with his own comms at the moment with Spacedock.

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

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck 3 >>> XO quarters] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

[NPC Doctor Meelar Phlome | Deck 5 | Alpha Hull Medical Facilities | USS Discovery NCC 78393-B]

"A-Anyone... this is Doctor Meelar Phlome... can you hear me?!"=/\=

Rayek picked up Phlome's call over his open emergency channel.

"Doctor, the ship has been declared lost. You must evacuate the ship.  Either head for the shuttlebay or an escape pod." Rayek announced deadpan like a Vulcan though inside his emotions raged at what was happening.    He was standing inside the open doorway to his quarters and there was evidence of an a disturbance.  A spilled drink, a knocked over couch.  Then muffled sounds of weeping coming from the bedroom.

"I have to go, Doctor.  Good luck."

He ran to the master bedroom.  The door didn't open automatically.  Rayek placed his hand on the door pad but even his biometrics weren't being recognized.  The Romulan smiled appreciatively.  His wife was smart and efficient.  He pounded on the door next.  "Tess!?  It's me!! I'm not a Borg."  He shouted against the door to be heard.  He tried to reach out to her mind, to assure her,  but the damn wall - and his inability to find any mind without seeing the person physically - was again a hindrance.

A moment later the door opened and his wife was in his arms and he held her tight to his chest.  As he held her protectively, his eyes scanned the room for their son.   "Where's Fvienn?" he asked his voice choked with the swell of fear and worry that he could barely contain now.

Tess sobbing, informed him that Fvienn had suddenly changed - been assimilated and had tried to attack her; but she'd managed to lock him into the panic-room/nursery.   Though he had known it was a possibility, the confirmation of his son's assimilation had Rayek clenching his fists - fingernails digging into his palms in his attempt to hold in his anger and frustration.  What was he to do now!? Leave their son behind? Never!

'Think, fvadt! Think!'

Over his comm, Rayek and Tess could hear Lachlyn call the shuttle for a beam out for Helga. Torra's answer was encouraging but Rayek knew he'd need to somehow restrain Fvienn to keep their son from harming others or passing information to other Borg in the Collective.  But how?

It was Tess who suggested the anesthizine hypospray.  Rayek nodded his agreement.  It was worth a shot.

"I'll attempt to restrain him.  Don't take long with the shot,"  he advised as he moved to the nursery door.  Tess meanwhile gathered her personal medkit and retrieved a hypospray.  She stood to the side of the door, ready to move in at his signal.

Inputting his override code, the thick nursery door, slid aside and there stood his son on a makeshift ladder made from his crib railing attempting to short-circuit the former locked door.  Rather than greet Rayek with his usual enthusiastic squeal of Eneh, 'Father' in Rihan, Fvienn looked over, his face marked with black lines telling of Borg assimilation and announced.  "Eliminate all non-assimilated"

The 2 yr old jumped off the 'ladder' and moved towards him with a speed Rayek had not expected (Borg were normally quite slow-moving,  methodical... but not Fvienn).  The child Borg reached up for Rayek's phaser.  Rayek barely had time to react to his approach and take a step back.  He then dropped to his knees and enfolded the boy in a bear hug, trapping Fvienn's arms down at his side.   Fvienn struggled in his grip and Rayek could feel his hold slipping.

"Now, Tess!  I won't be able to hold him long.  He's stronger than I expected."

He heard the hiss of the hypospray.  At first, there didn't seem to be any affect and Rayek feared that his son would break free and hurt Tess, who the boy was staring at.  Then there was a second hiss and moment later, his son was collapsed in his arms.  It took only a minute to transfer the boy to the backpack carrier that Rayek and Tess used for when the family hiked and mountain-climbed in the holodeck.

"The shuttles from maintenance bay have already left, but they might be able to lock onto our comm badges and beam us out if we are in a clear area.  Alternatively, we could find a means off the ship ourselves either in an escape pod or other shuttles." Rayek informed her, half hoping she had a plan of escape that she would share.

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

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar/Drone 356698
[USS Discovery-B - Jeffries Tube Deck 11]

M'nia jumped back as Helga tried to grab her. "Roowr! Keep away from me! Nobody is going to eliminate me Lt. isn't there anything we can do? this is insane! How are they even assimilating these people?"

As Helga sat up, her eyes transformed into pools of inky blackness, radiating a terrifying intensity that matched the darkness in her words. Without hesitation, Tanner's immediate reaction was to activate the nano shield. With a twist of her wrist, it seamlessly morphed, enveloping her fist as she launched it forward, connecting with a resounding impact against Helga's jaw.

Standing and pulling M'Nia back, Tanner pulled out her phaser and, ensuring the setting would stun her stronger physiology, fired.

I'm not leaving till I know... Till she knew what. Till she knew if it was entirely hopeless? Tanner sighed, Tragnar is confirmed Borg, I think she's unconscious. I'm going to do a few more deck sweeps but if I find survivors, I'll tell them to get to a central spot. I'll keep you informed.

Tanner moved further away from the body, taking M'Nia with her. Quietly she glanced about the room, "Sticking with me or going alone?" She asked, "I'm going to go see if I can find survivors. If we can get them to rally somewhere to be safely beamed out, then that's a plus. Otherwise, we need to hide you somewhere till we can get you safely out."

When the pair pulled away the drone attempted to follow but its movement was severely restricted.  Damage from the fall, had paralyzed their legs.  They sent a request to the Collective for assistance, just as a fist connected to the drone's jaw.   A moment later the drone collapsed unconscious from the phasers stun setting.

[J.B Dersch]

[ Meanwhile]

[ As Kinley]

Unauthorized movement.

There were several small crafts attempting to escape, as she relayed the orders to the rest of the Collective.  All attempts to target them would be taken in order to eliminate them.

The ship shook as the bomb exploded, startling One from her directions.

Unauthorized detonation on deck 10.

Unauthorized movement.

It appeared there were still Unassimilated that had not been eliminated. That situation would be rectified.

Drone squads 67932, and 46823 were sent to deal with any remaining trespassers.

| Drone 356697 | Lt. JG JB Dersch | USS Discovery | Beta Hull |

356697 moved and continued his search. Most of the Deck was already secured. Now Heading for Shuttle Bays. There was Movement of Non-Assimilated there, and Reports of shuttles leaving. Which should not have happened. Then Boom. Explosion and More Unsaction Movement. The Drone quickened its pace.

[Jettis Jyur]

[Corridorâ†' Shuttlebay]

[ As Murphy]

Eyes watering and coughing up the thick smoke, The two ensigns made it, wheezing  into the shuttlebay, only to see the last  shuttle  take off  before they could even get close. They were too late! A whole bunch of Borged people were still on their tails though after the smoke bomb, and while temporarily distracted, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up to them. That was our best shot out of here! We're doomed! No! Think, Murphy, Think! There's gotta be something we can do to keep them away from us. Harrington was rummaging around some of the tools left behind on the deck. A plasma welder, a wrench, some miscellaneous other tools.  Not a lot to go off of, but after the two science guys were safe inside, Harrington looked through the doors. They couldn't really lock the doors here. Not well enough. Even if they busted the panels, the Borg might still get through. Murphy could hear the marching sound of synchronized squads of former crew coming through. It was only a matter of minutes before they'd be coming in, and in this huge room without weapons and nowhere to hide, they were not in a good position to face off any hordes.    "œGet back everyone! I'm - I'm blocking them off!

With a strike of the match he was holding, he lit the fuse of the red bomb and tossed it into the hallway, There were Jeffries out of here to escape from, probably.

[ USS Discovery ]

As they had anticipated, the decks were being swarmed as the borg converged on the shuttlebays. And as they made it to the maintenance bay just in time to see the last of the shuttles making their escape. Jettis' heart sank, as he shot a glance toward his brother. Zero shook his head in return, "I wasn't leaving you here." Giving him a squeeze on the shoulder, Jettis turned to Murphy and Harrington, who were now stranded here, and unlike Jettis it was against their will.

Murphy was resourceful, and at the very least bought them some time to come up with a new plan. Jettis quickly moved to the other side of the room, holding his arm up as the explosion shook the room, setting off a chain reaction of flames and smoke. They were two bombs down now, leaving 6 more to use sparingly. "Here, we have to get out of here, the borg have self-preservation, but not that much. As soon as the flames die down they'll just march through."

Eyes scanning the room again, there was nothing incredibly useful here. It was just an empty bay, and anything good had probably already been taken by others who had been in here. "This way, the jefferies."
Then came the next decision. Up or down? Neither option seemed incredibly promising, if he was honest. And even more arbitrary knowing how helpless he was to stopping or effecting anything. No, he just needed to find Theresa and Alani, and see if there was any way to fix this. It had happened before. It had to happen again. It had to.

"Where are the nearest lifepods? Other than the work bees, I think that's the only thing that won't be apart of this fleet program." That said, they wouldn't give them much of a fighting chance seeing as they couldn't out-maneuver any phaser fire. But if they could get far enough, there might be hope for being beamed out.

[ Somewhere... - Drone 356603 ]

Through the hive mind of thousands of voices, reports of eliminations, confirmations of ship control, there could be heard a small cry. Something that wasn't quite right, someone who wasn't fully assimilated, originating from the USS Discovery. Immediately sending out alarm bells of a potentially dangerous malfunction within the collective, the voice was distinctly.. humanoid.
"Is anyone there? Please."

[James Ramort]

[Second Shuttle, Space between the Formation and Sol Station]

For a highly trained pilot, hearing the word dodge triggered their muscle memory on instinct. Almost like autopilot, Malik's hands engaged the necessary evasive pattern without him even having to think about it. Fortunately they escaped that hit.

"Good call! You just saved us from swallowing vacuum."

Grippen studied the incoming navigational data so expertly provided by his co-pilot scientist and directed the shuttlecraft accordingly, it made things a lot easier and their shields started to receive fewer impacts.

Their shuttle's communication system automatically picked up the chatter and relayed it through their speaker. Malik's brain was used to siphoning the various communications of a space pilot, honing in on the ones that mattered. This one mattered. He turned to James, "Hear that? We've got a chance...redirect all power save for life support to the impulse engines. If we don't make this window, we're royally fracked."

Malik finally managed to form up on shuttle-one's wing in a tight pair and punched the engines for all they had. They were now half way between the Discovery and Space Dock. Hopefully the little craft would pull together long enough to make it.

The short calm was once more interrupted as a new volley of phaser fire targeted them. What remained of the shuttle's shields dropped to 0% and Malik hoped that their hull plating would absorb the remainder like a Risan-sponge cake. He turned to James with a look that conveyed a sort of acceptance. "Today is a good day to die..."

[Shuttle 2 | On its way to Sol Station]

"I am not quite ready to die just yet Sir, instead I have one last idea. I am rerouting all power to engines but I will also reroute life support, if the shuttle explodes we won't need it anyway. Life support energy will be rerouted to forcefield though. I am routing those through the navigational deflector to create a thin membran around the ship. It itself won't protect us from hits but it can catch what we need. With all that destruction going on and our own leakage we are sitting in a cloud of ions and other ionised particles. These get trapped in the membran and in turn polarizer the Hull, making it more resilient against incoming attacks. It isn't as effective as full shields but is is the predecessor technology."

While speaking he already began to implement the procedure.

On the control panel quickly dissapered one system indicator after another until finally even lifesupport went offline. The computer commented on this with a long string of warnings and error messages but he locked them all out, there wasn't time to worry about them know. Later Engineering would probably kill him though if they discovered what he had done to the ship. This trick was crude and would eventually have negative effects on the molecular structure of the plating but they only needed to land on the Station in mostly one piece, the Shuttle wouldn't be in use after that anyways for some time.

Having finished the power transfer engine output nearly doubled, only adding to the list of systems that would need an Engineer to evtually fix, but the shuttle was now a lot faster and only that mattered.

"With any luck the polarizer hull even can scatter the targeting scanners somewhat."

[Kinley Garrison]

| Drone 356697 | Lt. JG JB Dersch | USS Discovery | Beta Hull |

356697 moved and continued his search. Most of the Deck was already secured. Now Heading for Shuttle Bays. There was Movement of Non-Assimilated there, and Reports of shuttles leaving. Which should not have happened. Then Boom. Explosion and More Unsaction Movement. The Drone quickened its pace.

-----------------
[Bridge]

[As Kinley One.]

One of the drones had caught a glance at the bomber saboteur. Analysis indicated that the weapons this bomber had were a serious threat to the Ship. Unacceptable. This Unassimilated had to be hunted down and eliminated. An image of the red-shirted saboteur was transmitted throughout the network of Borg on the Discovery as a lookout. One in particular was particularly close to the subject,  356697 would spearhead the search.  Annihilate the bomber and the other Unassimilated on sight.
----------------------

[ USS Discovery ]

As they had anticipated, the decks were being swarmed as the borg converged on the shuttlebays. And as they made it to the maintenance bay just in time to see the last of the shuttles making their escape. Jettis' heart sank, as he shot a glance toward his brother. Zero shook his head in return, "I wasn't leaving you here." Giving him a squeeze on the shoulder, Jettis turned to Murphy and Harrington, who were now stranded here, and unlike Jettis it was against their will.

Murphy was resourceful, and at the very least bought them some time to come up with a new plan. Jettis quickly moved to the other side of the room, holding his arm up as the explosion shook the room, setting off a chain reaction of flames and smoke. They were two bombs down now, leaving 6 more to use sparingly. "Here, we have to get out of here, the borg have self-preservation, but not that much. As soon as the flames die down they'll just march through."

Eyes scanning the room again, there was nothing incredibly useful here. It was just an empty bay, and anything good had probably already been taken by others who had been in here. "This way, the jefferies."
Then came the next decision. Up or down? Neither option seemed incredibly promising, if he was honest. And even more arbitrary knowing how helpless he was to stopping or effecting anything. No, he just needed to find Theresa and Alani, and see if there was any way to fix this. It had happened before. It had to happen again. It had to.

"Where are the nearest lifepods? Other than the work bees, I think that's the only thing that won't be apart of this fleet program." That said, they wouldn't give them much of a fighting chance seeing as they couldn't out-maneuver any phaser fire. But if they could get far enough, there might be hope for being beamed out.

[ Somewhere... - Drone 356603 ]

Through the hive mind of thousands of voices, reports of eliminations, confirmations of ship control, there could be heard a small cry. Something that wasn't quite right, someone who wasn't fully assimilated, originating from the USS Discovery. Immediately sending out alarm bells of a potentially dangerous malfunction within the collective, the voice was distinctly.. humanoid.
"Is anyone there? Please."

[Somewhere?]

[It didn't work.  She had tried breaking free and had almost gotten through.   Like she did the first time, but this time, the Collective held her in a vice-like grip. They remembered her transgression during her last mission, and they would not let her go again. Despite the Collective trying to lull her, smother her,  something felt different, felt wrong this time. Like there was rot in the hive. Something tainted and sick, far different from her memories of being there before.

And then something shook her out of her reverie from the Collective, from the voices and orders echoing throughout. A voice! Someone else? The Collective might terminate her if she tried to fight again, but if someone else was out there, she had to try, at least. "œI hear you. Hold on!"
-------------------
[As Kinley One]

[Bridge]

Spacedock's shields were at 75% integrity and failing. The bombardment was still going on schedule, with full Fleet power, even with trying to aim for any Unassimilated who were foolish enough to try running to the Spacedock. Suddenly, a sudden anomaly rippled through the collective. Another defect. "œSubdue all defects within the Collective. We must evolve."

--------------
[Meanwhile]

[Shuttlebays]

[ As Murphy]

The blast slammed Murphy face-first onto the floor, leaving his ears ringing.  It worked pretty well if he did say so himself.  Harrington helped pick him up, nodding to the scientists whose names they still hadn't gotten yet. "œI'm pretty sure there's some down on the way to engineering.

The Jeffries? A pit of dread welled in Murphy's stomach as he imagined the cramped, tight corridors of the Jeffries. He had gotten lost there once and swore he would never willingly go in there again. Well, it was either that or being at the wrong end of the phaser. "œR-right. Jeffries tubes.

[J.B Dersch]

-----------------
[Bridge]

[As Kinley One.]

One of the drones had caught a glance at the bomber saboteur. Analysis indicated that the weapons this bomber had were a serious threat to the Ship. Unacceptable. This Unassimilated had to be hunted down and eliminated. An image of the red-shirted saboteur was transmitted throughout the network of Borg on the Discovery as a lookout. One in particular was particularly close to the subject,  356697 would spearhead the search.  Annihilate the bomber and the other Unassimilated on sight.
----------------------

| Lt. JG Dersch/Drone 356697 | USS Discovery

Drone 356697 was given the Lead Drone in finding the Defects.
Annihilate the bomber and the other Unassimilated on sight.
Acknowledge 356697 replied.

He then moved to the Lift and Drones 789654, 789655, 789656, entered the lift and made their way down to the Deck of Explosion. As the came out, The Hall was blocked.

Recalculating Route.....Use Jeffertubes..

They then begun the climb in the jeffertubes.

[M'Nia]

As Helga sat up, her eyes transformed into pools of inky blackness, radiating a terrifying intensity that matched the darkness in her words. Without hesitation, Tanner's immediate reaction was to activate the nano shield. With a twist of her wrist, it seamlessly morphed, enveloping her fist as she launched it forward, connecting with a resounding impact against Helga's jaw.

Standing and pulling M'Nia back, Tanner pulled out her phaser and, ensuring the setting would stun her stronger physiology, fired.

I'm not leaving till I know... Till she knew what. Till she knew if it was entirely hopeless? Tanner sighed, Tragnar is confirmed Borg, I think she's unconscious. I'm going to do a few more deck sweeps but if I find survivors, I'll tell them to get to a central spot. I'll keep you informed.

Tanner moved further away from the body, taking M'Nia with her. Quietly she glanced about the room, "Sticking with me or going alone?" She asked, "I'm going to go see if I can find survivors. If we can get them to rally somewhere to be safely beamed out, then that's a plus. Otherwise, we need to hide you somewhere till we can get you safely out."

"I think I feel safer sticking with you lt. Finding survivors is good! the more people we can rescue the better. Lead and I will follow!" M'nia said, her tail flicking back and forth. Se was apprehensive and a bit scare. The borg were very scary,s til with Lt. Lachlyn with her, she would be ok.

[Tekin Nevir]

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.