Battle of Arcturus
Posted on Tue Jul 8th, 2025 @ 9:50pm by Captain M'Raz & Lieutenant Commander Jason Reeves & Lieutenant Elias McEntyre & Lieutenant H'iri & Lieutenant Noah Clarke & Lieutenant Michael Harris
3,252 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Admiral Ambition and the Borg
Location: Bridge | Deck 1 | USS Jane Addams
Timeline: MD004 - 1845
Hours later, Raz returned to the Bridge and stalked down to the Command Pit, his tail twitching in irritation. "Helm, set course for the Arcturus System," he growled. "Best possible speed."
Micheal looked up from his console, surprised by the sudden change in plans. "Aye, Sir!" He quickly carried out the order, then looked back as he reported. "Course plotted and laid in, Sir. At warp nine, it will take us approximately 35 minutes to arrive at the outer planets of the Arcturus System."
"Very good," Raz answered. "Sooner we get there the better. We have an Admiral waiting for us."
"H'iri, Inform Commander Reeves he's wanted on the Bridge," Raz said. "McEntyre, once we're in scanning range of the system, go to Yellow Alert."
"Aye" McEntyre nodded, getting systems prepped and shields on standby.
Without an acknowledgment, H'iri was on the job. She hit her commbadge, =^=Commander Reeves, please report to the bridge. The Captain requests your presence.=^=
Two minutes the turbolift opened as Commander Reeves entered the bridge. "You wanted to see me Captain?"
"Yes," Raz said, his voice dropping to a cross between a rumble and a growl, "we've been ordered to join a Task Force forming on the outer edge of the Arcturus system under the command of Admiral Gamelin. Seems Arcturus is under attack."
H'iri gave the briefest look of concern at Raz and then returned to a more stoic pose.
[Approaching Arcturus System]
"Go to yellow alert," Raz ordered, "and H'iri, open a channel to Admiral Gamelin. I believe he's on board the Yamaguchi."
"Channel is opened, Captain. Yamaguchi is available to you."
“Aye, Sir. All stations go to Yellow alert!” Elias nods, raising shields and putting the phasers and torpedoes on standby status.
Admiral Gamelin, wavy silver hair swept back and kept in place by the sheer force of his will, walked into view. "Ah good," he said, "you're here." He turned slightly to receive a PADD, nodding to someone just out of view, before returning his attention to Raz. "There's a Borg sphere in geosynchronous orbit over Arcturus. With the Jane Addams, we have twenty ships. More than enough to take on the sphere, I think. I assume you're ready to go?"
"Aye, Sir. The Jane Addams is ready," Raz said. "Have you received the reports from Sol System?"
Gamelin, who had been studying the PADD, looked up, the ghost of a frown flitting across his face. "Yes, yes. I did. Sad thing. Sad." His watery blue eyes hardened, fired from within with his determination and confidence. "We're facing a sphere, Captain, and we have twenty ships. Time to show the Borg what the Federation is made of."
"Admiral, if I may ... I was in Sol System when the Borg attacked," Raz began.
Gamelin held up his hand. "Stop right there. I know you think you have valuable input and I'm not discounting you but time is of the essence as they say. Look, I've already spoken to what's left of the admiralty and we're in agreement. Stillwell included. We've assembled a twenty-ship task force, the best we've got, and we are going to take out this sphere. Now, get your ship ready and follow us in. Attack formation Alpha-20. Yamaguchi out."
"Red Alert," Raz said, keeping the growl from his voice by force of will, as he turned to his First Officer. "Care to take us in, Number One?"
"Red Alert! All hands, stand to Battlestations!" McEntrye hit the switch to bring the ship to Red Alert status as the bridge switched to red lighting, alarms ringing out as crew rushed to stations throughout the ship.
H'iri looked over at Raz puzzled. Why in the world would Raz follow this stupid order. He had to know that this was a suicide mission. Nothing was going to work here. It was a waste of more firepower and manpower.
Commander Reeves traded a look of concern to Raz then quickly collected his thoughts. "Helm move us in with the Task Force, attack formation Alpha-20."
Raz, who shared his First Officer's concerns, was thinking about strategy and how to save the Jane Addams if his worst fears were confirmed. The Starfleet Officer who had, for thirteen years, obeyed the orders of those above him in the chain of command silently warred with his own instincts. Was he Starfleet or wasn't he? And what did it mean to be Starfleet?
"Aye, Sir," the on-duty helm officer said in a high-pitched, slightly breathy voice that didn't belong on an adult (or so her instructors at the Academy had said). "Alpha-20." Her fingers danced over the controls as she brought the Jane Addams into formation, her lower lip caught between her teeth.
Raz watched at the task force advanced into the Arcturus system where the Borg sphere awaited them. Though not as big as the cube, the one that haunted his nightmares still, it was still massive in size. Bigger still as the task force bore down on it. From where they were, they could see Arcturian vessels trying to put up a fight and failing; to Raz, it looked like Sol System all over again.
"Mr. Harris," Raz said as he tightened his grip on the arms of his chair, claws digging in. "H'iri. Every sensor you have, any sort of reading you can get, even if it costs us every probe we have ... anything you can find out about this thing is going to help. Same goes for you Mr. McEntyre. Look for weak spots in their shields."
H'iri nodded. It was the most logical thing that they could do to look for weaknesses. "Aye, Captain. I will have the sensors sweep for all radiation readings, including EM readings, do an antiproton scan, and look for subspace differential pulses. I'll throw in a multiphasic scan for good measure. Will that do?"
"Yes, indeed, H'irir," Raz said. "Get the damage control parties ready to respond if there's need."
"Active Sensors, Aye. I have targets locked Captain!" Elias reported as his hands flew along his console.
Michael's hands danced around his console. He took one hand and brushed his unruly hair over his ear as he tended to the sensors. "Beginning active scans now Captain. The Sphere contains around 11,000 lifesigns. All consistent with readings taken in the Sol System. Temperature in the sphere is currently 39.1 degrees celsius. At the moment it seems that a large amount of power is being directed to their defensive and offensive systems."
"That makes sense," Raz said. Left to his own devices he'd be pacing by now; he didn't because it had an adverse effect on the bridge crew. The Faraday's captain used to say that it was an effect best saved for certain occasions. And, having felt the effect of that first hand, he had come to understand it was a power best used judiciously. So, he stayed in his seat, and devoted his entire being to the task at hand. "Once they start firing, gather all the data you can."
Turning on the console by his seat, the First Officer made it a point to monitor as well. Any fluctuations, that occurred with the shields on that Sphere he wanted to observe with his own eyes as well. Watching the Arcturian, Jason sighed as they were picked off one by one. Hopefully this Task Force would be able to get the job done. Though honest, he would have preferred no less than thirty ships in this Task Force.
"Fire at will," Raz ordered when the Admiral's command finally came through; the task force spread out in a textbook perfect formation, staggered so that no ship was prevented from firing by any other ship, began it's attack on the sphere.
Elias only nodded, clicking on several buttons as the console bleeped and blurped, torpedoes racing from launchers as phasers lashed out at the Sphere. It was an awing sight, all those ships firing in tandem.
Meanwhile, down in main engineering, Lt. Clarke had finished orders to his staff, all of them now manning stations and checking readings on the various systems giving the ship as much power as possible. And as he was circling the master systems display, the ship rocked from a few direct hits to the shields. He had an open comm line to the bridge set up for the battle at hand. =^="That cutting beam packs a punch. Our heat dissipation will be challenging."=^=
Watching the Task Force go full spread, a slight smile came across Reeves face as it appeared the Sphere was taking on heavy fire. For a moment, he thought that maybe this wasn't a bad idea. Looking down at the panel, he could see the Sphere shields quickly adapting. Then what came next was a full spread attack in multiple directions. If it weren't for the fact of being on the receiving end, the Commander had to admit that the shield modulations possessed by these Borg were pretty damn impressive.
"Any damage to the sphere," Raz asked as he watched twenty of the best that Starfleet had available throwing everything they had at the sphere. From his perspective, it was hard to tell if they were making any sort of a dent. But he hoped.
Elias held onto his console as the ship rocks again. He takes a few moments to check the sensor readings before he reported. “Negative! No damage. Their shields are holding.” He couldn’t understand it. They threw almost a hundred torpedoes at their shields from all the fleet combined and still nothing. It was like throwing paper at a wall.
And then, the sphere reacted in a pattern of phaser and torpedo fire that took out the leading edge of the formation. He saw one badly damaged vessel, the Melbourne, turn, presumably to move out of firing range, and took a torpedo volley full on. The Melbourne died as another, the Constance, with a gaping hole in its side, concentrated its fire on the spot where the torpedoes came from, pouring everything they had into that spot, as a third slid in beside it, firing phasers amid a billowing cloud of dark smoke coming from their nacelles.
"Bring us around," Raz said, "put us between the planet and the sphere. Concentrate fire at its weakest point, if you can find one."
“I’ll try Captain, sensors are indicating that the sphere is still at 98 percent operating capacity. I doubt anything we have will break it.”
"Aye, Sir," the helm officer said. "Moving into position. Sir, something is approaching. I think ... it's another sphere."
A second sphere appeared at the edge of the system, a flanking maneuver that had the task force caught in the middle of the field of fire. The Jane Addams shuddered once, twice and then three times as she too began to take fire, first from torpedoes and then from the phasers.
The ship lurched hard, sparks flying. Consoles shorted out as the crew held on. Elias looked worried. The sphere hadn’t taken much damage but the fleet had taken a beating.
In engineering, Clarke held onto the pool table as sparks exploded from a secondary junction. "Taylor, get that locked down!" His blue eyes darted over the damage displays flashing red icons, more popping up every few seconds. =^=Captain, port power coupling is down. Containment field generator two is damaged. Attempting to bypass!=^=
"Understood, Mr. Clarke," Raz answered. "Keep me informed."
“Captain! We’re not making any progress on disabling the sphere. We’ll burn out the phasers before their shields even go down. Torpedoes inventory hitting danger low,” Elias reported.
"What are we looking like on shields?" Jason questioned.
"Not good, down to 25 percent shields. I don't think we can take any more heavy hits like this." Elias said as he continued to fire the phasers. It was all he could do really. The battle it seem was not going well, for anyone.
The Jane Addams shook under a relentless pounding from the spheres while on the ship's sensors and on the main view screen, ship after ship was breaking off the attack. The Yamamoto, with the Admiral on board, was caught in a tractor beam, nearly to the sphere. The Constance was attempting to escape through the debris of another ship. The spheres moved in, unwilling to let their prey go, and Raz came to a decision, his question finally answered at least to his own satisfaction.
Reeves turned his attention to the security chief. "McEntyre target the tractor beam, we got to free the Yamamoto." On the viewer, they could see the USS Ahwahee that was heavily damaged, but passed through the debrief of the USS Lenox which was no longer with the Task Force. The Cheyenne class was making another run towards the Sphere launching phasers and torpedoes. The Ahwahee was met with three torpedoes that knocked out what was left of their shields. A hit from the Borg phasers, broke off the left warp nacelle. The ship fired off a few shots from their phaser, but after further bombardment was adrift.
H'iri offered, "We can try modulating the shields like the Borg seem to do. It might help for a short period of time. I could also steal some power from other systems to give them a boost. What do you think, Captain?"
The ship might have been taking a beating, but at the moment Michael Harris was living it up. The battle had allowed him to get some off the most comprehensive scans of the Borg to date. He managed to maintain his balance as the ship rocked from the onslaught of weapons fire. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he worked feverishly to keep the sensors online. "Captain we are getting some fantastic usable data."
"Good," Raz said. "H'iri, power for the shields. Engineering, damage report." Raz watched the screen as the Jane Addams faltering phasers tried for the tractor beam and failed. "Scan for survivors."
"If H'iri takes power for the shield, I won't be able to engage tractor beams, Captain," Elias reported, still cycling phasers and torpedoes, the Jane Addams lashing out second by second in hopeless futility. "Our shields are down to 15%!"
H'iri heard Raz's order to get power for the shields and ignored McIntyre's complaint. She did not enjoy doing it, but time was of the essence. She reported, "Modulating shields, siphoning power from all non-essential systems. You should see a boost in just a second, Captain."
"Keep scanning," Raz said, "Engineering. Status report!"
Clarke's bones rattled as the ship took a pounding. =/\=We're on the verge of losing main power. Primary ODN circuits have been destroyed! Main coolant systems are failing. Switching to auxiliary backups. The force of the battle is pushing us into the upper atmosphere!=/\=
Standing up from his seat, Commander Reeves walked over to the tactical station standing next to McEntyre. "Try remodulating phasers. Keeping doing so, not giving them a chance to adapt their shield."
The Sphere locked on a tractor beam to the Ahwahee that had been a drift. As the ship got pulled in, several escape pods and shuttles jettisoned from the ship that was a complete lost. Among that ship, we're several other ships that were experiencing the same unfortunate fate.
"Then let's," Raz said as he studied the ground between his boots for a moment. "Engineering, could we go to warp from within the upper atmosphere?" He turned his attention back to the screen, watched the spheres disabled the escape pods, one after the other, and understood a whole lot all at once. "They're intending to take us all prisoner. And that's not going to happen."
Clarke, standing in the middle of engineering, with alarms and klaxons going off all round him as the ship voiced her protest, shook his head. What the captain was proposing was madness. Going to warp within the atmosphere of a planetary gravity well was almost suicide. The ship would face severe structural damage and the fates would be the only ones to know exactly where the ship would end up. On the other hand, joining the Borg was a fate he didn't want to experience. =/\= Aye sir. We have a chance if we boost power to the structural integrity field. I'm rerouting all auxiliary power now. It still may not work. We won't have control of where we end up... =/\=
"Understood," Raz said as he leaned forward in his seat. "Do your best. "
=/\= We're ready as we can be, captain. I don't have any more power for shields and the plasma manifolds are starting to rupture. Coolant containment is reaching critical! =/\=
"H'iri," Raz said, his tone gentling under the weight of what would happen next, "notify all hands to brace themselves. Helm, take us to warp."
H'iri's voice rang clearly through the ship, "All personnel, please take emergency positions and brace for potential impact. Repeat, all personnel to emergency positions and brace for potential impact."
Helm answered. Beneath the breathless girly voice, a gift from nature, and the tousled curls, beat the heart of a lion. She wasn't ready to command a department but she knew her job and the Jane Addams, shuddering in her death throws, responded, leaping from the upper atmosphere into warp. She bit down on her lower lips, coaxing everything she could out of the engines, willing it to go just that much farther away from danger. For a moment, it seemed as though it was working. They were escaping. They were safe. Right up to the moment when the warp bubble collapsed and the ship came to a halt light years away from the Arcturus system.
"Report," Raz thundered as he righted himself, his body felt as though it had taken the full force of the jump personally. "Engineering, what's our status?"
Clarke slowly got to his feet from the massive jolt his body took as it kissed a bulkhead after the punch to warp. Everything had gone dark as the ship strained the limits of physics itself to escape the Borg. He glanced around at blown out and flickering consoles, sparks erupting from a loose power relay. He shook his head and looked at the master display yet again as he tried to ascertain the facts, now that they had lived through the ordeal. =/\=Warp drive is offline. Main power is offline. We are running on emergency backups. Our starboard impulse engine has been... sheared off. We have multiple hull breaches. The main ODN trunk has been destroyed. Structural integrity is... holding, for now. We don't have any power for shields, weapons or even impulse. Internal sensors are also offline.=/\=
"How long can we maintain atmosphere," Raz asked as he wrestled with the idea of using the escape pods. If the Borg followed the Jane Addams, his people would be sitting ducks out there."
=/\= I've already diverted our reserves to life support and the sensor array so we can signal for help. How long it holds is... hard to tell without diagnostics of what's actually still running. I believe-=/\= And just like that, the main intra-ship communications junction relay exploded, thereby effectively destroying ship-wide communications.
Captain M'Raz
Commanding Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lt. Commander Jason Reeves
Executive Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant Elias McEntyre
Chief of Security
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant H'iri
Chief Operations Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant Noah Clarke
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant Michael Harris
Chief Science Officer
USS Jane Addams
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