Once More Into The Breach
Symbol of the Tkon Empire Symbol of the Borg Collective  |
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Prologue
After the recent events on Starbase 989 with the Vexarak Spoilers which threatened to destroy the station and kill thousands of civilians and personnel, the crews of the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca embarked on some limited shore leave.
During this time, the crew also assisted in repairs to bring the starbase back to full strength and capacity. They also provided additional security personnel to discourage any possible rekindling of the Riots that rocked the station during the crisis.
Captains Alan Durand and Ahmed Ibn Salid attended the William Shakespeare play Henry V in the Auditorium aboard Starbase 989.
Duty Waits for No One
Near the end of the play, Salid and Durand were interrupted by an ensign from the Starbase staff, who advised them that there was a priority message from Admiral Richardson, from Starfleet Command. They were escorted to a small office, where the Admiral advised the two ship captains of a serious potential danger to the Federation.
The Darson Deep Space Array, a powerful observation tool used to monitor remote portions of the Federation - Romulan border in the Beta Quadrant had detected a Borg Tactical Cube and another unidentified Borg vessel dubbed a Borg Pyramid en route to the Dovek System.
As Borg Tactical cubes were only seen prior grouped with other vessels of the same type this immediately caught Starfleet's attention. The additional presence of a previously unseen Borg starship, also convinced command that they should be investigating. Admiral Richardson, assigned the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante to that mission.
The fact that the Dovek system was known to once belong to the Tkon Empire, a species that went extinct 60,000 years ago, added a level of concern as well. The Tkon were widely believed to be as technologically advanced, if not more so, than the UFP. The presence of the Borg in a now dead system, that once belonged to a dead civilization known for their technological achievements, raised considerable concern among the Admiralty.
For this mission, Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid was given overall command authority, with Captain Durand acting as the Task Force Executive Officer. Both Captains returned to their ships quickly, ordered all civilian personnel and pets off the ship, and gave orders to get underway towards the Dovek system.
The briefing to the senior staff was conducted jointly using the new communications equipment brought by the Tranquility. It allowed a complete real-time holographic interface between the two crews.
In addition, the SS Tranquility was stowed in the Rosenante's aft shuttlebay and Lieutenant Chance Raschen ordered to service aboard the Rosenante once again.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Once underway, the crews of the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca sprung into action. With the mission briefing completed, Engineering crews prepared for battle damage, while security and tactical teams remodulated shields and weapons as well as established strongpoints throughout the ship in anticipation of action against the Borg.
Operations teams began encrypting the ship's computers in a manner that would prevent the Borg from gain access to them, while medical teams set up secondary sickbays to treat any wounded in the event that sickbays were overrun or disabled.
While a conflict was not desired, the potential for such an encounter was very high and captains Alan Durand and Ahmed Ibn Salid gave orders for their crew to begin advanced logistical preparation as soon as possible.
Course was set for Dovek II, with the planned arrival in the area placing the Federation starships in a position high above the systems elliptical plane.
Arrival
With roughly two full days of travel and a great deal of preparation behind them the small Federation Task Force consisting of the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante dropped out of warp just outside the Dovek System. The two ships arrived well above the systems elliptic plane as planned.
Passive long-range scans indicated that there was a Romulan shuttle waiting just outside the system. The vessel hailed them. The ship was identified as the Private Shuttle Bloodwing and was captained by Ael Harkonnen T'Rillian a Starfleet Lieutenant. At first, Salid believed that she was a representative of the Romulan Star Empire and requested that she dock her ship with the Boudicca, as he had the SS Tranquility in the Rosenante's main shuttle bay.
Besides, the Romulan ship, scans also indicated that the Borg Tactical Cube had taken up a position in high geosynchronous polar orbit or Dovek II. in addition, the Borg Pyramid was observed using some sort of Antiproton beam to excavate sites on the planet's surface. The fact that the Borg were looking for something was no longer in question.
Salid ordered the small fleet to proceed along a preset course which would take them into the magnetosphere of the Class J supergiant Dovek IV. The hope was to mask the energy signatures of the two Federation starships as they made their way closer to their objective at Dovek II.
The risk was that the close passage through the magnetosphere would blind both Starfleet ships, as the interference from the planet would suppress their scanning abilities. It was hoped that the Borg would also be blinded as a result of the maneuver and the presence of the subspace interference caused by the Borg's use of the Antiproton beam. The maneuver seemed to work, and once both ships had traversed the magnetosphere, they proceeded towards the Dovek Asteroid belt.
The Asteroid belt in the Dovek system was a thick band of debris that orbited between the third and fourth planet of the system. despite the density of asteroids and dust in the field, Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid ordered both ships of the task force to maneuver through the Asteroid field at full impulse speed. This posed a massive risk to the two ships since even the smallest impact against the ship's hulls during the maneuver would prove disastrous. It was because of this very reason that Starfleet held a regulation against travelling through such a field at speeds greater than one-fourth impulse.
Salid's decision was spurred by the desire to gain as much ground towards the Borg position as possible thereby reducing the odds of detection. Both the Rosenante and the Boudicca made it through the field without difficulty, although several small repairs to the ship's Structural Integrity Field and Inertial Dampeners were conducted during the traverse.
Once they had traversed the field, the two federation vessels emerged behind the third planet of the Dovek System. This rocky Class N world served to shield the two ships against possible Borg scans as they moved closer to their target planet. They maintained a position behind the planet relative to the Borg until the rotation of Dovek II took the Borg craft to the far side of that planet. When that occurred, the Rosenante and the Boudicca made their way to the opposite side of Dovek II.
Now in place behind Dovek II's moon. The USS Rosenante and USS Boudicca began to prepare to undertake the first phase of their mission; data collection. With the radiation and interference from the Borg Antiproton weapon curtailing their direct scans, it was suggested by Captain Alan Durand that they use multiple options to collect their data.
The first option was to use a pair of Class VII Sensor Probes to attempt to collect data. If that plan failed he suggested refitting a Lorimar Class Runabout with a sensor pallet and gathering data using Starfleet personnel.
Both suggestions were approved, and the task of refitting the Lorimar Class Runabout was given to the Boudicca. The sensor probes would fall to the Rosenante.
MORE COMING SOON!
