| Stardate: 89511.4 | Report submitted: Captain Morton - USS October |
TO: Task Force Argo Command
Personal recollection of encounter.
During what seemed to be quite an uneventful day, myself along with a considerable amount of fellow officers aboard the station were relaxing in or near the comfortable recreational section above ops. I noted a number of recent transfers that I'd not gotten myself acquainted with yet, but it's safe to say the number was high. Instantly we found our selves jumping to our feet at the sound of a, what can only be described as a rather broken, distressing transmission over the internal comm system. As I wasn't exactly alert prior to the transmission, I couldn't quite work out what had actually been said, but judging by the looks on some of the officers around me, they were equally confused. Before any of us could take what we had just heard in and digest it, another call came over the comms' from the Okoboji ~ Major Svenson. Before I decided to do anything, I noticed a few people around me begin to shuffle, so I thought it best I do a similar thing.
At the time I was unaware still of what was going on in the internals of this matter, but as I began walking away from the bar, looking over onto the ops deck, I spotted Major Svenson walking out of the transporter room to meet Commander Quaen, and a number of officers near by. That's when the official call to arms came through ~ A message came through calling all ships in the area and combat ready to mount some form of force and to assemble into two counter groups. Again, for me, all could group together was that a distress call had come in from a vessel and we were going to find it. I thought that perhaps all this mobilization was quite a bit much, but I still wasn't aware of the threat we were going against. Had I known, perhaps it may have been slightly easier to prepare for such an excursion - but that wasn't the case. And it rarely ever is.
The Commanding officers of the vessels being mobilized combined in Transporter Room B to be briefed by Major Svenson of what was happening, what was going to happen, and how it was going to happen. I don't think I really need to express how I'm sure we all felt when the Major expressed that the vessel, U.S.S. Evans, had been considered heavily damaged and that it is believed to be an even closer Borg attack than most usual encounters. I'm sure I can say there wasn't a face around the small accumulated group at the mention of the Borg, we all are aware of the horrors they can commit with ease. After the full briefing, Major Svenson explained he was going to lead the rescue party along with a team of Argo' members, and that he would require a support group to draw the main Borg attacks away from the Evans.
Attached inside here are the main objective pointers given out.
((For those unaware, here is the overall mission thread, just so you know the basics.))
After a considerably lengthy silence, Captain Raj'Iradh bravely stepped forward to acknowledge command of the support group, instantly followed by Commander Quaen, Captain Atkinson and Captain Lyspha. After receiving further instructions the support group walked behind me to the transporter pads to where I believe they safely beamed aboard their respective vessels, and proceeded to their objective location. The Major continued to brief the remaining officers, who were standing before me, about how our operation would undergo. The rescue operation was conducted by Major Svenson himself, followed by myself ~ Coby Morton ~ Captain Carter, Centurion Reva and Commander Kisek Leon. Glancing to the fellow fleet members beside me, I could tell I was in good hands.
Once we were given the go ahead to return to our vessels, I gave the senior crew of the U.S.S. October a miniature briefing of what was the problem, and the serious threat we would be going against, whilst en-route to Deep Space K-7 :- which is where the Borg were surrounding the gate there. Once we all arrived in formation, The Okoboji lead the initial attack runs, while the other vessels in the force coordinated with the 'said attack runs. The U.S.S. William Decker appeared to lose shield support momentarily, I'm currently unaware of any major damage being suffered, if any. After engaging three Borg contacts groups, comprising of 'Cubes, 'Spheres and 'Probes, we discovered the location of the Evans and began scanning the ship. Multiple systems were offline, but there were faint life signs.
When it comes to the Borg, a threat that the rest of the crew aboard the October haven't actually had contact with, I went against my own personal rule ~as well as a somewhat guideline~ and beamed onto the vessel along with Major Svenson, and the respecting officers of the other group members. Once more, there is little point in describing what we saw and faced. The interior of the Defiant class vessel was coated with Borg components, and throughout the entire of the ship we were met with moderate Borg opposition. I suffered a light blast to my right arm, but surprisingly at the time I didn't even notice. Unfortunately the same can't be spoken for my uniform. We continued to push away from the bridge into the ship towards main engineering, past the warp core.
As we traveled, there were various components that I'd never recognized before, linking to what seemed random parts of the vessel - At the time I simply chose to ignore them, but after stumbling across MACO's and a number of security consoles, what had happened began to become more and more elusive. I attempted to decrypt one of the console readings, how ever there just wasn't enough time, and believe me ~ I didn't want to be left alone at the back. As we reached engineering, we came across a group of 'semi'assimilated' crew members, and as the Major addressed one, I respectfully chose to ignore what he was speaking to the man, as I assumed it was probably personal. This was pointed out when I noticed him removing a ring, placing it in his pocket.
At this point we received news that the support group was under some serious opposition, but we had no time to contemplate what was going on over there.
The next number of events started a spiral of conspiracy in my head. According to a terminal: ERADICATED. As I was about to raise the question, the Major ordered that we 'initiate' the self destruct and, rather promptly, return to the safe beam out point. However, the Major and Captain Carter, who volunteered, stayed behind a moment, expressing they would be "Right behind us" Without the time to question him, nor was it really my place, myself, Kisek and Reva returned to the beam out point, covering the exit for when the other two would return. And that they did. When they rushed back through the door, we sharply called for a beam out: To which thankfully we all escaped before the ship was lost. Something that is a de-moralizer on any day. But the Borg somehow furthered it.
Upon returning to our vessels a number of Borg ships, a 'Cube and a number of 'Probes, had collected around the area to which we promptly set out to destroy. Or at best disable so the dominant threat of the sector wouldn't be at as much risk. Following this, not a second was spared before we headed straight back to Outpost Argo, to which after what I had seen, I was hardly in a mood for a debriefing. I noted quite quickly that a few of the Captains showed considerable displeasure to ERADICATED. But as per usual, I know the burdens that follow decisions such as that. After a short meeting/debriefing around the ops table, I headed to a rather secluded location around the recreational area to where I could collect my thoughts - It was here that Captain Lyspha joined me, to which we both conversed in how lucky of an endeavor it had been to return.
Attached further into the next four pages of the report are a number of tactical analysis of the Borg vessels that were encountered ~ Along with other important information that may have been collected during the operation.
Captain Coby Morton
Internal Affairs
U.S.S. October