"So, the Captain said, 'In Starfleet, sometime you have to pick the lesser of two Zeebles."
The table of retired Admirals erupted in laughter, much to the annoyance of nearby patrons at the restaurant. Risa's suns had passed the horizon hours ago, but the restaurant was as lively with various groups now as it had during the sunset hours. The Admiral who had told the last tale was still wiping tears with his napkin as the laughter turned to chuckles.
The Klingon at the table placed his drinking glass on the table with a heavy hand, achieving his goal of gathering the group's attention. "Excellent tale Calgar! I think it's time to hear from Admiral Beringer. You were the last of Starfleet's active Captains to fly an Excelsior-class ship before they were decommissioned. Tell us about an interesting mission with her."
Kathryn's mirth faded and she looked into her wine glass. "Him, my ships were always referred in the masculine tense." She turned away and looked toward the view of the deep, silent complete blackness of the ocean. "Solaris was my finest ship and I fought hard to keep him that way for as long as I could." She raised her glass, "if I may, esteemed colleagues, a toast to our ships and crew of the past. May they forever fly among the stars."
The other three Admirals raised their glasses. Admiral Matthew Calgar further added, "until they burn their last lights". He smiled at Kathryn and his grey closely trimmed beard revealed a clean row of white teeth.
Admiral Granon Trex, the Klingon, slurped his glass empty before admonishing Kathryn. "I hope you are not dodging your story telling this evening Admiral."
Having returned Matthew's smile with one of her own, Kathryn looked to Granon. "Patience is a virtue in the rest of the galaxy. If you learned it earlier you may have had your rank bar quicker." Kathryn smirked as the others almost spit up their drinks. Granon grinned as he wiped the corners of his mouth.
"This was in the Mirror Universe -", Kathryn was interrupted by the collective groan from the group. "Oh, be quiet. If you read my report, then nothing I'm about to say is new."
"My crew had just foiled an attempt by the Terran Empire to use the Bajoran Wormhole as a stable gateway between 'Verses. I ordered Solaris to enter the wormhole to conduct various scans and probes, you know, standard protocols -"
"Let me guess," Admiral Tracy Kent interrupted. Her bright red lips a stark contrast to her white-powdered face and long, straight, dark black hair. She looked more Vulcan than Human at her advanced age, and certainly spoke like one. "Your ship mysteriously found it's way into the Mirror Universe by some technical means only your Chief Science officer could explain rationally."
Kathryn feigned surprise, "you knew Omazei too?" Both women chuckled. "Yes, the details escape me now and I don't recall how much I cared to know then. All I knew is the Wormhole not only dropped us off in the Mirror 'Verse, we were also at the approximate coordinates in the Delta Quadrant where the tunnel ends." She shrugged, "or begins depending on your point of view."
"How did you know you were in the Mirror Universe?" Granon refilled his glass as he spoke.
"Easy. There was nothing on the other side. Except a Borg Cube."
Granon coughed into his drink, Matthew's eyes widened., and Tracy crossed her arms with a smirk. Kathryn calmly took a sip from her own glass.
Tracy broke the silence. "Well, you are sitting with us, so you clearly survived the encounter."
"Don't spoil it Tracy," chided Matthew.
"It's understandable. As you all know, spending time with Omega Force means you get training and equipment. Needless to say, we made it back. Beat up, but we did it."
Granon wasn't satisfied. "How are the 'Mirror Borg'?"
Kathryn frowned as she recalled the event. "We actually considered they would be radically different from our version. You know, being in an alternate Universe. After several minutes in silence, we decided to scan the Cube for anomalies or differences. Then they responded over the comms."
Matthew and Granon were clearly involved. Tracy still had her arms crossed. Kathryn continued, "It was a little disappointing to hear the monotone voice saying, 'Hello Captain. We are the Borg." She opened her eyes wide and twisted her lips to mimic a robot talking.
"Did they really say 'Hello Captain'?" Tracy looked skeptical.
Suddenly looking annoyed, Kathryn said, "of course not. I'm just being jovial about a tense situation." She relaxed. "My senior staff started making suggestions, but once the Borg beams started flashing, there was only one logical course of action."
"Fight?" Matthew grabbed his glass and drank a gulp.
Kathryn shook her head, "run. We dodged, weaved and rolled as Solaris would allow. My Chief Engineer yelled Andorian curses at every maneuver I ordered. Meanwhile, my Science Chief worked frantically to find a way back home without bringing these Borg with us to DS9."
"Nothing a simple interphasic shift couldn't solve, right Admiral?" Granon finished his glass again.
Tracy chimed in, "indeed. If I recall, align the deflector dish to emit a Tachyon burst and -".
"No, not this time." Kathryn interrupted and continued without pause. "I ordered our entire payload of Nukara web mines deployed and when the Cube was slowed we came about and poured as much firepower available. We probably burned out a few emitters in the process. The Cube fractured and that's when we knew we won. They fought back hard though." Kathryn finished her glass. "When it was done we took our time licking our wounds while also finding our way out. We also reviewed combat logs and scanned the debris field."
Matthew finished his glass and quickly raised his hand at a passing waiter to order more wine for the group. "What did you find?"
Kathryn huffed. "Our scans proved the Borg were not from our Universe."
"But how are the Mirror Borg different from our Borg?" Tracy repeated Granon's earlier question finally showing interest in the tale.
"From the entire experience, I can't say they are different at all. We concluded that Borg are Borg, no matter what 'Verse you're in."
As i walked out onto the bridge, tension was in the air. This was a new ship, USS Illusive, only weeks out of drydock on its shakedown cruise. A Sao Paulo Refit with all the weapons i could bring to bear, excellent ship... Sir we are picking up several ships on an intercept course. On viewer, the screen flickered and on it -the borg, bane of my existance. We were already in a sad state from an accidental incurion into the mirror universe, several key systems were offline. Shren, my first officer, breen with total lack of emotion and a mutual hatred of the borg, muttered something in breen that was undoubtedly a curse. "we are the borg, lower your shields an surrender your ship..." -viewer off. Red alert all hands man your battlestations, i know we arent in the best state for action but i dont wanna wake up on the wrong side of the bed assimilated either, we will get through this... we have work to do.
-sorry for the rough edges i have not done any fan fiction for several years, my grammar not withstanding i hope you enjoy.
Section 31Lane/Jeffjr/Varek @jeffjr USS Stadi/USS Grendel/USS AshigaruDreadnought Class Refit / Avenger Class Refit/Rhode Island Class Refit"With your shield or on it"/"Mors venit ad omnes."/"One with courage is a majority"https://www.youtube.com/@jeffjr84
We have been traveling through the Mirror Universe and have been hailed by a borg ship of quite illogical design...
First Officer: "Captain, what appears to be an assimilated mass of bio-material is heading towards us. It seems to be haling us, Captain?!"
Captain Dahm: "On screen, maintain distance Miss Kensenko"
Amorphous blob: *A gutwrenching mumble of trillions of voices screaming in anguish fills the intercoms
Captain Dahm: "Filter that audio file, run human speech logarithms...there is something familiar there..."
Seven of Eleven: "Filtration complete, Captain"
Captain Dahm: "Play the file"
*Audio file: "BORG, FEEEED!!! MORE FOOD..."
Seven of Eleven: "Sir...there's something else..."
Captain Dahm: "What it is?"
*Isolated whisper:" run...it will assimilate you....your thought will be its thought...mooovvveee."
*A giant mass of the blob explodes towards the I.S.S. Continuum, cutting through shields and begins absorbing the outer hull
Q: "You have seen enough" *snaps fingers
The borg blob has vanished in a burst of white light. Damage to the ship has been repaired
Q: "The collective in this universe prefers a more..."hands on" approach. All matter becomes more bio materal, your thoughts becomes its thought. I can assure you...you are not prepared for this "version"
They had taken the ship in no time, the unknown ship had pulled them through some sort of anomaly into some sort of mirror universe, and in the span of an hour the ship was theirs. Most of the crew fought like fierce warriors, a few tried to flee only to be taken by the cybernetic monstrosities ravaging the ship. Krotious had managed to set up barriers throughout the ship, in an effort to funnel them into narrow corridors, but the creatures kept adapting to every tactic. These weren't like anything He'd ever seen though, they were too strong, too fast. They almost seemed to enjoy the horrors they were putting his crew through, and to be honest, this was possibly the first time Krotious had really felt alive.
He would have to make his way down to main engineering, if he was going to make a last stand, that would be the place to do so. As he did so though, the movements of the enemy shifted as well. As he passed through corridors, the drones would beam in around him, fighting any crew as well as tearing apart the ship as they went. If he moved into maintenance shafts, they would begin tearing through the bulkhead as he passed. At one point, a Drone managed to slice into his leg as it was cutting through the wiring around a power conduit. Krotious rolled to his back and kicked hard against the supports firing at the conduit as he slid further down.
Rather than the explosion he was expecting, there was a brilliant plume of green that streamed forth, igniting several machinations as they were pulling his ship to pieces. It had managed to be just as satisfying though. He moved through to a different junction though, as the plasma fire began to spread into the shaft. It was probably a critical system, but at the rate these things were pulling his ship apart, it wouldn't really matter. Each time he poked his head out for a look, more and more of the invaders showed up, eager to pull his ship apart. He climbed out near the armory to grab any explosives he could, but as he put his weight on his leg, it buckled on him. The gash must have been deeper than he thought, having torn right though his armor. He was almost envious of a blade that sharp.
Krotious made a slight detour to the medical bay, though he was relatively sure that there would be no one left alive there. He was right however, with things like this, he usually was. As Krotious came through the access hatch, he found his ship's doctor. At least what was left of him, the neck bones were a dead give away though. He searched for what ever medical equipment he could find, but it almost seemed as if these damned machine men had been stripping the ship, none of this made sense. Early scans showed that their squared ship had been much more advanced than his, so why they would need to plunder his ship was beyond him.
From the look of it, everything of use had either been taken or smashed, including the Medic who had been mostly just a stain on the wall (minus the neck bones or so). The best he could find was a surgical laser scalpel. Not needing to make the cut deeper, he smashed the emitter against table a few times before jamming it in his wound and turning it on. He roared as the device instantly overheated and began cauterizing his wound. He let it cool for a moment as his leg went some what numb, before stuffing the broken device into his belt for further injuries. He pressed forward towards the armory, only to find his armory staff splattered in a remarkably familiar fashion. It had to be some kind of high energy pulse wave weapon, but the shear power of it, to liquify a body as it was.... Krotious would definitely have to pull on of these things apart to see what he could add to his own arsenal.
There were no real weapon left, but he was able to use his tactical training to cobble together a small incendiary device. He checked the room for any interface that hadn't been smashed or covered in his former crew mates. He managed to root around the computer a little, and was able to get a good readout on the enemy locations. The arrogance. They weren't even locking him out of his own systems. This was either a trap, or there really was no hope for his crew. Perhaps once he was in engineering, he could lock out the systems and make a jump to warp, or at least over load the core and blow the alien ship to Gre'thor.
He'd heard stories of ships and people being pulled between universes, but he just seemed to think that they were made up. The humans tended to have too many stories that were too ridiculous. Time travel, liquid gods, beings that could change the world with a snap of their fingers. But there were reports in the Klingon records: a Kirk from enterprise, that bald Captain from the Cardassian station, there had even been claims that these Mirror universe people could jump over at will, even pulling entire ships over, similar to what had happened to him. He didn't care what universe these abominations were from, they would lament the day they crossed Krotious and his crew. He made a few more checks through the computer then headed out towards the shuttle bay.
Not a single craft had been launched, not a fighter, not a shuttle, not even a single lifeboat. The crew was falling back, losing deck by deck. He threw up a few more energy barriers pushing the drones towards the bulkhead. Each terminal he accessed on his way to the shuttles gave less crew life signs and more of those devils. Upon his arrival in the shuttle bay, he checked the locations of crew and invader, then promptly blew all of the airlocks. He only lost a few crew, but the machine men took heavy losses. He smiled though, at the thought of all those things floating in space. The next move Krotious made was to launch anything he could remotely. He placed them all into random attack patterns that ended with self destruct collision courses.
It would only be a distraction tactic at best against a ship like this. It would buy him minutes only, but it would hopefully be enough to get him down to engineering for this one last stand. With so few of the drones tearing his ship apart Krotious was able to take the turbolift the final way. He walked through the halls of his ship one last time. Krotious hadn't been Captain of it long, but he had been rather pleased with himself to be in charge of such an advanced ship like this one. Completely of enemy design, this ship was like nothing else the empire had seen before, and he would have considered it a great honor to take such a vessel into battle.
His heart was pounding, the adrenaline flowed, and there was blood soaking through his sleepwear. It was times like this that made him miss the Empire, those times where he was tearing through the ships for what ever treasures he wanted. They were good times, his days on that marauder, and he certainly didn't want them to end at the hands of these machine men. As he turned the corner, he was almost floored by what he saw. The entire passage had been destroyed. Bodies lie everywhere, both Klingon and machine, some were still alive. They moaned and tried moving, but the wounds were too great. They were suffering, and all Krotious could do was send them to Sto-vo-kor, and for this many people, he only had the one thing that would work.
He dropped the incendiary as he limped down the final passage way. There were no screams as the flames spread over the hall way and all those laying in it. Krotious could feel the flames as he walked, but he couldn't stop to honor them. He had one last task to accomplish before he could join them at the gates. He strode in proud, angry, determined. He was going to pilot what was left of his ship into the strange alien craft and blow them both to the next life. He plot the course and set the self destruct, and nothing happened.... He tried once more, and again, they did nothing.
"They won't respond to you any more..."
It was a gruff, gravelly voice, that he'd never heard before.
"That's why you never locked me out."
"Why bother, when I was already in control?"
"Why take control of a ship only to tear it apart for salvage?"
"Salvage? Hardly. I'm retrofitting it. I like the design, Fek'Ihri?"
Krotious nodded as he slowly removed the broken surgical laser while the large monstrosity blathered on. Out of nowhere, he lunged and the man with all the machinery melded into his flesh, but he spun faster than his size would normally allow. The monster of a man caught Krotious by the wrist, shattering the bone instantly in the vice grip of that metal talon.
"GAAAAHHH!!! You Honorless petaQ! Just end me and get this over with!" Krotious uttered, with a palatable venom.
Krotious was then grabbed by the neck in that cold metal talon and raised into the air.
"Do you really think that is what I wanted? I have taken your ship, I have killed your crew, I could have taken your life at any moment of my choosing, but did you not notice how my drones were not attacking you? They went about their business, and you only seemed to be an after thought. No Krotious, I have bigger plans for you." the over sized figure spat with that dry raspy voice of his.
"How do you know me?" Krotious managed to choke out.
"While I am far superior, do you truly not recognize me? I do have my mothers eyes."
Krotious looked long and hard, passed the scarring, passed machinations that were fused almost effortlessly with his flesh. As he did so though, he was horrified at the realization that this demon was in fact his mirror self.
"I am Krotious of Borg" the thing hissed, and by the time I am done with you, you will will wish that you had died along with your crew mates."
Krotious of Borg began trying laugh aloud, squeezing all the harder into the throat of his mirror self. Krotious blacked out slowly, the last thoughts of whether or not he would live through any of it.
Another great turnout! Nice work, Captains! Very interesting ideas on what the mirror Borg would be like. I hope you choose to participate in the next one.
Speaking of the next one, I am going to unstick this as I prepare to post up #56. As always, if you have not had a chance to post your entry yet, feel free to do so!
Comments
The table of retired Admirals erupted in laughter, much to the annoyance of nearby patrons at the restaurant. Risa's suns had passed the horizon hours ago, but the restaurant was as lively with various groups now as it had during the sunset hours. The Admiral who had told the last tale was still wiping tears with his napkin as the laughter turned to chuckles.
The Klingon at the table placed his drinking glass on the table with a heavy hand, achieving his goal of gathering the group's attention. "Excellent tale Calgar! I think it's time to hear from Admiral Beringer. You were the last of Starfleet's active Captains to fly an Excelsior-class ship before they were decommissioned. Tell us about an interesting mission with her."
Kathryn's mirth faded and she looked into her wine glass. "Him, my ships were always referred in the masculine tense." She turned away and looked toward the view of the deep, silent complete blackness of the ocean. "Solaris was my finest ship and I fought hard to keep him that way for as long as I could." She raised her glass, "if I may, esteemed colleagues, a toast to our ships and crew of the past. May they forever fly among the stars."
The other three Admirals raised their glasses. Admiral Matthew Calgar further added, "until they burn their last lights". He smiled at Kathryn and his grey closely trimmed beard revealed a clean row of white teeth.
Admiral Granon Trex, the Klingon, slurped his glass empty before admonishing Kathryn. "I hope you are not dodging your story telling this evening Admiral."
Having returned Matthew's smile with one of her own, Kathryn looked to Granon. "Patience is a virtue in the rest of the galaxy. If you learned it earlier you may have had your rank bar quicker." Kathryn smirked as the others almost spit up their drinks. Granon grinned as he wiped the corners of his mouth.
"This was in the Mirror Universe -", Kathryn was interrupted by the collective groan from the group. "Oh, be quiet. If you read my report, then nothing I'm about to say is new."
"My crew had just foiled an attempt by the Terran Empire to use the Bajoran Wormhole as a stable gateway between 'Verses. I ordered Solaris to enter the wormhole to conduct various scans and probes, you know, standard protocols -"
"Let me guess," Admiral Tracy Kent interrupted. Her bright red lips a stark contrast to her white-powdered face and long, straight, dark black hair. She looked more Vulcan than Human at her advanced age, and certainly spoke like one. "Your ship mysteriously found it's way into the Mirror Universe by some technical means only your Chief Science officer could explain rationally."
Kathryn feigned surprise, "you knew Omazei too?" Both women chuckled. "Yes, the details escape me now and I don't recall how much I cared to know then. All I knew is the Wormhole not only dropped us off in the Mirror 'Verse, we were also at the approximate coordinates in the Delta Quadrant where the tunnel ends." She shrugged, "or begins depending on your point of view."
"How did you know you were in the Mirror Universe?" Granon refilled his glass as he spoke.
"Easy. There was nothing on the other side. Except a Borg Cube."
Granon coughed into his drink, Matthew's eyes widened., and Tracy crossed her arms with a smirk. Kathryn calmly took a sip from her own glass.
Tracy broke the silence. "Well, you are sitting with us, so you clearly survived the encounter."
"Don't spoil it Tracy," chided Matthew.
"It's understandable. As you all know, spending time with Omega Force means you get training and equipment. Needless to say, we made it back. Beat up, but we did it."
Granon wasn't satisfied. "How are the 'Mirror Borg'?"
Kathryn frowned as she recalled the event. "We actually considered they would be radically different from our version. You know, being in an alternate Universe. After several minutes in silence, we decided to scan the Cube for anomalies or differences. Then they responded over the comms."
Matthew and Granon were clearly involved. Tracy still had her arms crossed. Kathryn continued, "It was a little disappointing to hear the monotone voice saying, 'Hello Captain. We are the Borg." She opened her eyes wide and twisted her lips to mimic a robot talking.
"Did they really say 'Hello Captain'?" Tracy looked skeptical.
Suddenly looking annoyed, Kathryn said, "of course not. I'm just being jovial about a tense situation." She relaxed. "My senior staff started making suggestions, but once the Borg beams started flashing, there was only one logical course of action."
"Fight?" Matthew grabbed his glass and drank a gulp.
Kathryn shook her head, "run. We dodged, weaved and rolled as Solaris would allow. My Chief Engineer yelled Andorian curses at every maneuver I ordered. Meanwhile, my Science Chief worked frantically to find a way back home without bringing these Borg with us to DS9."
"Nothing a simple interphasic shift couldn't solve, right Admiral?" Granon finished his glass again.
Tracy chimed in, "indeed. If I recall, align the deflector dish to emit a Tachyon burst and -".
"No, not this time." Kathryn interrupted and continued without pause. "I ordered our entire payload of Nukara web mines deployed and when the Cube was slowed we came about and poured as much firepower available. We probably burned out a few emitters in the process. The Cube fractured and that's when we knew we won. They fought back hard though." Kathryn finished her glass. "When it was done we took our time licking our wounds while also finding our way out. We also reviewed combat logs and scanned the debris field."
Matthew finished his glass and quickly raised his hand at a passing waiter to order more wine for the group. "What did you find?"
Kathryn huffed. "Our scans proved the Borg were not from our Universe."
"But how are the Mirror Borg different from our Borg?" Tracy repeated Granon's earlier question finally showing interest in the tale.
"From the entire experience, I can't say they are different at all. We concluded that Borg are Borg, no matter what 'Verse you're in."
-sorry for the rough edges i have not done any fan fiction for several years, my grammar not withstanding i hope you enjoy.
Stardate: -308996.38873033994...January 2nd, 2014...
We have been traveling through the Mirror Universe and have been hailed by a borg ship of quite illogical design...
First Officer: "Captain, what appears to be an assimilated mass of bio-material is heading towards us. It seems to be haling us, Captain?!"
Captain Dahm: "On screen, maintain distance Miss Kensenko"
Amorphous blob: *A gutwrenching mumble of trillions of voices screaming in anguish fills the intercoms
Captain Dahm: "Filter that audio file, run human speech logarithms...there is something familiar there..."
Seven of Eleven: "Filtration complete, Captain"
Captain Dahm: "Play the file"
*Audio file: "BORG, FEEEED!!! MORE FOOD..."
Seven of Eleven: "Sir...there's something else..."
Captain Dahm: "What it is?"
*Isolated whisper:" run...it will assimilate you....your thought will be its thought...mooovvveee."
*A giant mass of the blob explodes towards the I.S.S. Continuum, cutting through shields and begins absorbing the outer hull
Q: "You have seen enough" *snaps fingers
The borg blob has vanished in a burst of white light. Damage to the ship has been repaired
Q: "The collective in this universe prefers a more..."hands on" approach. All matter becomes more bio materal, your thoughts becomes its thought. I can assure you...you are not prepared for this "version"
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
He would have to make his way down to main engineering, if he was going to make a last stand, that would be the place to do so. As he did so though, the movements of the enemy shifted as well. As he passed through corridors, the drones would beam in around him, fighting any crew as well as tearing apart the ship as they went. If he moved into maintenance shafts, they would begin tearing through the bulkhead as he passed. At one point, a Drone managed to slice into his leg as it was cutting through the wiring around a power conduit. Krotious rolled to his back and kicked hard against the supports firing at the conduit as he slid further down.
Rather than the explosion he was expecting, there was a brilliant plume of green that streamed forth, igniting several machinations as they were pulling his ship to pieces. It had managed to be just as satisfying though. He moved through to a different junction though, as the plasma fire began to spread into the shaft. It was probably a critical system, but at the rate these things were pulling his ship apart, it wouldn't really matter. Each time he poked his head out for a look, more and more of the invaders showed up, eager to pull his ship apart. He climbed out near the armory to grab any explosives he could, but as he put his weight on his leg, it buckled on him. The gash must have been deeper than he thought, having torn right though his armor. He was almost envious of a blade that sharp.
Krotious made a slight detour to the medical bay, though he was relatively sure that there would be no one left alive there. He was right however, with things like this, he usually was. As Krotious came through the access hatch, he found his ship's doctor. At least what was left of him, the neck bones were a dead give away though. He searched for what ever medical equipment he could find, but it almost seemed as if these damned machine men had been stripping the ship, none of this made sense. Early scans showed that their squared ship had been much more advanced than his, so why they would need to plunder his ship was beyond him.
From the look of it, everything of use had either been taken or smashed, including the Medic who had been mostly just a stain on the wall (minus the neck bones or so). The best he could find was a surgical laser scalpel. Not needing to make the cut deeper, he smashed the emitter against table a few times before jamming it in his wound and turning it on. He roared as the device instantly overheated and began cauterizing his wound. He let it cool for a moment as his leg went some what numb, before stuffing the broken device into his belt for further injuries. He pressed forward towards the armory, only to find his armory staff splattered in a remarkably familiar fashion. It had to be some kind of high energy pulse wave weapon, but the shear power of it, to liquify a body as it was.... Krotious would definitely have to pull on of these things apart to see what he could add to his own arsenal.
There were no real weapon left, but he was able to use his tactical training to cobble together a small incendiary device. He checked the room for any interface that hadn't been smashed or covered in his former crew mates. He managed to root around the computer a little, and was able to get a good readout on the enemy locations. The arrogance. They weren't even locking him out of his own systems. This was either a trap, or there really was no hope for his crew. Perhaps once he was in engineering, he could lock out the systems and make a jump to warp, or at least over load the core and blow the alien ship to Gre'thor.
He'd heard stories of ships and people being pulled between universes, but he just seemed to think that they were made up. The humans tended to have too many stories that were too ridiculous. Time travel, liquid gods, beings that could change the world with a snap of their fingers. But there were reports in the Klingon records: a Kirk from enterprise, that bald Captain from the Cardassian station, there had even been claims that these Mirror universe people could jump over at will, even pulling entire ships over, similar to what had happened to him. He didn't care what universe these abominations were from, they would lament the day they crossed Krotious and his crew. He made a few more checks through the computer then headed out towards the shuttle bay.
Not a single craft had been launched, not a fighter, not a shuttle, not even a single lifeboat. The crew was falling back, losing deck by deck. He threw up a few more energy barriers pushing the drones towards the bulkhead. Each terminal he accessed on his way to the shuttles gave less crew life signs and more of those devils. Upon his arrival in the shuttle bay, he checked the locations of crew and invader, then promptly blew all of the airlocks. He only lost a few crew, but the machine men took heavy losses. He smiled though, at the thought of all those things floating in space. The next move Krotious made was to launch anything he could remotely. He placed them all into random attack patterns that ended with self destruct collision courses.
It would only be a distraction tactic at best against a ship like this. It would buy him minutes only, but it would hopefully be enough to get him down to engineering for this one last stand. With so few of the drones tearing his ship apart Krotious was able to take the turbolift the final way. He walked through the halls of his ship one last time. Krotious hadn't been Captain of it long, but he had been rather pleased with himself to be in charge of such an advanced ship like this one. Completely of enemy design, this ship was like nothing else the empire had seen before, and he would have considered it a great honor to take such a vessel into battle.
His heart was pounding, the adrenaline flowed, and there was blood soaking through his sleepwear. It was times like this that made him miss the Empire, those times where he was tearing through the ships for what ever treasures he wanted. They were good times, his days on that marauder, and he certainly didn't want them to end at the hands of these machine men. As he turned the corner, he was almost floored by what he saw. The entire passage had been destroyed. Bodies lie everywhere, both Klingon and machine, some were still alive. They moaned and tried moving, but the wounds were too great. They were suffering, and all Krotious could do was send them to Sto-vo-kor, and for this many people, he only had the one thing that would work.
He dropped the incendiary as he limped down the final passage way. There were no screams as the flames spread over the hall way and all those laying in it. Krotious could feel the flames as he walked, but he couldn't stop to honor them. He had one last task to accomplish before he could join them at the gates. He strode in proud, angry, determined. He was going to pilot what was left of his ship into the strange alien craft and blow them both to the next life. He plot the course and set the self destruct, and nothing happened.... He tried once more, and again, they did nothing.
"They won't respond to you any more..."
It was a gruff, gravelly voice, that he'd never heard before.
"That's why you never locked me out."
"Why bother, when I was already in control?"
"Why take control of a ship only to tear it apart for salvage?"
"Salvage? Hardly. I'm retrofitting it. I like the design, Fek'Ihri?"
Krotious nodded as he slowly removed the broken surgical laser while the large monstrosity blathered on. Out of nowhere, he lunged and the man with all the machinery melded into his flesh, but he spun faster than his size would normally allow. The monster of a man caught Krotious by the wrist, shattering the bone instantly in the vice grip of that metal talon.
"GAAAAHHH!!! You Honorless petaQ! Just end me and get this over with!" Krotious uttered, with a palatable venom.
Krotious was then grabbed by the neck in that cold metal talon and raised into the air.
"Do you really think that is what I wanted? I have taken your ship, I have killed your crew, I could have taken your life at any moment of my choosing, but did you not notice how my drones were not attacking you? They went about their business, and you only seemed to be an after thought. No Krotious, I have bigger plans for you." the over sized figure spat with that dry raspy voice of his.
"How do you know me?" Krotious managed to choke out.
"While I am far superior, do you truly not recognize me? I do have my mothers eyes."
Krotious looked long and hard, passed the scarring, passed machinations that were fused almost effortlessly with his flesh. As he did so though, he was horrified at the realization that this demon was in fact his mirror self.
"I am Krotious of Borg" the thing hissed, and by the time I am done with you, you will will wish that you had died along with your crew mates."
Krotious of Borg began trying laugh aloud, squeezing all the harder into the throat of his mirror self. Krotious blacked out slowly, the last thoughts of whether or not he would live through any of it.
Speaking of the next one, I am going to unstick this as I prepare to post up #56. As always, if you have not had a chance to post your entry yet, feel free to do so!
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=