Star Trek: Crossed Swords

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Sir, Captain Shraf wants a status report, and that we should be ready to engage borg as soon as we drop out of warp"

"Very well, acknowledge and send a full status report with all the bells and whistles, troop counts, number of torpedoes everything that is included in a full status report"

'Of course sir"

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Alright looks like we are in Element Beta folks. Lets lock and load. I want all personel armed with Type II Phasers and all Security Personal with Pulse Phaser Rifles. Captain Shraf wants us ready for battle as soon as we drop out of warp so I want continual firing solutions calculation from the time we detect the spheres to when we are out of warp. As soon as we are given our target, let them have it. Lt. Commander Dark Hammer, please have two of your men bring me the obsidian box off the desk in my quarters as soon as possiable." Captain Latier typed quickly into the PADD in his hand as he paced his spartan bridge. Tydus' hands flew across his command pad at his station and a minuite later a pair of Ensigns came to the captain's side. He opened the box to reveal some antique weapons. A pre-cataclysm pair of Colt M1911A1 handguns in a gunbelt to be exact.

"Captain, those are by far not regulation." Commander Burl spoke up.

"I know that but the Borg have a hard time adapting to solid slug projectile weapons." Jacob responded in a simply annoyed tone. "Inform Captain Shraf that we are ready and that our Marines are at posts throughout the ship to repel borders."

[Shark Bait]

Carpenter tapped his communicator
“Carpenter to Beeblebroxâ€

[Dark Silver]

"Commodore," spoke Lt Belis from the Conn as Commodore Taylor entered his bridge from the turbolift, "All ships reporting ready for warp. I'm picking up a distress call from Dkarta System deeper within the Nebula. The I.K.S. Jonka reports a Borg Cube has appeared in the system."

Taylor strode to his command chair, listening the entire time, and issued his orders.

"Inform Captain Shraf he and Beta Element are to backup the Khitomer. Alpha Element will follow us to the Dkarta System. "

"Aye aye sir, relaying."

"Helm, set course for the Dkarta System, best speed. Engage when ready."

With orders relayed, the Galaxy class Alexander and her escorts shifted position in space, picking up speed from the rest of the battle group under the power of Impulse, before making the leap to Warp.

[General Havoc]

Everything happened so fast.

Orders flew out to join element Beta of the task force, centered around the Thermopylae, and from there to engage the Borg. Kalpov drained what was left of his drink, saluted the Commodore once again, and double-timed it back to the transporter room, contacting the Trafalgar on the way and telling them to prepare for both his arrival, and for the engagement of the Borg. The transporter-room officer greeted him with a 'sir' and a nod before briskly beaming him off of the Alexander and back onto the Trafalgar. Moments later, he walked through the doors to the bridge, only to be stopped short by words he hadn't heard since he was a cadet.

"Commander on the bridge!"

Kalpov almost reflexively glanced around to see where the 'Commander' in question was, so incongruous was it to hear that said on the bridge of Trafalgar no matter who walked onto it. A split second later, when he realized that the voice was Lt. Borel's, his tactical officer, and that he and the entire bridge crew were standing up, staring at him, he realized that news did indeed travel at warp speed.

He turned to Lt. Commander Ereshal, who was standing in the center of the bridge, smiling conspiratorially at him, and reflexively reached to his collar and felt the three command pips that had not been there when he left the ship. He had no idea how she had done it, but she'd not simply arranged to replicate him his now official ensigns of command, but had beamed them into place when he returned to the ship, as a surprise. He'd remember to get her for that.

He looked around his bridge, into each officer and crewman's eyes, before finally shaking his head, breaking into a smile, and saying the magic words.

"At ease."

Cheers and applause broke out aboard the bridge of the Trafalgar, people stepping forward to clap him on the back or shake his hand and offer their congratulations. A small ship, even by the standards of destroyers, Trafalgar numbered only 47 officers and men, less than a tenth of the compliment aboard a Galaxy-class ship. Half of the ship's crew was presently squeezed onto the bridge, including every officer and senior enlisted, all men and women Kalpov had either hand-picked himself, or selected with the assistance of Captain Zhao. Kalpov had forbidden any celebration of the six-month anniversary of his taking over command of Trafalgar just a few days ago, and the crew seemed intent on packing it into this 'momentous' (debatably) occasion.

And last of all to greet him, of course, was the architect of this little ruse, his friend, confidante, and first officer, Ereshal, who greeted him with a salute, followed by a smile, a hug, and a whisper of how this was all payback for some transgression of his from back at the academy, a fact he did not doubt for an instant, any more than she doubted his whispered reply that he would get her for this one...

It was good to be home.

The senior enlisted started demanding a speech, probably at Chief Joral'vec's instigation. And Kalpov managed to say a few words, informal and both grateful and wrathful for the fuss being made, as of course was expected. His thanks were greeted with toasted cheers, his threats with laughter. He remembered a visiting officer at Starfleet Academy who had once lectured them all on how discipline and respect were always necessary on the bridge of a starship, lest the universe implode, and perhaps aboard a line cruiser or a Sovreign-class that was so. This wasn't a line cruiser though, it was a tiny escort destroyer, with a young crew about to enter the fight of their lives. It was his ship. Nobody else's. Perhaps it was a mistake to permit such informality, to allow the crew to laugh at threats made in jest, or even to make them in the first place. He didn't care. This was his crew, on his ship, under his command.

Some said that the Captain had to be both feared and loved. The way he saw it, his crew had enough to be afraid of. And if this resulted in them not taking his orders seriously, he'd deal with that problem when it came up.

He managed to stumble through his "speech", before finally getting down to business. The Trafalgar had a job to do, the job she was built for, that her crew was trained for. The Borg were attacking, and as part of a task force, Trafalgar would engage them.

Three minutes later, Commander Ivan Kalpov sat in his command chair aboard the Federation starship Trafalgar, and signaled Captain Straf, his element leader for this operation.

"This is Trafalgar," said Kalpov, "all systems are green to engage the Borg at your command."

There wasn't even time to be afraid.

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Sir, Element Alpha has moved off an gone to warp after a cube. Our orders remain, we are to take on the spheres and kill us some borg." Lt. Jacda, the female Andorian Ops officer reported.

"My previous orders stand." Captain Latier responded. "All hands, this is your Captain speaking. Today we head into battle. Today we shall meet our enemy head on and we shall take from them what they wish to take from us, life itself. We are up against heavy odds, with several Borg spheres present and Element Alpha off battling a cube, we shall wade into a glorious battle. As the old Earth saying goes Semper-Fi! Do or Die! OORAH!"

After a breif pause Latier continued "To Starfleet!! Lets show them resistiance ain't futile when backed by a Hawaii-Class Dreadnaught!"

[Agent Fisher]

Captain Shraf turned from his chair mounted display, looking over to the Comm Station. "Ms. Jacobs, signal element Beta to form up on the Monitor and prepare for warp at our signal. Helm, set course for the Khitomer, maxium warp of the slowest ship in the element. I don't want us arriving staggered." The Andorian adjusted the restraints on his seat, and looked to the tactical display that had replaced the status report on Element Beta. He waited, not one for giving speeches. Each of the Alpha Shift bridge officers were the best on the ship, having served together for years, seeing action against the Dominion and many other smaller skirmishes. They knew there jobs, they knew what was at stake. They were professionals who didn't need hot air and fancy words to ready themselves for battle.

Once all the ships were in formation, he looked back at Comm. "Jacobs, signal Element Beta. Engage Warp Drive and prepare for contact." He turned back to the screen. "Helm, engage." He said, as the stars enlongated, and the Mighty Monitor once again lept into warp, towards the Borg, and towards battle.

[Haizu]

"Sir, incoming message from The Monitor, we are to jump to warp and prepare for Borg contact."

"Alright, thank you Comms. Navigation, sync our warp speed with the rest of the Element." taking a final look around the bridge and his own status displays, Harbek decided that the crew and ship were ready to go. "Helm, engage."

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Incoming transmission from the Monitor we are to engage warp drive synced with the rest of the element." Ops reported.

"Make it so Commander Sarken." Latier looked at his helm officer. Lt. Commander Sarken, a female Vulcan. She had been Latier's personal aide on Project Isle and one of his best officers. "Engage"

[rhoenix]

"Sir," the Conn officer spoke up to Captain Augustus, "the other assets of Element Beta are preparing to depart."

Nodding once, Captain Augustus gave the appropriate order. "Go to yellow alert, engage restraints, and activate slugthrower sidearms. Synchronize our speed with the rest of Element Beta, and engage."

The hum of activity, the atmosphere of some of the finest officers and crew in Starfleet being relaxedly focused on their work became apparent. The hunt had begun.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Sir, we are being signaled to sync up our warp drive to the rest of the element and go to warp toward the khitomer"

"Acknowledge and make it so Helm"

"Sir"

Captain Belkin thought for a second then spoke into the comm system

"Captain to Security, I realize that I need not have to remind you, but do be so kind as to issue the melee weapons I had ordered you train in. And someone bring my mace up from my quarters"

He couldn't believe he had forgotten about that. In the tight confines of a ship, the obvious alternative to phasers, a slug thrower, was too random to be trusted. One would just as likely hit on of their own men unless they fought in rank and file which was not doable in the age of transporters. This was one of the reasons why phasers had a low rate of fire. To discourage sweeping. Melee weapons were more suited to ship defense against a shielded opponent. So he had ordered his security teams initially, trained in melee combat. Typically with a mace or pick to penetrate borg body armor.

As he contemplated this, the ship jumped to warp

[Dark Silver]

U.S.S. Khitomer
System F-3-4b

Captain Hunt sat in his command chair at the center of the bridge. His ship, a Nebula-class starship equipped with some of the most advanced sensors in the fleet, and right now, those sensors were focused on the group of Borg spheres which had appeared in the system.

"We've several ships from the Taskforce enroute, Captain," informed his tactical officer.

"E.T.A.?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Sir, several of the spheres have disappear from sensors."

Hunt looked at his personal display, and frowned, "Red Alert. Full sensor sweep. Divert power to the shields."

The chorus of "aye ayes" was followed by the ship being rocked, as several crewmen were thrown about on the bridge.

"Report!"

"Port shields down to 80%. The Spheres have reappeared bearing 3-5-4-point-2. "

The ship shook again as Borg disruptors blasted into the larger ship.

"Evasive manuvers, Mr Hayes, at your discretion!"

The Khitomer began to move on the swift legs of impulse, trying to get away from the Borg ships and bring it's weapons to bear, as the Spheres pondered through space toward it.

finally, after what seemed like interminable moments, the Nebula-class ship finally turned around, presenting it's phasers, and releasing bursts of phased energy at the Spheres.

The combat had begun.

[Haizu]

"Sir! Sensors detect several Borg spheres ahead. They are attacking the Khitomer."

"Thank you Ms. Raigyn. Nav, I want you to drop us out of warp right next to one of those things and set us up for a full speed strafing run. Signal Red Alert."

"Aye sir!"

"Weapons, I want a firing solution for a high speed barrage. I want the Quantum Torpedoes and Isokinetics to hit first, then all phaser banks to mop up whatever's left."

"Aye sir!"

As the lights went red and the sirens started, Harbek couldn't help but smile for he was once again in his element.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Sir, the Khitomer has engaged the borg"

"When we arrive, I want you to target the shield emitters of one of the spheres with transphasic torpedoes. After impact, fire a full Hellbore spread. If they are still intact, perform offensive pattern Belkin Alpha Tau Omega"

"Yes sir"

That particular offensive pattern used quantum torpedoes to set up a wave interference pattern in their shield bubble which would, if his calculations were correct cause ripples that when they collide, would momentarily collapse the shield at that point, allowing HellBores to directly impact the hull with the shields still being up

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Sir, the Borg have engaged the Khitomer. ETA two minutes." Lt. Dranell at the Science Station perked up.

"Prepare to launch torpedos. I want full fire on the lead Sphere. Prepare to fire Hellbores right after. And send a message to Captain Shraf, asking permission to tractor the Khitomer if nessecary into a defensable position with us between them and the Borg." Jacob said sternly to his Science officer.

"Bringing on firing solution on lead Sphere. ETA one minute."

"The second we are out of warp divert warp power to the shields. I want the shield matrix running hot. Prepare to bring tractor beams online. I want targeting solutions for the second spheres calculated and implemented before that lead sphere is destroyed."

[Comrade Tortoise]

(OOC: I talked to the GM for this... 'cause I'm evil)

"Sir?"

"Yes Mr. Norg?"

"Captain, sensors are picking up a spike in the USS Hawaii's shield matrix"

"Send it to my console"

"Yes sir"

Very quickly, because they were about to engage the borg, Captain Belkin reviewed the numbers and taped something into his console projecting time to emitter burnout and how much damage the shields would be able to take before they collapsed. His eyes went wide. After a certain point putting more power into the shield grid actually caused a performance decrease. This one, intentionally running the shield grid hot, would cause a catastrophic shield failure. Like tapping a lightbulb that was on too much current, or over-clocking a CPU.

"That moron. Comms patch me into the Hawaii! Now!"

"Done"

"Thermoplyae to Hawaii shhhhshshshshshshshshhshshs...."

"The Borg are jamming our comms"

"FUCK!" he screamed into the connection

"Sir we are dropping out of warp in fifteen seconds"

"Captain to all transporter rooms and medical bays, prepare for possible emergency evacuation of the Hawaii and taking on of her casualties."

He looked up from his console

"Lets hope their engineer or tac officer notices. Good work Mr. Norg, your perception will be noted in my log."

"Dropping out of warp sir"

...

[rhoenix]

"Captain, update on situation. Borg ships evidently converging on our destination!"

"Divert details to my console please, Conn," Captain Augustus said, studying the finer points on his chair-based console, studying the last-known positions of the Borg Spheres. After only a moment, he spoke up, in his quiet voice that still managed to make itself be heard clearly all over the bridge.

"Go to red alert, make sure the heat systems are active, and bring the targeting system to full activity. I want this ship to come out of warp at optimum extreme weapons range to the last known position of the Borg Spheres."

The bridge crew began to work as a well-oiled machine, the pre-mission jitters giving way to a hum of activity. This ship was designed to destroy other ships, and to do so well - adding Borg to the list of completed confirmed kills would only make them more determined.

[Agent Fisher]

Shraf looked from his tactical display to Comms. "Comms, signal the element, alpha strike on the sphere closest to Khitomer. After that they are to target at their discretion, but it would be preferred if they could gang up on targets together." He turned from the Comms and faced Tactical. "Weps, same order, alpha strike on the lead sphere, everything we've got, after that shift targetting to-"

"Sir, we've already entered the Sphere's jamming range, we can't signal the element." The communications officer stated.

"Damn, all right, I guess we'll just have to hope that we can do this." Shraf said. He touched a button, giving him shipwide. "All stations, red alert, prepare to engage." WIth that he closed the channel and watched the viewscreen, eyes fixed on the clock i the corner, counting down the second until they exited warp, antennae twitching in anticipation.

[Dark Silver]

Bridge of the Khitomer

Captain Micheal Hunt grunted as his ship shook around him, as Borg weapons continued to pound their shields. In the old days, the Borg would have bypassed their shields easily, and cut into the hull with their weapons - but advancement in shield systems since the first Borg incursions allowed Federation Starships to survive for longer and longer periods.

"We've got incoming transporter beams from the Spheres. I'm detecting the bounce off."

He didn't spare the time to check the readouts, see if Borg lifesigns appeared in the vacumm of space. The newest in shield upgrades, came oddly enough, from Borg themselves. Or former Borg.


The Liberated, as they called themselves, were former Borg who had become infected with Individuality, like a virus, and were broken off from the Collective. They operated deep within the Beta Quadrant, and they had given the Enterprise-E upgrades to their shield systems the last time they faced the Borg. Star Fleet Engineers back on Earth managed to improve the shields - to not only block Borg transporters, but to bounce the beams off into vacumm. The result, less Borg on the ships.

"Quantum Torpedoes," Hunt ordered, "Full spread on the lead Sphere, full yield."

"Targetted," came the response from tactical.

"Fire!"

a spread of five glowing blue spheres sprange from the upper portions of the saucer section, and streaked through space. The Borg Sphere skewered the first two with their disruptor beams, causing them to explode harmlessly, as the other three plowed into thier shields.

Unfortunatly, little damage was done.

"We've got incoming. Federation warp signitures."

"About time. "

"Shields at 30%."

Phasers and torpedoes flew from the nebula-class starship, attempting to damage the Borg Spheres, unfortunatly it seemed more to annoy the green and black constructs more than damage them.

It was then, that several of the Spheres came up on the rear of the Khitomer, their weapons discharging, not one at a time, but from all weapons nodules, from all three simultanouesly. The weakened shields of the Khitomer buckled as no less than fifteen Borg disruptors slammed into the aft quadrant, causing the graviton field to fluctuate, them crumple, and disperse.

Power fluctuated, flickered, then failed completely on the bridge as the Borg beams cut towards the heart of the Khitomer, rending it assunder.

Within two minutes, the Khitomer was a flaming wreck in space, it's hull cratered, and burning.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The Thermopylae dropped out of warp and didnt skip a beat. She streaked through space at full impulse.

"Survivors on the Khitomer?" Captain Belkin asked

"No sir. The ship is has been flayed open and everyone aboard spaced. Reactor going critical, breaching" As soon as Mr. Ssssssirik said that, the tactical display on everyone's console showed the characteristic red expanding wave that indicated the explosion of a warp core breach. On the visual display screen, spaced flashed white and momentarily obscured the borg spheres from view as the Khitomer's warp core went critical. Matter and Antimatter combined and converted eachother into pure energy filling space in an eruption of plasma, gamma radiation and pi mesons.

"We are entering weapon's range"

"Helm, tactical, execute attack pattern, modified with a half-spread of quantum torpedoes rather than transphasics, lets not waste those"

The Thermopylae opened fire on the lead sphere, sending a forward spread of 8 quantum torpedoes and firing three of the four saucer section Hellbore phasers at the lead sphere.

The Hellbore' phasers hit first, the carrier beams raking across the target before the primary bolt impacted. Then the torpedoes hit, matter interacted with antimatter and destroyed eachother pouring megaton after megaton of destructive energy into the sphere.

'Sir, the shields are down!"

"Bank to Starboard, volley of five torpedoes from port launchers, save the remaining three."

The second volley caused the sphere to explode out violently in a cascade of plasma sub-atomic particles and debris

"Fire all remaining weapons on the next nearest sphere, as well as rear weapons whey they come into their arcs"

"Sir"

The third salvo, of seven torpedoes and three hellbore cannons almost took down the second spheres shields"

"Borg shields at ten percent"

"Good, now we know exactly what we need to kill one of these things. Launch fighters"

It was then that the ship rocked repeatedly as the cubes responded to the Thermopylae's assault. It had moved out of the weapons range of most of them, but several of them could still bring weapons to bear.

"Aft shields at 70 percent"

"Warp power to maneuvering thrusters and inertial dampeners, prepare for full impulse high energy turn"

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Sir, we have arrived. The first Sphere is destroyed. Second Sphere is severely damaged. Changing firing solution to the tertiary Sphere. Firing. Fore torpedos launching full spreads. Hellbore cannons firing. Shields holding off the disruptors. Shields at 87%" Lt Commander Dark-Hammer was on the ball. "Firing standard phasers to remove debris."

"Helm, bring us between the Spheres and the Khitomer . I want status on the Khitomer!" Latier's roomate from the Academy was aboard that ship last he heard, but that was a year ago, before their big falling out. Still friendship covered all.

"Sir, the Khitomer is dead in the water, about to go critical."

"Get us out of range of that explosion. Fire aft torpedo tubes. Reroute warp power to the Hellbores and sublight drives."

"Sir, that last hit we took, we are unable to transfer the warp power. We are stuck without it." Engineering station belted out.

"Crap, get damage repair teams on it."

"Aye Sir" Was the response

"Sir, the Borg are energizing their transporters." Science perked up

"Cycle the shield frequency. All hands this is the Captain. Prepare to repel boarders."

Two Borg drones materialized on the bridge. One went for the Ops officer but was hit with a chair hurled by Tydus Dark-Hammer. "Sir intruders on decks one through seven." Ops reported as he phasered the borg drone from his seat.

The other drone quickly met his end as Commander Burl fired his phaser at him. The ship rocked. "Status report!"

"Shields at 65%" Dark-Hammer responded.

"Open fire with fore torpedo launchers. Transfer auxillary power to the comm system. Break through this intereference and signal the battlegroup. We have engaged the borg, need an interference run from smaller vessel."

"Sir tertiary sphere is down."

"Keep at it. Next target and fire."

[Haizu]

"Sir! The Khitomer is down!"

"Damn!" Harbek slammed his fist down on his chair. "Alright, Nav, I want you to drop us out of warp above the Borg heading for the back edge Sphere at a 120 degree angle at full speed."

"Aye sir!"

"Weapons, get me an Alpha Strike solution."

"Aye sir!"

"Nav, we're going to use the Warp Run strategy."

"Aye sir, calculating warp distances and timing."

"Sir, Alpha Strike solution ready."

"Sir, Warp Run calculations complete."

"Good, how soon till we drop out of warp?"

"10 seconds sir!"

Engaging the ship intercom, Harbek announced "All hands, prepare for engagement."

"Dropping out of warp in 5...4...3...2...1...Impulse engines engaged!"

Dropping out of warp, the Rheinland was well within it's optimum range for it's weapons.

"Commence firing!" No sooner had those words left his lips when 6 Quantum torpedos belched forth from the ships 3 torpedo bays. Just before the torpedos impacted, the three Isokinetic Cannons roared, sending death towards the Borg ship at near light speed. All 6 torpedos impacted at once, blasting the Borg vessels shields. An instant later the kinetic shells drove into shields, overloading them and driving into the ship. Last but not least the phasers went off, ripping into the Borgs' unshielded hull. Although heavily damaged, the Borg vessel wasn't out of the fight yet. Just before the Rheinland reengaged it's warp engines, the Sphere was able to get off a parting shot with 2 of it's Distruptor Beams.

Safely back in warp for at least a few seconds, Harbek said "Status report?"

"Sir, we sustained minor damage to the shields when we departed. Shields at 93%."

"Thank you Systems. Nav, bring us back around."

"Aye sir!"

Dropping out of warp once more, the vessel pulled a quick u-turn and kicked back into warp, heading right back at the Borg vessel.

"Weapons, save the torpedos this time around, use only the cannons and phasers."

"Aye sir!"

Once more dropping out of warp to engage the damaged Borg vessel, the Rheinland was immediately met with a full barrage of Disruptor shots from the ship. Dodging most of them due to the ships high mobility, the Isokinetic cannons roared once more, blasting straight into the heart of the Sphere.

"Sir, it's going to go critical!"

"Take us out of weapons range Nav, just as we planned."

"Aye sir!"

Just as they dropped back into warp, the Borg vessel detonated in a flash of warp core energy.

[Agent Fisher]

The Monitor dropped out of work. Shraf watched the tactical display, noting the destroyed Khitomer and that his ships were breaking formation to attack.

The blue skin looked at Tactical. "Target the closest Sphere, full strike." He ordered.

The Nebula turned, lining up a sphere. Suddenly phaser fire streaking from it, torpedoes streaking from under the saucer, and Isokinetic cannon rounds firing rapidly, streaking from the weapons pod.

The shields of the Sphere lit with the phaser fire, the torpedoes slamming into it, the shield flickering and as the isokinetic slugs impacted, failed. Phaser fire burned into it, more torpedoes blowing it apart, and isokenitic rounds slamming deep, breaking it apart from the physical blows.

[rhoenix]

The Firelance dropped out of warp, and her sensors immediately began to flood her computer systems with data, targeting data included.

There was no time lost on the bridge, as the tactical officer was already having a firing solution calculated for the closest sphere, now at medium-long range. Captain Augustus spoke up without raising his voice. "Lofwyr sequence, closest sphere. Helm, plot a warp navigation to take us next to this solar system's star after the guns are fired, and calculate a firing solution on the next sphere once we arrive."

A chorus of "Aye, sir" echoed through the bridge, as the weapons systems activated, the tactical computer preparing to use them once more.

"Lowfyr sequence calculated, sir," said the tactical officer, her hand over the "Execute" button on her terminal, awaiting her Captain's order.

She was not disappointed. "Fire, and engage."

Suddenly, the Firelance seemed to quintuple in heat output for a split second, before a hellish reddish-orange spiral was suddenly speeding toward its target - the closest sphere. This spiral was composed of all eight plasma phaser blasts and two heavy isokinetic cannon shells, calculated for maximum devastating effect upon the design of a Borg sphere.

Immediately after firing, the Firelance leapt into warp, eager to engage another target, and more eager to observe the effects of what a Lofwyr sequence would do to a sphere.

[Dark Silver]

As the Federation ships dropped out of Warp, and plowed through the Spheres which defeated the Khitomer, more Borg ships were appearing out of no where.

The new Borg FTL drive were nearly indetectable, the Borg just seemed to appear and disappear, leaving no warp trail, no evidence of a transwarp corridor or even a slipstream vortex.

These new Borg ships came in hot, normally Borg did not use shields, letting their adaptive systems handle the pathetic amounts of enemy fire, but these Borg came in with shields aremed and weapons primed. Within seconds, Thirty Borg Spheres, and fifteen "Wedge" class scout ships had appeared, locked their targets, and opened fire on the Federation vessals without preamble.

They would not be defeated so easily this time around.