Borg... Tribbles?

Posted on Tue Mar 15th, 2016 @ 10:36pm by Commander Angelica Fairchild & Lieutenant Daln Hadren & Chief Petty Officer Ginifred Klem & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Petty Officer 2nd Class Amelia Takethen

Mission: Talosian Perversions
Location: The Borg Cube
Timeline: After Cube of Borg

As the shuttle launched, Amelia clung tight to the armrests of her seat. Good thing she was strapped in or Nexi's acceleration out of the main shuttlebay would have tossed her to the back of the cockpit. At least it seemed that the engines on this large runabout were strong - the power readouts at her station barely registered 50% output. She groaned inwardly at what this thing could truly do in Nexi's more than capable hands.


Ginny sat securely in her seat, her safety straps tightened to their near snapping point. No matter how bumpy this ride got, she was not going to be moving an inch in her seat. I'm going to make it through this...we are all coming back safely. I will not meet any Krognik demons she thought to herself. It was not uncommon for Ginny to volunteer herself for dangerous missions, but rarely was she ever actually sent, and in this case, Ginny had not volunteered...her expertise had made her qualified.

She let out a squeal as the shuttle accelerated out of the hangarbay and went off into space towards the Borg Cube. "I haven't been on an away team in...hell, I have no idea. It has been a while" commented Chief Klem. "When we get back, I'm soaking my hooves in a nice warm mud bath" added the Tellarite.

Wang smiled. "And I want a massage. A really good, deep down massage with calming oils."

Hawke shook his head. "Women."

If Nexi hadn't been piloting, she would have reached back and slapped all three of them, but she was no fool, she knew to keep her attention on the controls. And her rapid ascension was matched only by her equally rapid deceleration, bringing the shuttle to a near stop far too close to the cube for any kind of comfort. The rest of the shuttle's momentum allowed them to glide in smoothly. She glanced back at her passengers with a grin to see if any of them had lost their lunch yet.

As the shuttle smoothed out its flying, Chief Klem took that as though the 'fasten your seat belts' sign had turned off and that roaming the cabin was relatively safe. "Oi! What did you say?" said the Chief, removing the safety straps and springing to her feet.

Her hooves clicked and clattered slightly as she made her way across the cabin of the shuttle and reached out, grabbing a firm hold on the cartilage that was Hawke's ear. She gave it a good yank, causing irritation and turning it a lovely shade of red. "Didn't your mum teach you to respect women? Do you go home and kiss your mum with that mouth?"

Hawke pushed her hand away and stood up to his considerable height. "Watch it. Chief. All I said was one word. So unless you want to start dictating what people think--which is both illegal and not your job--I'd suggest you don't touch a security officer like that again." His eyes blazed with anger as he scowled at her.

Wang put a hand on his arm. "Hawke, stop it," she said, glaring at him. Hadren had put her in charge of Hawke as he tended to have a hot temper. Then she turned to the Tellarite. "If you disagree with someone, fine. But grabbing body parts of your superiors and twisting them is not tolerated. Understood?" Then she turned to Hawke. "And you. Get a hold of yourself."

"That is enough from both of you." Angel gave each of them a forceful look as she got up, also aiming one at Ginny for good measure before turning to the two security officers. "You'll keep your mouths shut about discipline issues when assigned to my away team. Do my job for me again and you'll be spacewalking home, end of discussion. Klem, no squeezing anyone else's ears or you'll be spacewalking home." Honestly she hadn't cared for Hawke's derisive 'women' comment either, but maintaining order was more important than getting offended over silly nonsense. "We're here to investigate and then blow this Cube to bits, so get your gear and hoof it."

The Chief let out a few snorts of laughter. "I'm a Tellarite...we argue over anything and nothing at all" she said peacefully as she played the 'Tellarite' card teasingly. "Or it could be menopause. Who knows these days" she added shaking her head. She looked at Angel and gave a nod of respect.

"Hoof it? Really, a Tellarite joke, Commander?" scoffed the Chief but she did find the woman's wording in good taste. Though Ginny was not one to let a good teasing slide. "I see they gave you two chaperones this time, Commander" commented Chief Klem.

Hawke scowled, but nodded. He didn't like having his ear squeezed for what he thought was a perfectly fine comment. Women made comments about men all the time, so he figured that the same should be true in reverse.

Wang, however, submitted to Fairchild's authority. Wang might be over Hawke, but Fairchild was over her. She had been wrong to intervene, knew it, and did it anyway. She bowed slightly, out of respect for her superior. "Aye, ma'am."

Amelia just unstrapped herself and went to check the explosives she knew were stored in the runabout. Unsealing the armory storage, she looked over the phaser rifles and pistols briefly, making sure the racks were full, then cracked open the large crate of spacial charges. This is where it was at. They were the size of two fists together and could punch a small hole in anything. If they placed a few of these on one of the cube's reactors, there'd be no more cube in a matter of seconds. Pulling a pair of the remote detonators out, she started synchronizing them.

Hawke and Wang came to her side and began loading themselves down with explosives. In general, most security officers knew a little about explosives like stun grenades, phase mortars, flashbangs, and the like. Hawke didn't know much more than how to use them, but Wang knew a little about how to put them together, if not much. Still, she didn't get in the way of the Andorian, who clearly knew what she was doing.

"It's going to take a bit of punch to knock this thing out of the sky," Hawke said, strapping on more explosives.

As Hawke reached for one of the explosives she hadn't synchronized, Amelia slapped his hand away and resumed setting them up to work with the remotes. "And we won't have that punch if you don't let me set them up. Besides, if we can find one of the antimatter conduits, it'll be easy enough to vaporize it with half this amount." Finishing up the last few explosives, she let them finish gearing up. "So... Since I don't have a fancy rifle, should I just take one of the phaser pulse rifles just in case?"

Chief Klem watched the others in amusement. "Whether or we blow that Cube right out of the sky from the inside or not doesn't matter so much if we go in just planting devices left and right. We have to do this with precision. You can place a stockpile of explosives in the wrong areas and just cause a minor irritation" commented Ginny.

She smiled at the woman. "An accurate statement. We need to find the vital areas. The antimatter conduits, the distribution nodes, the power distribution nodes, and power waveguide conduits" added Klem. "High intensity explosives in those areas will cause some serious damage. If not enough to blow this thing out of the sky, then enough to weaken it for the Hera to pick its bones" finished the Tellarite.

Nexi smacked Hawke on the back of the head as she joined everyone making preparations. "Yeah, but ain't Borg ship weaknesses harder to find than normal ships?" she asked as she looked over the explosives. She would have given them a bit more 'oomph', but they'd get the job done; if they were placed in the right places.

Pulling out the weird looking tricorder at her hip, Amelia flipped it open and waved it around a bit. "That's what this is for. This is a specialized engineering tricorder just for scanning antimatter systems. I should be able to find the main antimatter systems from across the ship with this."

Wang smiled at the blue-skinned woman. "Lead the way, Chief," she said, hefting her part of the cases.

Hawke nodded. "Yes, lead the way. Even pack mules have their limits."

Chief Klem snorted as she headed out, taking point. She had a lot of equipment on her, but despite being short and rather stubby, she could carry a lot more than others. Probably can carry more than you she thought, looking at Hawke. "No problem...like hunting for truffles" she joked.

"Suck it up, Hawke..." Nexi grumbled, her fingers itching to grab her pike right now and do horrible stabbity things to him. "Why are men such wussies?"

"Behave, Nexi." Angel couldn't threaten Nexi like she could the members of the team who served in Starfleet. "Everyone take a rifle and a sidearm. I don't plan to be here long enough to use them, but I don't plan to be assimilated either."

The Chief let out a small groan. "Can I just stick with a hand phaser?" she asked somewhat quietly.

"Because we get to blow shit up," Nexi chimed with a wide grin, checking that her energy whip was charged and ready to go. "You know, I'm gonna miss this when I finally enlist; gotta use your boring-ass rifles and shit..." she said with a pat to her whip.

Slinging one of the rifles across her back, Amelia headed to the door of the runabout and started scanning, waiting for someone else to open it. It wouldn't be her ass to step foot onto that cube first. "I think i have a fix on six separate locations and it looks like if we blow two of them, it'll be enough. Unfortunately, one of them is in the center of the cube so we'll have to walk a fair ways."

"Best we get moving then." Angel popped the hatch open and looked outside, not seeing any Borg in the immediate area. "It's clear. Everyone out."

Chief Klem made a few snorts and huffs as she navigated through the cluster of people. "Excuse me" she said politely, brushing a few people as she plopped out of the hatch and cut across Angel. "You aren't expendable, you know" commented Klem to Angel.

"And you are?" Angel retorted back, a path starting to plot out in her mind for where they'd have to go.

As the six filed out and began walking along the area they had docked, two things were noticeable immediately. One, the normal hum of a ship was gone. There weren't even the expected Borg noises anywhere. Two, the few consoles that were active were corrupted by some purple and grey writing that didn't look Borg at all. As a slight breeze whispered through the empty alcoves, it almost seemed to call to the crew as they made their way deeper into the cube.

Pausing for a few seconds, Amelia tapped at one of the dimly lit consoles to see if it responded to her at all. It did and more of those strange characters scrolled across the screen. "Does anyone recognize these characters?"

Hawke shook his head. "I'm no scientist. Part of why I chose security." He gripped his rifle a little tighter and made certain that the phase rifle and type II phaser were still on his person. "Wang, have you seen those?"

Wang's eyes were moving everywhere and then settled on the writing on the wall. "It looks familiar, but no, I do not recognize it."

"No shit, you're a redshirt," Nexi said to Hawke. "Now move it, pack mule." She spared hardly a glance at the strange symbols as she passed them by.

Chief Klem looked at Nexi "Don't scare the kid" said the Chief shaking her head at Nexi. The Chief did stop for a moment to have a look the symbols or writings herself. Now, if he was no scientist she sure the hell wasn't either. "All you can eat Borg buffet...this way" she said jokingly. "Or the lost writings of the Furlings" added the Chief.

Angel rolled her eyes at Nexi then looked at the purple writing. It looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. "No idea. Let's keep moving."

As they came to a junction, Amelia moved forward and found a way to unseal a large door. It wooshed open and on the wind, the team could hear a voice and a subdued chittering. The voice... Erie as it was... It was saying something two of the members of the team would recognize quite easily from their nightmares. "Bonnie... kin... Bonnnnnieeee... kiiinnnn...." And then it cut out, the chittering noises getting closer. Shining a flashlight down the now open corridor, Amelia was able to spotlight what appeared to be a tribble... A Borg tribble... with a laser on it.

Wang lifted her rifle, ready to shoot the first thing that moved, but still tried to keep everything from falling off her person. Uneasy was not quite strong enough a word to describe her nerves right now.

Hawke tensed, lifting his rifle to the ready. He was carrying everything easily as he was larger and stronger than most of the away team, but he kept stroking the rifle like it was a newborn child. His eyes danced about, on the look out for anything--ANYTHING--that moved.

"Oh fuck this noise!" Nexi said, looking like she was about ready to turn around and go back to the shuttle. Few things in this galaxy unsettled her more than those words uttered in that sing-song tone...

The Tellarite Chief Petty Officer wrinkled her nose and sniffed the air. "Anyone else smell Tribble?" she asked as she crouched down and scooped up a handful of tiny round pellets. She looked at the members of the away team "Tribble scat" she said openly.

Angel didn't care about the Tribble scat. At the sound of those words that still occasionally woke her from sleep, she'd frozen in place. She hadn't seen the Tribble Amelia had found, and she definitely wasn't looking at the poop in Ginny's hand. For a moment, she thought maybe she'd imagined the haunting phrase, but Nexi had heard it too. Suddenly, Angel was wishing she'd told Enalia to take this one.

Hawke walked a little ways to Angel. "Commander!" he said, waiting until she looked at him. "What are your orders?" His face conveyed another message: one of support. He may have been a chauvanist, but he cared about his fellow officers.

The Chief dropped the droppings and retrieved a small bottle from her jacket pocket. It was sanitizing gel. She used it often and did so now to clean the germs and bacteria she may have touched when playing around with Tribble shit. Chief Klem shared Hawke's concerned tone.

She too approached the First Officer "Everything, alright, Commander?" she asked gently placing a hand on the woman's shoulder.

She didn't get a chance to reply as a faint afterimage of a ghost crossed in front of Amelia's light. It looked exactly like a Devidian and though it hadn't come any closer, it was still severely unnerving for Amelia and she was visibly rattled.

Then the whispering voice came back. It was a distinctly Ferengi voice this time though. "Piggy piggy..." it said, just as softly as before.

No one had noticed that the Borg tribble had made its way up closer and was mere feet away from Wang, little assimilation tubules waving in front of it.

Nexi's breath caught in her throat. Not that voice... Her eyes glazed over and she had to clench her fists at her side to keep her hands from shaking. It couldn't be him, he was supposed to be dead!

"Why do I hear a Ferengi voice calling 'Piggy piggy'?" said Chief Klem aloud. She readied her phaser. Things were getting weird and she did not like weird.

Angel didn't hear the Ferengi voice. She was still caught up in 'Bonnie-kin' and memories of those infernal zombie creatures. She came enough to her senses to register that her head was spinning and her stomach tying itself into some sort of intricate Celtic knot. And someone was asking for orders. "Keep moving."

Chief Klem was first to respond. "Aye Commander" the Tellarite responded as she moved onward. However, her mind was racing with thoughts. Nothing about this place seemed right even for a Borg Cube as startling strange and creepy as Borg ships were known to be. This was all odd. Tribble scat, strange writing, sounds that people can hear and others cannot, and a Borg Cube just sitting out here to be found and boarded the thoughts ran through Klem's mind.

She stopped moving. "I feel like we are in a fun house...in the carnival sense, not in the oh this house is fun sense" commented the Chief. "Even for the Borg...this doesn't fit their usual modus operandi, does it?" she asked aloud.

"SHUT UP!" Nexi yelled at Klem, raising a fist to strike her. But then she stopped cold and just stared at Klem with her arm still raised; there was madness dancing in Nexi's eyes, a deep hurt that had yet to heal, and maybe it never would, but the affect that Ferengi's voice had on her was profound. "Just shut up!" Nexi said firmly, sparks flying off her fist as she turned in a rage and slammed it into a random bulkhead. Then she continued on down the corridor, heedless of the fact that she'd likely broken a bone or two in her hand or the fact that they were surrounded by Borg-ified tribbles.

The Tellarite woman was not about to take the woman's actions lightly. Like her or not, something was clearly pissing Nexi off more than usual. "NO!" Klem shouted back and followed Nexi. As the other woman drove her hand right into an unyielding bulkhead, Chief Klem shook her head in an agitated state. "NEXI STOP IT!" Klem said firmly. "If you are going to act like a two year old, you should have stayed on the shuttle."

Klem took a firm grasp of Nexi's forearm. "Let me look that hand" the Chief said. She had practically zero medical experience, but she knew swelling when she saw it. "You'll need to have that checked by Sickbay when we get back" commented the Chief.

Nexi almost didn't stop for Klem to look at her hand, but she did, holding it out for the Tellarite to see. Nexi didn't even wince or flinch under Klem's firm grasp, but she knew for certain now that something was definitely broken. "Yeah, as soon as we get back..." Nexi said in a subdued tone, then pulled her hand out of Klem's grasp.

Amelia shook her head, snapping out of her fears long enough to check her tricorder. "The first antimatter conduit is at the end of this hall."

The Chief kept herself at an even pace with the rest of the away team. "How many do you think we needs to hit before we cause crippling damage?" asked the Tellarite.

None of them really noticed the tribbles that had surrounded them. Most of them couldn't see, but one could and was about to stab into Wang's boot with a pair of assimilation tubules.

"I could cause crippling damage to the Hera with one well-placed charge, but a ship like this where there's no centralized anything, I'm a little worried we might need more explosives than we brought," Nexi said, trying to ignore the voice of her former master echoing down the halls.

Wang stomped her foot on the tribble and shot it, but the nanites were already spreading. She turned towards Hawke. "Shoot me."

Hawke woke up and started firing at the tribbles. "Whatever we're going to do, make it quick, Commander."

Wang spun him around and stared him down as the nanites spread across her face. "Shoot me!" she yelled with the last of her true mind. She slowly lost her fear and became colder, Borg implants popping up on her face. Hawke didn't hesitate; he shot her in the forehead three times before turning around to the tribbles.

Chief Klem watched in shock at Hawke shot Wang. "Was that necessary?!" shouted Klem questioningly.

"What the hell?" There were no Borg around, so Angel looked the only direction that made sense... down. The entire team was surrounded by balls of fluff with bits of metal sticking out of them. "Fucking hell... they assimilated fucking Tribbles!" Even as she said it, she had her rifle in her hands to shoot the nearest of them. If their situation wasn't so immediately dangerous, it might even have been funny how Tribbles exploded when the projectile rounds hit them. "Watch your feet!"

"Freaking damn assimilated ankle biters!" shouted Chief Klem. Though she wanted to grieve over the loss of Wang, there was no time. The Chief started firing off phaser blasts left and right, taking out as many of the assimilated balls of fur that she could. "Told you it was Tribbble scat" she added.

"Cover me!" Hawke yelled. He grabbed Wang's explosives and her weapons. He was so loaded down now, he couldn't fire a weapon because he couldn't aim it. "Let's get out of here!" he yelled over the phaser fire and the sound of projectiles exploding tribbles. If he got assimilated, there wouldn't be enough people to carry the explosives. He was, quite literally, their pack mule.

Thief Chief had no issue going into protective mode and laying down some cover fire for Hawke. She did the best she could which was not too bad for an old gal who spent most of her days tinkering around with the shuttles and transporters. She looked at Hawke. "Lighten your load, damn it. You are a better shot than I am...let me carry some of it" offered Klem.

He put some of his load onto Klem, just enough that he could hold his weapon, then started firing at the tribbles, blowing them up with each shot. He dropped an ammunition clip and clicked another back into place before firing again. He handed Wang's TR-118B to Nexi, who was just as good a shot as some in Security, if not better.

Nexi took the wussie rifle if only for the fact that she didn't have enough space to use her energy whip without hitting another member of her team, Quickly firing off a few shots to cover the team. "Find cover!" she called out to the team as they found themselves cornered. "Amelia, where are those conduits!" she barked out as she continued firing on the wave of cyborg fuzzballs.

Amelia was the only one not firing, instead taking readings and leading the team forward as best she could. "Eighty meters ahead, just past that movable bulkhead. We should be ok on the other side of it for a while."

Soon the team had moved past the bulkhead and were staring at a glowing purple column of antimatter, tribble Borg not far behind them as she sealed the bulkhead behind them. "This is it. Put a charge on each support and I'll start plotting a path to the next antimatter chamber."

Hawke set down the explosives and began handing them to Nexi and Klem. He knew next to nothing about setting the charges, he just knew how to press the button to blow them up with the control. That's what security had masters-at-arms for. He started handing them out, just when asked for.

While Hawke, Nexi, and Klem worked on the explosives behind her, Angel dropped down on her knee to have a better view of the approaching Tribble hoard. They were fast little bastards, but they made for entertaining shooting that kept her from thinking too much about the 'Bonnie-kin' announcement. "There's no cover to be had here. Make it quick!"

Klem scoffed at the Commander's statement. "There never is" she said brashly. "Give me a minute and we won't need it" she announced.

Nexi shouldered her rifle and grabbed explosives with her good hand, following Amelia to the conduits. "Where's the next set?" she asked before they'd even finished setting the first set of explosives.

"Almost a kilometer away and two decks up. We should be able to follow an alcove junction most of the way there." Amelia said as she pointed to positions for explosive charges.

Chief Klem planted the explosive charge. After doing so, she rejoined Commander Fairchild. "Thanks for keeping them busy" commented Klem as she dug around in one of the bags Hawke had given her. "Time to get creative, kids" she said as she rummaged through the bag and retrieved two small rounded objects.

The Tellarite quickly put her technical training to use, modifying the two devices and priming them. "Everyone, back the hell up!" she snarled as she gave the two balls good strong roll down the deck plating toward a horde of assimilated Tribbles. A few seconds later the two devices came to a stop, hitting the furry cluster. After a few moments of a high intensity shrill the modified devices exploded with a medium yield short range electro magnetic pulse.

She looked at Fairchild. "Won't do crap if we just stand here. Will only delay them a few minutes until they send more and adapt" added the Chief.

Angel's ears were still ringing. She knew Ginny had said something, but she wasn't sure what. She could, however, hazard a guess. Looking a bit cross about the nearby explosion - and wasted explosive charges - she got to her feet. "Let's go, then. And let's not waste any more of our bombs."

Hawke scowled at Klem and then followed Fairchild and the Andorian. He was pushing his luck already with his opinions, but he ached to tell Klem just how stupid it seemed to waste their precious explosives when they brought just enough for the cube.

Klem could see the look the two had given her, and Commander Fairchild was at least more vocal about it. Hawke just scowled and kept his mouth shut which was fine with Klem. The Chief glared at Hawke but was more delicate with her response to the First Officer. "Respectfully, Commander, I did not waste much of anything. I didn't use our bombs. I used relatively useless photon grenades and modified them to emit an electromagnetic pulse" said Klem, grabbing gear and moving onward.

"What?" Amelia yelled, her antenna waving wildly. "I can't hear you! I think you blew out my antenna!"

"Get moving!" Angel yelled back, having at least heard the shouting if not Ginny's explanation about the grenades. For good measure, she pointed in the direction Amelia had earlier said they needed to go to find their next objective.

Unfortunately for the team, all that shouting attracted something else. Even Amelia could hear the loud footsteps across the deck plating. From an adjoining corridor stepped the largest, ugliest Borgified Gorn in the universe. The grey scaled reptoid stood nearly twenty feet tall and barely fit in the large corridor. Swinging its head around, a trio of targeting lasers followed its gaze as it spotted the team and started moving towards them, foot long claws raking against the walls and deck.

Chief Klem felt the movement in the plating at the assimilated Gorn moved. When she saw it, her mouth gaped "Shiiiiiiit" she said quite clearly. "Commander?" said Klem quickly, hoping for some orders. Whether it be open fire or high tail it back to the ship. Klem was ready for whatever order was given.

Oh shit. The TR-116 was a wonderful platform, but Angel knew that it did not work against Gorn. She suspected the Gorn drone knew it as well. Slinging her rifle on her back, she unholstered the phaser at her hip and fired on the advancing creature, retreating in the direction of the next target.

Amelia stared slack jawed for a moment before rushing along the target corridor with the rest of the team.

The Borg Gorn stumbled and flinched at the first few shots, but after a few shots with the phaser, the bolts pinged harmlessly on the Borg shielding. Apparently it had functional shielding and had adapted to Angel's phaser frequency. As it advanced, it opened its jaw wide and a clicking noise could be heard just before a great gout of flame burst forth from the gaping maw, nearly reaching the away team and for all intents and purposes looking more like dragon's breath than anything any Borg or Gorn should ever be able to produce.

Diving away from the unexpected flames, Angel miscalculated and slammed against one of the support pylons, losing her grip on her phaser as she tumbled across the metal deck plating. Fortunately, she tumbled away from the advancing fire-breathing Gorn drone. Somewhat dazed, she scrambled to her feet and unslung her rifle. It may not work against a Gorn but she wasn't going to waste any time looking for that damned phaser. "Run!"

Seeing the wave of tribbles and then- OH FUCK, A DRAGON! Well probably not a dragon, but Nexi wasn't sticking around long enough to find out what it was! She grabbed whatever explosives she could get her hands on and while the onslaught was preoccupied with her teammates, Nexi bolted down the corridor for the other conduit Amelia mentioned. They had to take out at least one more if the Hera was to have any chance of taking this bitch out of the sky!

Hawke dived to the side, got to his feet and followed the others. He spared a glance at the direction Nexi took, scowling. If she wanted to join Starfleet, she was going to have to learn to work as part of a team and not duck out because she was a coward. He just managed to stay ahead of the flames, following the Andorian as she guided them around corners and down corridors.

Amelia was 'guiding' them straight down the path that Nexi was following, glancing at her tricorder and calling out directions as she ran, somehow staying ahead of the beast chasing them and keeping up with Nexi well enough. After about a minute of this chase, she called out one last time. "There should be an alcove on the right with the conduit! We're almost there!"

As they neared the alcove, Angel slowed down and turned to face the hulking monster that was chasing them, moving swiftly - but gingerly and carefully - backward to keep it in her line of sight. It was huge... bigger than any Gorn she'd ever seen. The first shot she fired bounced harmlessly off its hide, and she swore under her breath. "Get those damned charges set!"

"Aye Commander" replied Chief Klem as she knelt down and placed her charge. "Charge set, Commander" the Tellarite reported before safely backing away from the charge and rejoining the others.

Hawke handed one more of his final eight charges to Klem. "Don't forget this one." Then he turned towards the Gorn and stared down the sights of his TR-118, taking careful aim. He fired, just missing the creature's eye. "Shit," he cursed. Taking aim again, he hit it this time, but it didn't have the effect he desired: it did not go into its brain.

It did however piss it off and it ceased its fire attacks and reared back, letting out a hair curling roar as it thrashed around in the corridor. Its one good eye had been destroyed and it now could only see with its Borg targeting optics which confused it enough to ignore the away team long enough to finish setting the charges.

Hawke paled. He looked to Klem. "Hurry," he breathed.

She looked at Hawke and glared. "Oh just shut up and shoot the damn thing...and aren't you Security? When was your last examination at the shooting range?" she said argumentatively and belittling as was usual of members of her species. "Th..th..th.. that's all folks. I am ready when you are" she reported.

Hawke glared. "Keep it up and I'll shoot you." He turned and took careful aim again. He took four shots at the thing's neck, twice nicking the trachea and once nicking the esophagus. Then he turned and ran after the others.

Angel waited until the others were moving back toward the Thor before turning and running after them. Behind her she could hear the gargantuan Gorn let out another blood-curdling roar followed by pounding footfalls.

Nexi could barely hear Amelia calling out directions behind her, but she caught sight of the purple glow emanating from within an access panel. She skid to a stop and placed the charges, but when she tried to set the detonator, she saw that it was all busted up. Oh shit... Trying to think quickly, she needed something to set this bitch off, but still give them enough time to get the hell outta there! For a moment she thought about overloading the pulse rifle, that would take a minute and add a little extra power to the boom, but it wouldn't fit in the compartment. Her whip! Without giving it a second thought, she grabbed the Ferengi energy whip at her hip and lashed it to the conduit and around the explosives. Then she futzed with the settings on the handle and soon it was beeping to let her know it was building up. There, that should do it! now, to get back to the team...

As they ran like hell, Chief Klem's motherly instincts were kicking in. Those went against the impulsiveness and logic behind the whole fight or flight mode. Motherly instinct trumped all when it came to her 'children' and whether or not she personally or professionally cared for this bunch, they were her children. Hawke, Fairchild, Takethen... the Tellarite ran the names through her head as she looked at them one by one. Nexi had been behind her and when Klem looked back, Nexi was not as close as the Chief expected and wanted her to be. "Damn it" she said as her hooves stopped moving and she reversed direction.

Hoofing her way down the Cube was the Chief. She was not sure why the hell Nexi had stopped or what she was doing, but the Chief didn't give shit. "LET'S GO!" shouted Chief Klem at the woman. "Don't make me throw your scrawny ass over my shoulder and carry you back" added the Tellarite in a huff that meant business.

Amelia helped finish setting the charges as the Gorn beast thrashed around some more, all but destroying the path they had taken and nearly falling through to the deck below.

Hawke stopped and looked back, hearing that Nexi had fallen behind. He ran back a little to cover Nexi from the Gorn, who was coming around the corner, as well as the Tribbles.

"Back to the shuttle!" Nexi called out as she bolted towards the team. "Timer, short fuse, RUN!" She grabbed her rifle as she caught up to Klem. "Get a move on, piggy, stop worrying about me and make sure everyone else makes it outta here," Nexi said to the Tellarite as she laid down suppression fire on the FUCKING FIRE BREATHING DRAGON (seriously, how the hell was the ship still in one piece with this mother fucker running around?!).

With a simple squeal, the Chief was already turning around and heading for the necessary direction. "You don't need to tell this girl twice" she said as she ran full speed, her little legs carrying her as she hoofed it.

Hawke backed up towards the hatch of the shuttle, reloading his gun. The tribbles came around the corner in a large furry blanket with wires and nodules sticking up at odd angles. They were so close, he could hear the cooing. He stood with the hatch at his back, firing constantly at the tribbles. He let the TR-118 hang from its strap and then picked up the phase rifle, quickly setting it to the highest setting with his thumb, and the widest area. He aimed at the center of the furry horde and fired a wide focus beam that vaporized a large section of the tribbles. He looked over his shoulder and yelled, "GO!" before turning to fire again.

The Chief had been in some tight situations before, but this Borg Cube was going to become one of the tightest, and Klem was not too fond of that. She had made it back to the shuttle in time, but she couldn't leave with out the others. For starters, though she was good at keeping track of the Hera's shuttles and making sure they were properly taken care of, the Chief was not one the one who actually piloted the damn things. Even if she was able to fly the shuttle, she was not leaving anyone behind. "Let's move it! I don't want to be here when this blows!" she shouted.

Angel didn't need telling twice; she could hear the Tribbles coming up behind her. Speeding up, she jumped over a crumpled section of the deck, only for her leg to twist awkwardly beneath her weight as she landed. Momentum sent her sprawling toward the shuttle, sliding to a stop several feet away with the Tribbles close behind.

From a steam shrouded hallway an elderly Tellarite could be heard softly calling for help. "Please, Gini! Don't let it end like this! Don't leave me here..."

The voice came to the Chief and it was quite clear that it was the voice of her father. It was so tempting at first, just to hear her father again after all these years. I can't leave you papa she thought to herself, but she snarled and shook her head. "NO" she said firmly. "Papa died long ago and I have to keep these kids" she reminded herself aloud about her shipmates. Doing her best to ignore the voice of her father, she continued to call out to the away team "Get back to the shuttle!"

A hand came out of nowhere and pulled her back towards the shuttle, eventually pushing her just to the hatch. Then it disappeared, reattaching itself to the phase rifle its owner, Hawke, had in his hands. He edged forward, making his way to where the first officer lay, and began dragging her upright. Once she had her feet under her, he started pulling her back towards the shuttle. The tribbles were closer now, and he had to keep firing to keep them away from the shuttle. He pushed her inside and yelled, "Go!"

Amelia was already in the shuttle, getting the engines fired up from the copilot seat when a second Gorn monster crawled out of an alcove and ran towards the runabout. Opening its jaw wide, it too had something unusual installed... Great gouts of liquid nitrogen shot forth from it, splashing across the front of the runabout and right into Hawke, freezing both instantly. The runabout could handle it... Hawke wasn't so lucky as it gave the fire breathing Gorn the perfect chance to make his way the rest of the distance to him and chomp down, gouts of flames coming from between its teeth and cooking the now half eaten security member.

"Hawke!" Clinging to the shuttle's interior bulkhead, Angel hauled herself to the hatch to look for Hawke, squeaking in surprise and slamming the hatch shut when the ice-breathing Gorn appeared. Not a moment too soon, as liquid nitrogen sprayed against the outer hull, making the interior feel as though it had dropped a good ten degrees. Knowing there was no way anyone outside would have survived that, she peeked through the tiny window in the hatch, just in time to see the fire-breathing Gorn reappear and eat half of the frozen security officer. It was the creepy Romulan space station all over again, only this time with fire and ice breathing dinosaur men. "Go! Get us out of here!"

Nexi practically lept into the pilot's chair, not even waiting for the hatch to fully close before punching in a course and getting the shuttle out of there. It felt like they couldn't get out of that place fast enough! Her hands were shaking against the console as they flew out of the Borg cube and she knew her heart wouldn't stop racing until they were back aboard the Hera. "Alright, before we get back to the ship, do body checks, make sure we ain't getting borgified or that we got any fuzzy hitchhikers!"

Amelia nodded from the copilot seat. "Internal sensors show some nanoprobes on the landing gear and that's it. Ejecting it all now." After a slight whoosh from the underbelly of the craft, Amelia pulled out the second detonator she had rigged and waited a few seconds to make sure they were clear before she pressed the button on it.

Inside the cube, the explosives at both locations went off, causing a cascade antimatter reaction that vaporized the cube and sending a shockwave across the shuttlecraft. The turbulence wasn't too horrible... as long as you were strapped in... Then it suddenly stopped and the comms squelched to life.

=/\="Runabout Thor, do you read. This is the USS Hera calling the USS Thor. Please respond." the voice said.

Amelia opened the comm line and responded. "USS Hera, this is the USS Thor, we're here."

=/\="USS Thor, when you landed on that cube, we lost communications with you. As soon as it started to go, everything vanished into a singularity. What's your status?"

Amelia wasn't sure to make of that. "Ship is secure and we're returning with four. Hawke and Wang didn't make it."

=/\="Roger that. Sending docking instructions now."

Angel had not quite managed to hop/hobble her way to a seat when the shuttle took off and the Cube exploded. The turbulence had been nothing compared to the space station when it had exploded, but it was enough that when everything stopped shaking and the Hera made contact, she was on the floor. Again. And wondering if she'd hit her head, with all the talk of singularities and the Thor having briefly disappeared. "Just... get us in the shuttlebay." She wasn't sure how they were going to land safely without the landing gear, but she didn't much care either. "Have Captain Telvan meet us there. She's going to want to hear this..."