Sol System – USS Artemis-A falls victim to malicious Fleet Formation Mode code and an unprecedented Borg assimilation.
The USS Artemis-A (NCC-81287) arrived at Frontier Day after a two-day journey from their encounter with a Borg Cube in the Badlands. Following a brief rendezvous with the USS Kitty Hawk to return the rescued Amity Outpost crew and temporarily swap a few officers to fill critical roles, the Luna-class vessel and her crew joined the gathering formation. However, all communications were quickly overridden by the start of the ceremony.
As the USS Enterprise-F emerged from Earth Spacedock and Adm. Elizabeth Shelby began her Frontier Day address, events took a sudden and dire turn. An unknown shrieking signal interrupted the transmission, and when it subsided, a significant portion of the Artemis’ crew had seemingly been assimilated into a new Borg Collective. Locked out of her own ship’s controls, Capt. Addison MacKenzie, along with LtCmdr. Robin Hopper, Lt. Silveira, and Lt. Jovenan, were forced to retreat from the bridge under fire from the newly assimilated Ens. Jaseb Chevalier and his cadre of officers. Left behind on the bridge, LtCmdr. Talos Dakora and Lt. Nathan Richards managed to escape into the Ready Room, barricading the door as Chevalier seized control of the Artemis and opened fire on the Kitty Hawk. A chilling transmission followed, broadcast on all frequencies: “We are the Borg,” intoned Chevalier. “Eliminate all unassimilated.”
Meanwhile, below decks in Sickbay, Cmdr. Genkos Adea made a desperate call for help as he barricaded himself in the infirmary with a nurse and LtJg. David Flint, who was recovering from surgery, while countless assimilated former comrades relentlessly attempted to reach them. Similar scenarios played out across the ship, leaving the Artemis on the brink of being lost.
After donning spacesuits and blowing out the Captain’s Ready Room window, Dakora and Richards embarked on a perilous spacewalk across the Artemis’ hull as the battle raged outside. They re-entered the ship on Deck 5 with one objective: to reach the computer core and disable the Fleet Formation Mode.
Having escaped the bridge, Capt. MacKenzie’s group armed themselves after a skirmish with Borglings in the transporter room and reunited with Security Officers LtJg. Savel and Delri’ise near the Intelligence Suite. With their sights set on rescuing Cmdr. Adea in Sickbay, the group created a diversion, unwittingly sending an army of Borglings directly toward Richards and Dakora’s position.
Facing fierce resistance, Richards and Dakora fought their way through several of their former colleagues and reached the computer core, battered and bruised. Their situation became even more precarious when an explosive device forced them to dive down the computer core maintenance shaft, spanning several decks. Despite these challenges, the pair succeeded in disabling the Fleet Formation Mode, freeing the Artemis from the remote-controlled chaos affecting the rest of the fleet.
With local control restored, the remaining crew of the Artemis must now find a way to subdue the Borglings and regain control of their ship before it’s too late.
Written by: Talos Dakora
