Returning back to Illiran space the Wabi Sabi opted to remain in orbit this time. It gave Pax more flexibility that being in a surface dock would take from any decisions he would need to make in the coming days. Working closely with the Illiran medical scientists the Sabi crew developed a cure to the Borg nanovirus that was now affecting an estimated 40 million people via their personal nanite factories. Brilliant devices that were worn like a watch on the wrist that helped to boost the individuals immune systems, not replacing but aiding. It was a brilliant move by the Borg, after Voyager’s return and their failed invasion attempt, they must have been down to a handful of vessels gaining control of a planet like Illiran would be a tactically significant success.

Pax wouldn’t let that happen, he and the Potemkin had defended Illian during the invasion and the Sabi would do so today.

His senior officers had identified the ideal way to disseminate the cure and it was to use the same atmospheric processing tower the Borg had used. The plan would be to beam down Marines and security teams to protect a joint science and engineering team long enough to deliver the cure and break the Borg’s control over the population. The problem being that the Borg were unlikely to just sit around and let that happen. Thus the added security!

Pax deployed his entire 144 complement of marines to patrol and hold a parameter around the tower’s base, with his own security providing fixed position support alongside the Illiran planetary defense force. 

They prepared, they erected static defenses and heavier weapons to deal with any massed attacks. The air was loaded with static from the small man portable shield generators that would protect the amassed forces from artillery and rain streamed down the shield umbrella. Everyone assembled stood in small groups doing their best to appear calm and focused but it was clear they were all apprehensive. It had been over a decade since the Invasion but it was still very much in everyone’s mind. The war and horror stories of returning soldiers were fresh in the minds of the defenders.

The uncertainty how this battle will unfold was the worst part, would they be facing fully assimilated drones or controlled citizens? No one was sure what was worse and everyone worried about it and how they would react. The Sabi’s marines had already found isolated and small groups of drones before the defenses had been finished. Quickly dealt with and beamed into confinement the marines moved on continuing their patrols and looking to thin the enemy numbers further.

It had taken the better part of the day to get the defenses ready and for the science team to prepare the tower to dispense the cure and no one had found where the Borg were gathering, if indeed they had enough control to amass an army. They would soon find out.

The moment the cure was loaded and the tower began the aerosolization they came. From several directions infected Illiran’s began to appear, moving like a drone but with few or no visible augmetics, the Sabi’s Marines quickly took these individuals down with precise stun shots and tagged them for secure transport. When the marines beat the retreat and joined the lines everyone knew it was time. 

An hour later, the Tower was now pumping the cure into the atmosphere, it would take just another hour or so until it started to fall upon them all. The incoming swarm was never ending it seemed, thousands of stunned drones littered the roads blocking egress, only for them to divert and find another way in. Then it came, the only drone on the planet that had arrived, a Gorn, a massive Gorn that had been fully assimilated. It was massive, standing easily 10 feet tall with its tail arched over its head like a scorpion tipped with a powerful looking energy cannon of some kind.

Each step was a resounding thump that could be heard even over the whine of discharging phasers and the heavy downpour. The charging of the tail cannon was clear, it drew the attention of everyone. A sudden bright green flash lit the darkening sky. It impacted the shield cover with such force it shattered the umbrella, blowing out the generator. The shock wave flattened everyone with an echoing klang!

Getting back into position the heavy weapons, too powerful to have been used on the infected spoke for the first time. Searing balls of crimson energy flashed  between the line and the assimilated Gorn striking a shield. Several shots from a portable phaser cannon struck so hard it forced the Gorn backwards but failed to breach them. A slower moving round, a projectile sped over the line and hit the shields with a focused explosion; the shaped charge directing all of the missile’s destructive energies towards the Gorn.

A snap crack signaled the collapse of an already weakened line shield, the bleed through dug a hole 4 meters deep and 6 long. Another missile was fired, from another direction. Two more joining it from above and behind, marine units had infiltrated the buildings surrounding it. All missiles struck with rapid succession overwhelming the already stressed Borg shield. It popped and the Phaser cannons chattered, pumping shot after shot into the heavily armored carapace; digging progressively deeper craters before one got lucky and struck something vital. The Gorn staggered a few steps forward, already dying but still being pummeled by the defenders; it fell to the ground, crushing several infected and drones.

A cheer rose over the din of battle.

It was just minutes until the estimated deadline, after that the Borg control over the infected would be broken. With the Gorn down the defenders returned to stunning all infected and drones that closed in on them; until…

… the deafening roar of engines rolled off the closely constructed buildings, they had shuttle and fighter cover the entire time but this was different. It was bigger, louder and somehow more menacing. Lowering down from the dark storm clouds an Illiran freighter descended and turned slowly to face the tower. It was still hundreds of meters away but it was massive and details were lost in the storm haze, but the telltale green lighting that signified borg assimilation was visible in places.

It fired.

A trio of torpedoes they shouldn’t have even been armed with, the green flash reached them before the sound of them punching through the sound barrier. They were sub-impulse but were closing quickly and even if all the line shields were at full power they wouldn’t stand a chance!

As they closed to within a hundred meters the Wabi Sabi was suddenly there, between the torpedoes and the tower. They slammed into the shields of the vastly more powerful ship crushing like tin cans; hitting a target before arming. Turning away the Sabi lit her thrusters and moved off towards the assimilated freighter snagging it in a tractor beam and pitching up into a steep climb and dragging the weaker ship with it.

Pax took the Illiran freighter back into orbit and then, with permission, to the star; pitching it into the inferno and ending that threat for good.