It was barely dawn, yet inside the city of Topachan, hundreds of Borg were hard at work. Darkness was irrelevant to them, their purpose on this world was the only thing that mattered. They had a great deal of work to complete before Bint’Ari was fully Borg, and there was absolutely no reason to let darkness inhibit their progress.

It was hard to say whether or not the Borg knew about the people massing outside of the city. At the moment, they, too, were irrelevant. Their assimilation was inevitable, but there were other, more important tasks at hand. Their assimilation could wait. And since they were not yet Borg, what they were doing now was inconsequential.

The people outside of the city saw the situation very much differently. Every second that passed was another bit of damage that the Borg caused their world. To the people, the death of every last Borg on the surface was inevitable. But, the Bint’Ari had less patience for inevitability than did the Borg. They wanted to take their world back, and time was in the way.

To these people, the reclaiming of their capitol was the essential first step in total eradication of the Borg. Resistance cells had already taken back a vast majority of the cities, but Topachan represented something very special to all of them. That city was all of Bint’Ari, and as long as Topachan was in chains, the whole of Bint’Ari was could not be free.

No one bothered to make extensive plans for retaking the city. A date was set, and word was spread. Everyone hoped that enough people would show up to mount a successful offensive. No one expected the masses that arrived to reclaim their society.

First there was the Guard. They had lost all control of the resistance a long time ago, due to a breakdown in communication. Yipu surprised the world, however, by gathering three hundred Guard units outside of Topachan before the liberation began. This was well over three quarters of the remaining units on the planet. The Guard gathered outside the city could in all likelihood retake it by themselves. But the Guard was not fighting this war alone.

Resistance cells, composed primarily of the average man, had come from all over the world. To them, this was Armageddon. The final confrontation between good and evil. And each of them knew that they would emerge victorious.

Perhaps one of the most unusual, and most promising of the people who were gathered outside of the city was a small group known as the Praetor Cell. Their group had attained legendary status throughout the world. Tales of their victories were told before battles. Their plights inspired victory where it was thought impossible. All because of two aliens, Ti’Hat and the Vulcan. Very few people knew their real names, but only because no one really cared what they were. They had become mythical figures. People referred to them the way that people of an ancient Earth referred to the likes of Hercules, Paul Bunyan, Ulysses, Moses, or Superman. People credited these two for the salvation of their world by the greatness of their exaggerated deeds. Though this was far from the truth, one could argue that the hope that they provided was enough of a driving force for the people of Bint’Ari to become their own salvation.

So, when the darkness fled before the child of morning, the rosy fingered Dawn, the Borg suddenly found reason to abandon their work. The surge of the not-yet-Borg Bint’Ari made themselves the utmost in relevance.

—

“The city is huge!” Torres marveled, as she studied the map that was laid before her. The Borg had brought about considerable change to the structure of the city, but they had not been there long enough to fully decentralized the city in the assimilation process. The maps were still of use.

“I would hypothesize that the Borg will be concentrated in these two areas,” suggested Tuvok, circling areas of the city with his finger. “The abundance of available technology would provide ideal points for resource distribution. Also, that the Borg will have established their planet-based hive mainframe in one of these areas, as well as a center for the assimilation of the Bint’Ari populace.”

“Is there time to let the other groups know to focus their attacks in those areas?” Torres asked.

“No,” replied Oro. “Dawn will be here in minutes. Besides, I don’t think this attack is going to come close to even resembling organized.”

“Agreed. It would be prudent to divide this group into two smaller units, and concentrate each on one of the industrial zones. Perhaps other groups will follow our example.”

Oro thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think the rest of them will go for it.”

“Why not?” Torres asked.

Oro rubbed his eyes, shaking off the sleep. “To be honest, most people are going to want to follow the two of you. Anyone chosen to be in the second group will view it as an insult. This is not a day for low morale among the troops.”

“That is most unfortunate,” replied Tuvok. “The solution is simple, however. You and I will pilot the shuttle to this industrial zone, with half of the group accompanying us in their fliers. Lt. Torres will lead the other half of the group on foot to the closer zone. Hopefully, the people will be amenable to that course of action.”

Oro nodded his head. “I think they will agree to that. I will go and divide the troops.” He stood and walked back to the center of the camp.

As Oro walked away, Tuvok shook his head. “Our apparent rise to mythological stature is precisely why we should have adhered to the strictest letter of the Prime Directive in the first place. The cultural damage we seem to have brought about is precisely the reason for the order.”

“Tuvok, I may agree with you,” replied Torres. “But I still think we had no other choice. If we want to get off of this world, the Borg must be stopped. And we couldn’t have done it alone.”

“Agreed,” Tuvok nodded slowly. “Hopefully, Voyager will not have left the area without us.”

—

Dawn spread over the valley that the city rested in, and cheers erupted throughout the crowds. Men everywhere picked up their swords, and gathered in preparation for the assault. Torres picked up her blade, her third since she began fighting with the Bint’Ari. She had broken the other two. No doubt these tales already had become myths as well, even though broken blades were not uncommon with such old weapons.

She faced the city she was about to enter, and wondered at the amazing turn of events. In the last few weeks, she had been a part of something she never had dreamed she would be, not even as a member of the Maquis. One minute she was onboard a shuttlecraft, the next she was leading an army against the Borg. Her Klingon mother would certainly be proud, her daughter leading men into battle. Now she would have something to boast to the holographic warriors on her and Tom’s Day of Honor program. However exhilarating it all was, she still longed for Voyager, her engine room, and Tom.

The thought of Tom sobered her for a second. She hadn’t even thought about him in the last several days; she was too caught up in all of the fighting. She imagined he was worried to death about her, and it made her sad. She shook it off quickly. Anything but anger now would mean her death. Plenty of time to worry about Mr. Paris when the Borg were gone.

She looked back into the faces of the group that would follow her into the city. They didn’t care that they were going to be lead into one of the most concentrated areas of Borg in the city. They were being lead by her, the mythical Ti’Hat, and they couldn’t be happier. Torres decided not to warn them that they should be very concerned. It would be pointless to do so. Freeing their world from the Borg was more important, and jitters would make it a hopeless cause.

They wasted no time in starting forward, as their destination was several miles within the city bounds. People cheered as they marched onto the city highway. Swords were raised, and they people had to restrain themselves from bolting into the city at full speed. Energy had to be conserved for the long journey, and the fighting along the way.

The group walked close together for about an hour before they sighted their first Borg. He was dismantling a comm-link, no doubt to use the components somewhere else. Torres barked orders to the men behind her to ignore the Borg. If they were to attack it, others would come. They needed to get to the industrial zone fresh and as energetic as possible. There was no reason to kill the Borg here, and start a battle too soon.

Torres turned to Alu. “We need to move faster.”

“There should be an transport dealer a bit up the road. If it hasn’t been dismantled by the Borg, we should be able to use some of the vehicles there,” Alu replied.

Moments later, the group arrived at the auto lot. Several Borg were working around the complex, just beginning to dismantle the vehicles there. The vehicles were somewhat reminiscent of the “hot rods” Tom had in one of his holodeck programs.

“Where are the keys kept for those?” Torres asked the group, hoping someone would know the answer.

“Keys?” someone replied. “What do you mean?”

“How do you start those vehicles?” she snapped back.

The man regarded Torres as if she were a child. And angry glare changed his attitude.

“You just press the ignition button. It starts right up.”

Torres shook her head in disbelief. So easy! She motioned for the group to attack the Borg in the lot. The battle was quick, as the Borg were easily outnumbered. Unfortunately, Torres’s group, in announcing themselves as a threat, had got the attention of every Borg within a couple of miles who were not occupied fighting other groups. The fifty warriors piled into the cars, and followed Torres towards the industrial zone.

Alu raced the car down the road, trying to pick streets that were not occupied by the Borg. He wheeled around a corner, and saw three Borg advancing up the street straight towards them. Torres, who was in the back of the car, looked behind her and saw the convoy of vehicles. Alu hit the accelerator, and charged toward the Borg blocking the road. The Borg didn’t bother to move out of the way as the car smashed into each of them one at a time, smashing nearly every bone in each of their bodies. As the convoy passed, several of the cars swerved to run over the fallen Borg, insuring their deaths. The last car in the convoy ran over a Borg mid-self destruct, and the car disintegrated along with the crushed soldier.

The convoy raced down the street, Torres occasionally checking the map of the city that appeared on the tricorder in order to get a bearing. A moment later, the car skidded around a corner, and Torres saw a giant factory looming ahead of the convoy several blocks down.

“The computer factory,” commented Alu.

Torres nodded, and Alu continued on towards the building. It was approaching mid-day, and Torres wanted to be inside of the factory with plenty of light left.

A large truck moved into an intersection ahead of the convoy, and Torres immediately noticed that there was no one driving the truck. It stopped, blocking the entire road. It was covered in various Borg components, receivers and transmitters. Torres thought that the truck itself was somehow tied into the Borg consciousness, and being remotely controlled by them.

Alu slammed on the breaks of the car and turned the wheel. The car skidded and slammed into the large cargo truck. The front end of the of the car crunched down when it hit the truck, and Alu screamed in pain as the metal sides of the car crushed the life out of him. Torres and Aila, who was also in the car, jumped out, and ran for the side of the road just before the truck erupted into flames. The two ducked between two buildings as a second car slammed into the truck, hitting the fuel tank. The entire mangled wreck exploded. Shards of glass and metal flew in all directions, several pieced imbedding themselves into the other cars, who had all stopped well before the truck. After the shrapnel storm ended, the survivors crawled out of their vehicles, and inspected the crater the explosion left in the road.

“We’ll have to walk the rest of the way,” announced Torres, as she made her way to a wrecked car in the center of the convoy. She opened the door, and handed a sword to each of the surviving men. After they were all armed, the group made their way around the crater and on towards the factory.

—

The rest of the journey towards the factory was uneventful. No Borg were found in the wide road leading to the gates. The group knocked down the fence surrounding the factory, and moved towards the building. Ahead of them, dozens of Borg had stopped their work, and advanced on them. Torres howled, and charged towards the advancing Borg. Her group followed, yelling and waving their swords at the Borg.

The steadily advancing Borg group collided with the charging Bint’Ari, and the screeching sound of swords hitting metal was heard. Several Borg found themselves without heads or other limbs immediately, while many of the Bint’Ari were thrust aside by powerful Borg blows. The battle began to spread out a bit, as the Bint’Ari needed more room to swing their swords.

Torres fought ferociously, but the Borg outnumbered the small Bint’Ari band significantly. Every time Torres killed one, another Borg stepped forward and took its place. After the seventh Borg fell before Torres, she found herself unchallenged. She took a deep breath and glanced to see how her companions were faring. She was pleasantly surprised. Decapitated Borg were strewn all over the factory yard, and the numbers had evened out. Then she saw something that terrified her.

One of the younger fighters, who’s name she did not know, barely missed a Borg with a heavy, off-balance blow. The Borg responded by grabbing the boy, whirling him around, and lashing his neck with two thick chords from his fingers.

Assimilation. The Borg had resumed assimilating the Bint’Ari. Torres lifted her sword in anger and raced across the battlefield, killing two Borg in single swipe as she passed them. She raised her sword as she met the Borg who had attacked the boy, and in one swift motion cut off his arm. She swung her sword around, and brought it down on the creature’s shoulder, destroying the component on its shoulder that controlled its self-destruct mechanism. The Borg disintegrated immediately.

Torres turned towards the boy, who was screaming in pain. She took a deep breath, then plunged her sword deep into the boys chest, killing him instantly. She raised her head and howled for the boy’s spirit. She was surprised to hear the chorus of voices that joined her. She stopped, and looked to several men standing near the boy, with tears in their eyes. One who stood next to Torres placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for your mercy, Ti’hat. I could not have killed him, even though it saved his soul.” The man wiped a tear from his eye, and walked away. Around her, the last two Borg in the battle fell to the ground. She lifted her hand and activated the communicator on her chest.

“Torres to Tuvok.”

“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

“Tuvok, the Borg have resumed the assimilating the Bint’Ari.”

“Acknowledged. Tuvok out.”

Torres sighed as the surviving men gathered around her, eager to discuss how they were going to take the building, which was certain to be full of Borg. Mercifully, another group approached the yard, ending Torres’s concern about how they were going to take a Borg stronghold with only twenty men.

—

Tuvok ignored the various warning lights that flashed as soon as he began to lift the shuttle off of the ground. Torres had warned him that the shuttle was not going to know if some of the more ‘creative’ repairs she had made were going to operate properly. Oro was worried, though, but he remained silent as he sat nervously in the seat next to Tuvok. The six passengers in the back of the shuttle were equally worried, wondering if a thing without any sort of wings could actually fly.

Oro and Tuvok decided that it would be a waste of fliers to just use them to transport troops to an industrial center, so they were going to first use them to attack other suspected Borg concentrations before arriving at the industrial zone. The fliers were equipped with automatic projectile weapons, and the Borg had at times proven to be vulnerable to a bullet. Tuvok programmed the phaser emitters on the shuttle to randomly change frequencies, so that the shuttle could also function as a fighter. Tuvok estimated that the shuttle’s phasers would be effective for about fifty shots. Since the phasers on a shuttle were considerably more powerful than a hand phaser, they would be harder for a soldier to adapt to.

So the flier squadron sent several cycles attacking various Borg groups that were about to advance on Bint’Ari resistance fighters. The result was a positive one, as the ground troops were defeating Borg groups much more quickly than they would have without the air support.

“Isn’t it funny?” Oro commented, after one of their more successful attacks. “That we are fighting a ground battle with one of the most primitive weapons, an Aria, while also using fliers, the most advanced piece of equipment on the planet?”

“The juxtaposition of technological polarities is certainly interesting, but I would hardly classify it as ‘funny,’” replied Tuvok.

“Don’t you ever laugh, Vulcan?” chuckled Oro.

“No,” Tuvok replied, steadily.

“I’m not surprised. Actually, I do not think much of anything could surprise me anymore.”

“Torres to Tuvok,” Tuvok’s communicator beeped.

“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

“Tuvok, the Borg have resumed the assimilating the Bint’Ari,” Torres relayed through the communicator.

“Acknowledged. Tuvok out.” Tuvok looked into the horror stricken eyes of Oro.

“What are we going to do? We can’t attack that industrial zone now. We’ll lose too many men to assimilation,” exclaimed Oro.

“We must proceed. The Borg have constructed the equipment they need to begin assimilation in one of these industrial zones. No where else in the city has the technological capacity for such a facility. The assimilation will stop as soon as we locate and dismantle that facility.”

Oro nodded. “But I don’t want to risk anyone until we absolutely have to.”

“What do you suggest?” asked Tuvok.

“Can we destroy the industrial zone from the air?”

“Unlikely. We would require a great deal more firepower than we possess, and there would be no guarantee that the Borg or the Borg mechanisms inside would be destroyed.”

“Well, we can still do ground strikes. We can make certain every Borg outside of the complex is dead before we land. At least we will be at full strength when we enter the compound.”

“Agreed. But we are limited in our ammunition. It will not be long before we run out.”

“It will be enough,” replied Oro. “If we run out, we will run them down with the fliers themselves. I don’t want to see anymore assimilation.”

—

Oyi, the leader of the group that augmented Torres’s, suggested that they use the explosives that they had brought to blow open a side of the complex. This would provide an element of surprise to their attack, and hopefully would take a few Borg with them. Torres agreed, and the three explosives experts spent nearly a cycle rigging the bombs all over the cargo doors that encompassed the southern wall of the compound.

With the explosives rigged, the small army retreated to a safe distance, and the wall was detonated. The explosive was effective, and the entire wall blew open, leaving a giant entrance for the group to enter. Before the dust settled, several Borg exited the building through the hole, trying to ascertain what had happened. The Bint’Ari charged forward, and killed all of the advancing Borg before they realized they were being attacked. The Borg still working inside of the warehouse turned to attack the intruders, and a bloody battle ensued.

The group unquestionably chose the right wall to blow, as the entire area was cluttered with Borg mechanisms. Walls were knocked down, and the structural integrity of the building was enhanced in order to accommodate the missing walls. Makeshift rows were erected up and down the area, lined with Borg regeneration pods. All of the Borg that had been in a regenerative cycle had been called out, to eliminate the intruders. The center row was twice as wide as the other rows, and was filled with surgical tables and storage units for Borg implants. Two Bint’Ari were each on tables, half covered in the Borg mechanisms.

The battle lasted a long time, and was very costly. Every time a Bint’Ari was assimilated, he was killed by another Bint’Ari, to spare him. The Borg were falling fast, but they outnumbered the Bint’Ari by a large margin. The Aria proved to be the great equalizer, as a Borg soldier was unable to withstand an attack for more than a few minutes without being decapitated.

Torres stopped fighting once she realized the battle was under control. Borg were dropping like flies, so she did not need to worry about them any longer. She set her mind to finding a way to dismantle the assimilation facility. Since the explosives were all used in their entrance, she decided the primitive way was the best. She picked up a heavy, metal pole, and smashed everything she could reach. Before the Bint’Ari outside finished fighting, Torres had reduced the assimilation facility to scrap metal.

—

Tuvok’s approach to entering his facility was less spectacular. After the flier squadron landed, and the remaining outside Borg were killed, Oro lead the group of Bint’Ari into the complex, through the front door.

This factory had been converted in a similar fashion to the assimilation complex, only there were no rows of regeneration pods occupying the empty space. A dismantled Scout cube sat in the middle of the warehouse, with various terminals and data nodes attached to the main computer inside of the cube. Tuvok opened up his tricorder and scanned the area, while the Bint’Ari charged forward to fight the Borg in the room.

“Fascinating,” Tuvok commented.

“What is it?” Oro asked impatiently, eager to join his comrades in the fight.

“That vessel has been converted into a massive computer. It is operation as the central point for the Borg consciousness on this planet. Orders that each of the Borg are receiving from the collective are relayed through it.”

“What would happen if that this were destroyed?”

“Unknown. It is possible that if their links were severed with the collective, all the Borg on the planet would undergo a self destruct sequence.”

“Then we need to destroy that thing, now!” Oro exclaimed, excitedly. “We could win the war in seconds!”

“Wait,” Tuvok replied, as he grabbed Oro’s arm. “That computer will still be operational even in seventy-six percent of it is destroyed. The Borg soldiers in the room would immediately take action to prevent that occurrence. The computer will be safe until each of the nearby soldiers are killed. Meanwhile, I will set my tricorder to download as much of the information that it can from the collective. It may give us some idea of Borg activities in this sector.”

“You can do that?” Oro asked.

“I am not certain. However, I will attempt it.”

Oro, satisfied with Tuvok’s plan, rushed to help the other men in the fight. It went as each of the battles had gone so far, a Bint’Ari victory, with heavy casualties. During the battle, Tuvok managed to up-link his tricorder into the Borg relay computer, and began the process of downloading any information he could into the shuttle’s computer. After he had taken all he could, Tuvok gave the OK to dismantle the system.

The men eagerly tore into the cube, pulling apart anything that would come loose with the tools that they had.

The Borg reacted immediately. Drones from everywhere turned away from their designated task and moved towards the scout cube. Borg engaged in battle miles away stopped fighting and attempted to move towards the compound. Invariably, they were killed before they walked three steps.

The battle turned very bloody. The twenty men holding back to fight off the oncoming drones were quickly overcome by drones either inside the complex or those transporting inside the complex from battles outside.

Several of the men were assimilated, and acted immediately to stop the destruction of the scout cube. Tuvok backed against the wall, so that he would not be attacked from behind by the Borg.

Inputting a few commands on his tricorder, he re-established a link to the shuttlecraft’s computer.

Accessing files on the first Borg attempt to assimilate Earth, he searched for the command pathways Data used to cause the cube in orbit of Earth to prematurely enter a regeneration cycle.

Reconnecting to the Borg Scout’s main computer, Tuvok attempted the same procedure. He was locked out almost immediately.

Several drones approached Tuvok, to prevent another attempt to destroy the Scout. Tuvok tried another pathway, it failed as well.

Tuvok dropped his tricorder and lifted his sword, to defend himself. Two drones reached him at once, and Tuvok began to fight for his life.

A small explosion echoed throughout the complex floor. Tuvok saw Oro out of the corner of his eye drop to the floor from the top of the scout, and run straight towards to bay doors.

The drones attacking Tuvok, as well as those fighting the Bint’Ari on the floor paused, waiting for further instruction. Tuvok bumped through the frozen Borg, running for safety.

More explosions raced throughout the cube. Moments after Tuvok, Oro, and three other Bint’Ari piled into the shuttle, the entire building exploded.

Tuvok had barely managed to get the shuttle’s shields up and the craft in the air before the explosion brought them right back down again. Alert sirens of all pitches could be heard by all five of the shuttle’s crew.

The shuttle careened out-of-control. The shock-wave from the explosion knocked the barely aloft shuttle back into the ground. It skidded along the concrete surface around the complex, on its side, for several hundred meters. Mercifully, it stopped after a few moments, and the five men piled out of the shuttle, to survey the damage.

No more Bint’Ari made it out of the complex before it exploded. All of the fliers around the complex, as well as the building itself, were burning intensely. Both Borg and Bint’Ari bodies were scattered across the lot, most of those burning as well.

Across the countryside, Borg everywhere ceased to operate. Most self-destructed immediately upon the destruction of the hive computer. A few Borg survived, for a short time, disconnected from the Collective. The Bint’Ari fighting the drones did not distinguish between the newly individual drone and the Borg from seconds past. The confused drones were slaughtered mercilessly.

Less than a half hour after the complex was destroyed, Bint’Ari was free of the Borg.

Star Trek, Voyager, and related properties are © Paramount Studio, and the author makes no claim towards them.

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