Author's notes: A little knowledge of the MMO Star Trek Online will make understanding the Star Trek elements of this story better to understand. I don't own the game or franchise, however a number of named characters are my creation, Likewise, Mass Effect and its characters are property of Bioware, I may have a few OCs for moving things along.

The story shall begin Gamma Orionis, a sector of the Beta Quadrant that the Borg have made a massive offensive effort.

Task Group Alpha 3 Bravo- Gamma Orionis; Enroute to the TransWarp Conduit

It was an irregular operation, but one that was more neccassary than most. Escourt Starfleet Corps of Engineers vessels as well as monitor Romulan vessels operating in the warzone. Romulans there as guests of the commanding officers of the task group. The state of the Alpha Quadrant was complicated and ever changing. Mere years ago, The Klingon Empire was cold and distant with the Federation, and the Romulan Star Empire was scattered across their former holdings.

Now, within Taskforce Omega, all three were working to force the Borg out of the Quadrant. The Task Group was assembled from several elements at the last minute. A group of SCE vessels lost their escourts and were ill equiped to fight off any Borg vessel. Romulan warships were there to prove that New Romulus could hold it's own and help defend the Alpha Quadrant.

Under the watchful eyes and sensors of some of the most powerful and heavily armed vessels Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force could offer. Powerful ships and crews that were taking every measure to go unnoticed. A group of ships like this would undeniably be a tempting target for the Collective.

USS Road to Victory- Sao Paulo Class Escourt(Retrofit)

"Admiral, the Romulans are reporting fluctations in their singularity drives. We've been monitoring them for the past 72.48 hours."

The report belonged to Fourteen of Fifteen, a Borg drone recently liberated from the Collective by Vice Admiral Skaarsgard and crew. Due to recent Borg innovations, it was all but impossible to remove any of his cybernetics, and yet, he was making surprising strides in fitting in witht he small crew of the escourt. As much as a drone coming into individuality can; he was often cold and distant off duty, and was more professional than a Vulcan on duty.

"Hail their lead vessel for a formal inquery. If there is a small, out of the way star system, we should head there for repairs," the grey heaired human said from his chair. He tugged at his uniform jacket, regretting the long dress jacket, but his MACO armor was undergoing retrofits. He felt naked without it, and the crew knew it. A trill officer carried out his orders, and before long the Romulans answered.

"Ah, Admiral, I see everyone is keeping close watch on everyone else. Looking out for our wellbeing, I hope," Subcommander S'Rae greeted, a female in mismatched uniform pieces from various sources. The Subcommander was there as a guest of the Klingon commander, and had made every effort to cooperate. Despite the ties being built between the Federation and the Empire, it was a tough road, filled with many traitors and obstacles. But being in Gamma Orionis was a big step to the future of New Romulus and it's new allies.

"Gamma Orionis is not the place for proud, brave face and sticking out trouble. If the Borg wanted it, they could take this task group apart in minutes. And a pair of Mogai and a D'Deridex with new plasma weaponry would be an enticing target," Skaarsgard said, leaning forward in his chair as the Romulan crew in the background murmured amongst themselves.

"You are right, Admiral. There are a number of uninhabited or uncharted systems toward the Mutara Nebula. That should be haven enough to sort out our engines."

The admiral nodded to the subcommander and ordered a course change for the entire task group toward a small, easily overlooked binary system. To maintain security, they could not travel at maximum warp; not that all ships could handle the brutal stresses of surpassing Transwarp for extended periods. So, travelling at a seemingly sluggish Warp 4, the task group would reach their destination in under eight hours.

IKS Endbringer- Bortasqu' Flagship Cruiser

A massive ship was always a hive of activity, and the Endbringer was certianly no exception. Flagship to Leiutenant General Tovono Bur'Kol, a Klingon liberated from the Collective, was the test bed of anti-Borg weaponry. That mainly meant making it work to begin with. Tovono was currently up to her biceps in an EPS conduit, cutting out damaged sections of the conduit after it exploded during a weapon test. Just after getting the ship tuned to it's antiproton beam refit, new reverse engineered equipment was throwing things into disarray all over again.

"General, Main Engineering reports that the new Kinetic Cutter will be ready for testing within the hour. Also, the task group has changed course toward an uncharted system," the bridge reported. The general grumbled and stepped away from the junction box. Typing a command into her left armguard, the familiar hum and lights of a replicator process temporarily overloaded her eyepiece. Tapping a small button on the implant surrounding the scope to reset it's software.

"Very well, keep me posted on our progress. Tell the weapons crews to inspect our weapons before testing the Kinetic Cutter. I don't want our weapons to fail should we run into the Borg."

The General navigated the dim corridors to the turbo lift and rode in silence. She had been keeping tabs on everything within the task group; aware of power fluctuations on every ship, one Romulan vessel was doing a lot of communicating on secure channels to another, and the lone carrier in the group was having a lot of diciplinary problems. Evidently the crew was not fond of being in the task group, particularly escourting Romulans.

Stepping off the lift, she strode down an empty corridor, contemplating a sonic shower and catching up on some reading. Physically Klingon, the liberation of Tovono revealed many un-Klingon tendencies in her personality and thought process. It made her highly controversial, but that was far outweighed by her proffeciency for destroying the Borg in every encounter. She placed elavated value on maintaining the lives of her crew, training her tactical teams to respond quickly to Borg boarding parties.

But High Command's wishes and desires were irrelevant to her. Her crew and job out in Gamma Orionis were her priorities. As well as fulfilling needs to socialize with other cultures. Where her reading came into play. Mostly historical accounts of other cultures, but occasionally fiction of various types. Perhaps a human romance. She arrived in her private quarters when a slight shudder rippled through the ship. Things like this were not uncommon, but she would make it a point to scan the ship's structural integrity fields, just in case.

Task Group Alpha 3 Bravo would not make arrive at the layover. Power fluctuations on all ships would continue, grow in strength, and a mere hour our from the uncharted system, it vanished. Every vessel simply disappeared in a spatial distortion that spanned millions of kilometers. One might argue it was the will of the ever antagonistic Q, or perhaps the Iconians. For all intents and purposes however, the ships and crew were gone forever.

Rather than be destroyed in some cruel cosmic twist, the task group would turn up... elsewhere. Split apart and scattered, they will find themselves in most unfamiliar surroundings...

When Wulfgar Skaarsgard finally awoke, he was fairly certian it was not a momentary loss of consciouness. His body ached and audibly protested pushing himself from the deck. The bridge was dimly lit with emergency lighting, and no one else seemed to be awake. Once upright, he checked the console beside his chair, finding it unresponsive. While he was breathing now, he wasn't so sure that would last.

Stepping over the bodies of his sleeping crew, he opened a wall panel to access the manual enviromental controls, then began checking on the crew. The first he checked on was the recently liberated Borg drone, still referred to only by his former designation. Fourteen roused after the admiral pulled him upright. Setting the drone to work reviving the rest of the bridge crew, Wulfgar and his Andorian First Officer Takerra made their way toward Engineering.

"I know it's too early to ask, but any idea what happened, Admiral?" she asked, hoisting an ensign up and leaning his form against the wall.

"None at all. If it was Q, he'd be gloating over us by now. I'd bet the Iconians would be doing the same. Borg would have assimilated us by now."

"Well, hopefully Fourteen can figure it out quickly. Because Pastuer will be cranky when the computer comes online," Takerra said, knowing the Medical Hologram was usually cranky anyway.

"I think we can make sure he comes online last. I'm not really in the mood for him either," Wulfgar said, opening a panel to force the turbolift to take the pair down to the engineering deck. The deck above was dark and the deck below a hive of activity. The engineering teams cleared a path for the Admiral and as he stepped into Main Engineering, he could tell the explainations were going to be unpleasant.

"Let me start with the bad news," One of Three said, a liberated human Borg, one who wore uniform and showed little signs of assimilation save an occular emplant over her right eye and long white hair. "Main power is out, computer and sensors as well. We're also rebalancing the EPS grid, for some reason the plasma levels are completely... I do not know how else to put it. We're leveling the plasma levels and recharging the conduits to restore main power. After that, everything else will come in short order."

"Any theories as to what happened? Did Main Engineering lose power at all? Based on all the things we've been dealing with within the last year, the possibilities are too numerous for my liking," the Admiral said, crossing his arms over his chest. "The Warp Core never shut down or lost containment. From what we can tell, the nacelles are also intact with no sign of containment failure. Our tricorders are acting up, we're recalibrating them to see if we can find something until we get main sensors online again."

The Admiral could feel a headache approaching, like a predator waiting to pounce on him. Could one really be prepared for anything, like omnipetent beings, temporal incursions? "I'm going to suit up and space walk the hull," he said, turning to leave engineering. "To... inspect for damage?" Takerra inquired, visibly unsure of what her captian was planning. "I can do that while I clear my head," Wulfgar said, stepping out.

The officers stood in silence amid the hive of activity. "We don't know know where the rest of the task group is. The Admiral is responsible for more than this vessel. It must weigh heavily on him," One of Three stated, more rhetorically than inquiring. "Then let us hope for a speedy resolution," the Andorian said, going to the wall shelving for tools and a tricorder. "I'll help with what I can.

IKS Endbringer

Normally pushing oneself off the deck after falling asleep drinking, it was hard only due to disorienting hangovers. Now, it was difficult due to malfunctioning gravity plating. Breathing was hard enough, and General Bur'kol's residual Borg nanites and body coditioning were struggling against the gravity. Unlike Federation ships, her quarters were small, she was never too far from her large armor locker. Orion crewmembers joked it was similar to a human female's closet, but she didn't pretend to understand, not that it mattered.

Straining her body to raise up to her hands and knees, she heaved and gasped for air as she crawled the few short feet for the locker. Pulling her self upright almost caused her to pass out. Borg however could not easily pass out, not under duress like this. Breifly reeling from the lightheadedness, she forced open the locker and pulled the heavy Honor Guard armor down to the floor. Casading sweat made it hard to worm into the armor, but once she had it on and sealed it, then she could breath easy.

The armor was an exoskeleton, adjusting minutely as it powered up and gave her a chance to catch her breath. Punching her comm panel, she wheezed before growling a command.

"Bridge, report! Why is the gravity deck trying to crush me?"

Silence followed, and after waiting a moment, she tried the computer. It was online, but evidently over taxed and could not spare a gigaquad to answer. Not a good sign. Looking around her messy single room, she walked over to the door. When it did not open, placing a hand over the metal revealed it was hot, though the suit protected her hand. A fire on the other side and fire surpression was not active.

Rushing back to her locker, she sorted through weapons until she found the one she wanted. A functional trophy from a Breen captian, the CRM 200 was quite simply called an 'ice beam', freezing matter by draining it of molecular energy. Also effective for putting out all manner of fires. Pulling the manual override to the door, she stepped back as an angry firestorm tried to force into her quarters.

lowering the weapon, she sprayed the area just outside the door, extinguishing the immediate area and began pushing her way down the corridor. Her visor shielded her vision from the light and after what seemed like an hour the pushed through the fire. Spying a console on a junction bulkhead, she quickly tore the cover off and set to work. Borg efficency took over as she began to manually engage fire suppression systems, reduce gravity plating to fifty percent power, and erect forcefields over structural fractures and breaches. But she couldn't access the entire ship this way.

"General!" the comms suddenly came back to life. "You finally freed up the computer!"

"What happened, First?" Tovono asked her Jem' Hadar security officer.

"The Reman and the scientists are still piecing that together. But its part computer error, it keeps saying there are fires and hull breaches in intact sections, but there are still fires to put out. The engineers are stuck in the engineering decks, turbolifts are online. No engines, no antiproton weapons, but we have sheilds and two functioning torpedo tubes."

"What's the bad news, First?" she asked, know the Jem' Hadar always save the bad news for last.

"No sign of the task group, and we are tracking several unidentified vessels traveling inbound at warp speeds."

'Damn my luck,' the general cursed internally. "I'm coming to the bridge. Even if I have climb up every access conduit to get there.