Author's Foreword: I do not own Mass Effect or Star Trek, only the original content is mine.

[Prologue]

["Rift"] – [Richard James Lester] – [Captain, U.S.S. Imperator – Odyssey Class; NX-97701, Wing XXI, Task Force Omega] – [Hotep Sector, Beta Quadrant] - [February 4th, 2410]

Captain's Report; Stardate: 87094.43. Five years…Five long years…That's how long it took us to push the Borg back…At first it was going well…Then set-back after set-back…Loss after loss…The Borg turned what was meant to be a quick and decisive win, into five years of hell…Of course that's all this sector is now: it's hell out there…But now it's ours again…

STAR TREK: IMPERATOR

"Computer, halt log recording," Captain Richard Lester ordered with a brief look over his shoulder towards his personal computer atop his desk on the other side of his chambers. A brief electronic chirp affirmed his order, letting the aging captain return to some of his more private thoughts about the Borg that he wasn't entirely comfortable putting on record at the moment.

Of all the Starfleet campaigns he'd fought in throughout his fifty-odd years at Starfleet; none had been as bloody or as mentally taxing as the war against the Borg Collective. His thoughts continued to meander through his mind as he clasped his hands behind his back and looked once again out of the large observation window which dominated the far wall of his quarters, letting his eyes wander across the endless star fields in view; it was an even more impressive view since the ship was currently at warp.

Lester frowned as he continued his train of thought; from where he stood, Task Force Omega, while noble in concept, was a standing monument to everything that was equally rotten in all the major powers in the Quadrant, it was filled to the brim with glory-hunters and thrill seekers; a Joint-Federation-Klingon-Romulan organisation sorely lacking in the fundamental strengths of any of its contributors and in experienced crews.

And it had suffered dearly for it.

Lester dared not to think of the Disaster at NGC-4447; where a Task Force Omega fleet, tailing a Borg fleet they had previously shattered to pieces at the Battle of Zemet, were drawn far outside the typical Task Force Omega logistics network and into a three-pronged Borg pincer movement before being subsequently annihilated. The Imperator had been the first to respond to the brief surge in distress signals but arrived as the last Borg cube warped out; leaving behind a massacre on the scale of the Second Battle of Chin'toka.

In the month that followed the disaster, a StarFleet tribunal came to the conclusion that the Borg had intentionally lost the Battle of Zemet to draw out an overconfident Task Force Omega fleet and destroy it in a devastating ambush – which was exactly what happened.

Needless to say, Lester wasn't entirely too pleased with the Federation, StarFleet or the rest of the Task Force right now when it seemed that history was repeating; and was looking like he and the rest of his crew would be paying the price.

The Imperator had been tailing a Borg Cube which had been barely managing to limp ahead of them for the better part of the last three days as it retreated towards the edge of the Hotep Sector after the Borg defeat at the Battle of Relay 314, where the Task Force had managed to isolate a Borg relay station from the rest of the Collective before sending in a strike force to destroy it. While the operation had been a complete success, Richard had been getting bad vibes about the fleeing cube ever since the chase began and had repeatedly called for reinforcements to ensure that when the Imperator finally nailed the Borg cube to one place, it wasn't suddenly enveloped by a Borg relief force.

"Resume log," Lester uttered as he returned to his desk and sat down, "The Imperator has so far followed the Borg Cube through a dozen uncharted systems at the edge of the Hotep sector, all of which we have tagged for future exploration. However, I am confident that the Borg are running out of places to run as during our last encounter we detected readings coming from the cube that are typically associated with a Warp Core overload. We are currently half an hour from the cube's last recorded warp signature, hopefully we can finish this game of cat-and-mouse the Borg are playing with us and return to Spacedock for some much needed shore leave…I for one know that the crew needs it…"

"Captain on the bridge!" announced Lester's first officer, an Andorian commander by the name of Thys Ohozi, as he stood up from the Captain's chair, "The ship is yours, we should be coming out of warp any minute now and entering the system designated as NGC-4487, Captain."

"Thank you, Number One," Lester acknowledged with a smile as he ascended the small step to the central command deck of the bridge which was typical to Odyssey-class vessels, glancing at the large curved view-screen on his right before turning and walking to his chair, just as he sat down and looked directly at the view-screen.

His senior bridge officers occupied a trio of small dual-stations in front of him; helm control and weapons directly in-front, sensor operations - including communications - to the right and shields and other subsytems to the left. A multitude of other consoles,much larger in nature, dominated the circular walls of the moderately large bridge - though they were divided by a thin semi-transparent divider wall after every two console stations; with numerous other consoles jutting out from the wall in the from of interactive transparent screens or small pedestals.

After a few moments his helmsman, a Bolian Lieutenant Commander called Tlalve, dropped the ship out of warp – Richard turned to his science officer, a Trill, "Miranda, situation update please."

"Heading is currently two-one-zero, beginning system scan…" Miranda's response was brief and to the point, as per usual, "We have a yellow main-sequence star…Around halfway through its life-cycle; with two planets in orbit, a class K and a class J…Nothing out of the ordinary for a small system like this…"

Richard leaned forward slightly on his chair, keeping his right arm anchored on the armrest as he looked at the view-screen again, "And the Borg?"

"Still looking…" Miranda replied, looking quickly at Lester as she spoke, "They should still be here…I'm not detecting any warp signa-" a red flash appeared on the view-screen as the Borg cube was detected and highlighted, "Got them! The Borg cube is maintaining a standard orbit above the K-class planet…" she entered a series of additional commands into her console frowning, "Captain…I'm not detecting any power output from the cube…"

Thys and Lester shared a quick look, "None?" Thys asked as he scratched his chin, he turned back to Lester, "Dormant perhaps?

"No, Commander…" Miranda interjected, "Cubes are powered even when dormant, albeit to a much smaller degree than normal…" the Trill paused again, furrowing her brow as she ran her eyes over the readouts on her console again, "But I'm getting nothing at all…No EM, nothing…"

Captain Lester went silent at that, chewing on the side of his mouth in thought before sharing another concerned look with his first officer.

"I don't like this…" Thys spoke first, echoing Richard's own thoughts as the Captain nodded slowly in agreement, "It stinks of a trap…"

"Very much so…" Richard agreed quickly, looking between his first officer and the view-screen before pausing momentarily, "But it also presents an opportunity…Helm…Prepare to warp us into a high orbit of the planet…Lagrange Point One preferably."

"Captain?" Thys asked, the Andorian scrunching up his badly scarred face in confusion, his face remained like this until a thought struck him; his mouth slipped into a sly grin, "What are you thinking?"

"The Borg could be waiting for us to come into range of their transporters…" Lester reasoned, "Power-up…Board us and take us out before we fire a shot…"

What Lester described was a tactic the Borg had been known to use before on occasion, where they faked the dormancy of their vessels in order to entice vessels – and even entire fleets – closer before eliminating them with an en-mass boarding action that overwhelmed the crew, often without having to fire a shot from their ships.

"So what do you propose?" Thys mused as he sat back in his chair.

"If we hold an orbit close to the planet's Lagrange One point, we'll be able to carry out an in-depth scan of both the cube and the side of planet it's currently positioned over…" Richard explained clearly as the ship began to accelerate, "See what the situation is…"

Thys was silent for a few seconds before nodding, "I concur with the Captain's reasoning…But as soon as the opportunity presents itself, we must destroy that cube…"

"I am aware Number One," Richard agreed, his voice quieting, "The more time we spend chasing it from system-to-system, the more likely it is we are engaged by Borg reinforcements…"

The K-class planet, designated as NGC-4487 II, hung motionless on the view-screen as Captain Lester surveyed the hellish-looking landscape below.

"Magnify…" Lester spoke as he stood up and walked towards the view-screen, stopping almost directly on-top of the small step which separated the three dual-officer stations from the small circular command platform.

The screen briefly flickered before an enlarged view of the planet was displayed on the main-screen, Lester clasped his hands behind his back again and studied the terrain of the planet as Miranda started another scan; his eyes hovering over the eerily perfect dimensions of the blacked-out Borg cube as it crossed the day-night terminus line of the planet.

A few seconds passed, each one filling the Captain with greater concern as the Borg cube passed out of visible range; consumed by the inky blackness of the planet's shadow as it crossed onto the dark-side of the planet.

"Captain?" Miranda spoke up as she swivelled in her chair to face Richard, "Still nothing from the cube," Richard nodded at that, his face unmoving as he thought over that glaring irregularity again, "But I have detected Borg activity on the surface…"

Richard's head snapped away from the screen at Miranda's report, "Show me."

Miranda nodded quickly, turning back around to face her station before entering a series of commands into her console; the view-screen snapped away from the view of the planet, changing to a top down view of the planet's northern polar region.

"What have we got?" Richard asked as he turned his head back towards the view-screen.

"I'm detecting a large concentration of Borg in this location," a red icon appeared on the map as Miranda spoke, flashing for a few seconds as she pinged the edge of a polar ice sheet, "They appear to be specifically concentrated by a surface-crack on one of the larger glacial sheets in the region…"

"What's going on here?" Thys muttered as he stood up and walked over to join Richard in-front of the view-screen, "The Borg haven't been known to do this in this sector…" Richard nodded grimly as he looked between his first officer and the map, "They only land on a planet to assimilate life-forms on the surface, something this planet sorely lacks," he added with a nod towards the map.

Richard was silent for a few moments, he turned back towards Miranda, "Miranda, can our sensor penetrate that ice sheet? Find out what about that glacier has the Borg so captivated?"

Miranda entered another series of commands into her console, "I'll try, but I'm not sure how accurate the readings will be due to the depth of the ice sheet…"

"Noted," Richard said quickly, his tone unchanging, he turned back to Thys, "What do you make of this Number One?"

Thys scratched his check slowly at the question, "It's certainly not standard Borg behaviour…Especially for this cube, they'd usually have jumped to another system by now…"

Richard nodded, his first officer was right about that for sure; the Borg cube had barely spent 20 minutes in any one system during its retreat, never mind the hour and a half it had spent in this system alone.

"Captain," Miranda began as she turned around again, "Sensors aren't picking up anything specific…I'm only detecting a large concentration of various metals down there…"

"Processed or unrefined?" Richard asked quickly, the Captain knew that both options were likely very bad for his ship with the Borg involved.

"I'm unable to determine their nature…" Miranda answered a few seconds later, frustration noticeable in her tone, "Sorry, Captain."

"That's alright Lieutenant Commander," Richard uttered sympathetically before turning back to Thys, "What's your thoughts on the matter, Commander?"

The Andorian looked at the point on the map that Miranda had highlighted and scratched his chin, "Could either be a structure buried under the glacier or a concentrated vein of minerals…" Lester nodded, "Normally I wouldn't see the Borg stopping for either of them; unless they are guarded by beings they can easily assimilate…"

"Which doesn't seem to be the case here either," Richard said, continuing his first officer's point, "So we have ourselves a mystery, Number One…"

"We should take this opportunity to destroy the cube; the Borg seem preoccupied," Thys suggested as the view-screen switched back to their commanding view of the planet, "We may not get a better opportunity…"

Lester paused for a moment at the suggestion, taking a few moments to contemplate the idea; for all intents and purposes his first officer was entirely correct, the Borg wouldn't be able to effectively respond to an attack with their attention divided between the Imperator and whatever they were doing on the planet. However, for all Richard knew, this was the spring for the Borg trap he'd been expecting.

"Sound a Yellow Alert," Richard commanded as he returned to his chair with Thys in-tow, the klaxon for the alert sounded immediately as a yellow light fell over the bridge in a sweeping pattern along the now-dimmed overhead lights, "Helm, set a course for the Cube; full impulse. Tactical, ready forward torpedo tubes with quantum torpedos and ready beam arrays…"

Lester shared a quick look with his first officer now that they were both seated, "Let's spring the trap then…Sensors! I want to know if there's the slightest hint of more Borg ships on an intercept course with us."

A resounding chorus of 'Aye sir's resonated across the bridge as Lester felt the mighty vessel accelerate beneath him.

"Red Alert!" Lester bellowed as he entered a series of commands into his armrest computer, "All hands to battle stations!"

The Borg Cube loomed above the Imperator now, completely covering the entirety of the bridge view-screen even before the vessel entered effective weapons range. Even after more than five years of fighting the damned things, Lester couldn't shake the feeling of pure terror he felt when fighting such monstrous star ships.

"Still no energy output from the cube, Captain!" Miranda reported over the blaring of the red alert klaxon, Richard smiled; looks like Thys' gambit would be correct after all.

"Ready anti-proton beam banks one and two…" Richard commanded level-headedly as he glanced at the looming shape of the Cube on the view-screen, "Fire at will on my mark," he paused for a moment as he assessed the status of the cube, "Fire!"

The two tone blare preceding the firing of the beam array filled the bridge and soon the space between the two vessels was criss-crossed by dark crimson beams which cut through the unresistive hull of the cube, leaving behind terrible gashes and scars in their wake.

"Helm, drop us to one-half impulse power and standby to turn to port; tactical make ready for a volley of quantum torpedos from the forward tubes, full spread," Richard ordered in quick succession as the anti-proton beams made short work of the Borg Cube's hull, the various stations quickly reported that they were ready to carry out their tasks, "Execute!"

A barrage of quantum torpedos flew out from the front of the Imperator, crossing the distance between the Federation vessel and the malformed cube in less than two seconds as the Imperator veered to port, still firing an assortment of anti-proton beams from its forward arrays.

Lester gripped the edge of his armrest as the Imperator began its large turning circle, "All batteries are clear to fire!" he ordered as the Cube entered the firing arcs of the Imperator's rear arrays and torpedo tubes.

"Captain the Cube's hull integrity has fallen to forty-three percent!" Miranda yelled across the bridge as another volley of torpedos were launched from the rear tubes of the Imperator, "Still nothing from the cube!"

Richard was more than happy about that, "Keep up the fire then!" Lester ordered before turning to one of his most experienced Tactical officers, "Nick! Standby to hit that cube with a torpedo spread and a concentrated beam shot!"

"I'm on it, Captain!" Nick affirmed as he set to work on his console, a few moments later he turned to face Lester again as the Imperator once again presented its fore-weapon arrays to the Cube, "Ready, Captain!"

"Captain!" Miranda shouted again, urgency in her voice as Lester looked at her, his mouth ready to give the command to Nick, "I'm getting a power surge!"

Lester's eyes shot back to the view-screen before Miranda had finished speaking, "From the Cube?" Lester asked quickly as he gave an affirmative hand gesture for Nick to fire.

"No, sir!" Miranda reported back as Nick's salvo began, the space between the Imperator and Cube was soon filled with crimson red anti-proton beams and quantum torpedos, "From the planet! Directly where we detected that concentration of Borg!"

"The hell?!" Lester yelled as the Cube took the impact from Nick's salvo of intense fire and started to roll backwards, exposing the countless holes and craters that dotted its immense surface, he looked at Thys in concern.

"Captain…I…Uh," Miranda looked lost for words as the Cube powered up three seconds later, "There's an energy trail leaving the planet!"

"Direction?!" Lester demanded to know, "Helm! All emergency power to engines, back us up!"

The entire ship jerked uncomfortably as the engines were slammed into reverse and flooded with reserve power."

"Sir the Cube is advancing on us and locking weapons!" another bridge officer, a Vulcan by the name of Poss, yelled over the growing calamity on the bridge as the situation quickly deteriorated; the space around the Cube flickered as the next wave of ordinance harmlessly impacted against an unseen barrier, "It's rais-"

"Right towards us!" Miranda yelled, cutting off the rest of Poss' report as Lester looked back at the view-screen and cursed.

"Emergency evasive manoeuvres!" The Captain yelled as the ship started to turn on its axis to evade the first salvo of ordnance from the Borg Cube, "Get us out of the wa-"

Lester's sentence came to a sudden halt as a burst of white energy tore past the Imperator, narrowly missing the ship, before terminating in a blinding flash of light that almost shorted the view-screen out – blinding many of the officers present.

Richard groaned as the ship shook underneath him, looking back at the view-screen as he blinked rapidly to clear his vision, his eyes widened as the view-screen cleared slightly. A colossal rift had formed in the space between the Imperator and the Cube, it was blinding to look at, even with the view-screen attempting to compensate for the surge in the brightness levels – with bright flashes ebbing out of the rift every few seconds or so.

"What the hell is that?!" Lester asked aloud, pointing in the direction of the view-screen as he squinted his eyes to see through the freak-distortions along the edge of the rift.

"No idea, Captain!" Miranda replied over the persistent blaring of the klaxon as the Borg Cube stopped firing, "But whatever it is, the Cube is heading straight for it!"

Lester's eyes returned to the view-screen as the bridge windows behind him darkened, only to be confronted with the view of the colossal Borg Cube speeding straight for the Imperator; his hand shot for the ship-wide intercom, "All hands! Brace for impac-"

The Borg cube vanished in a flash of light as it made contact with the rift, causing the rift to pulse several times as Richard yelled at Tlalve to throw all the power into the engines and reverse.

The rift collapsed in on itself and dissipated, leaving the bridge crew of the Imperator in a stunned silence as many of them let out a sigh of relief; Richard himself relaxed the painful grip he'd been holding onto his armrest with as the red alert klaxon continued to blare.

"Miranda…Situation update, please," Richard requested as he stood up and walked towards the now-empty view-screen, "Go to Yellow Alert…"

With Richard's order the intensity of the klaxon relaxed slightly and the room brightened up as the combat lighting gave way to the Yellow Alert bridge lighting, Miranda turned to face her console again, the Trill blinking just as fast as everyone else on the bridge as they all tried to clear the spots out of their vision.

"The Cube is gone…" Miranda reported after a short delay, "That's for certain, there's some residual phase-energy in the area but it's dispersing rapidly…" Miranda brought a chart from the ship's sensors and continued, "There was a local spike in the concentration of an element I'm not entirely familiar with right as the rift collapsed…" she turned around again and brought up a surface map of the same polar region, "As for surface activity, however…" Miranda paused as the Imperator turned to face the planet and quickly began a scan of the region, "Looks like there's still plenty of Borg down there…" with that she trailed off, her brow furrowing in concern, "And…And they've found something in the ice…"

"Damn it," Richard muttered, dismayed at the news; who knew what the Borg had found down there? For all he knew right now, they were the ones who caused the rift, after all it would explain why the Cube powered up and charged directly towards where the rift would appear while exchanging as little fire with the Imperator as possible, "Thys," Lester turned on the spot to face his first officer, "Organise an away team…" Thys nodded and quickly walked off of the bridge towards the turbolift as Richard turned to face Tlalve again, "Lieutenant Commander, bring us into low orbit above the planet's north pole…"

The helmsman wasted no time in plotting the new course as Lester stared at the surface map which was still on the view-screen, he clasped his hands tightly behind his back his let out a prolonged sigh, "This mission just got a lot more complicated…"

Author's Sidenote: This is a fic I've been writing during my travels to and from university the past few days, it may end up being a one-shot piece but I'll likely continue it if I have the time and it picks up enough interest. The intent, as it stands anyway, was to have this lead into a Mass Effect crossover at some point, but we'll see how that pans out.

As always, please leave feedback about your thoughts.

Until next time,

CAS2109

EDIT (01/11/2016): I've decided to change the Imperator's bridge from the Aquarius design to the standard Odyssey design after some thought on the matter; mainly because I believe that the standard Odyssey bridge is far more practical communication-wise (due to it being more open) than the Aquarius (where the Captain is shielded from half of the bridge by a wall for some reason). As such, I'll be revising the next few chapters where I've made references to the Imperator's bridge appearance, please let me know if you spot anything which I've missed during the course of this revision.

EDIT (20/11/2016) - Yes I am still alive: I've reduced the Imperator's NX number to a more reasonable 97701 - changed from 93701 because STO's numbering system is stupid and gave me a number 4000 lower than it should have been.