Operation Assimilation: The Hunted Hunters
Hirogen
The Hunted Hunters
2370
Deep in the Delta Quadrant, approximately 60,000 light years from Earth
The alpha Hirogen checked his status board “the prey is maintaining course. He will reach the binary system in five minutes.” Beside him the beta, a proud younger Hirogen named Lanik nodded “his ship is strong, he can probably withstand the radiation longer than we can.” Kimmek, the alpha glanced up at a display showing the scans of their prey, a reptilian creature known as a Voth “he has been a formidable adversary, but it is time to end the hunt. Full speed, move to intercept.” Several brief minutes of pursuit later the beta looked up as an indicator sounded on his console “He's come to a full stop.” The alpha nodded “he's turning to make a final stand.” He moved to a wall where several large weapons were hung “prepare to board his ship as soon as we're in-” He was cut off mid-sentence by an alert at the main console. His eyes widened as a distinctive cube shaped vessel appeared on the sensor display. “The Borg.” The beta nodded checking his own readout “they have scanned us. They're moving to intercept.” The alpha made his decision “we'll have to continue this hunt another day. Take us out of here, keep maximum distance between us and the cube.”
Twenty minutes later. Checking an indicator on his console the beta looked up “they are gaining on us. We can’t maintain this speed much longer. Our engines are starting to overheat.” The alpha quickly checked the sensors “there is a nebula at vector 270 point 5. Set a course. We'll try to lose them in the dust cloud.” Working his controls to change their course the beta looked up “we should call for reinforcements.” The alpha sighed “I already have. The rest of the pack are almost a day away. We're on our own.”
Four hours later. As the Hirogen ship sat concealed for the moment in the dust cloud the beta rechecked his board “the Borg ship is holding position. They are waiting for us to come out.” The alpha stared at his own console “and they can wait. We will continue to sit here. Patience.” In truth he knew that hiding was only a temporary solution. Eventually they would have to leave the nebula. Then they would have one chance-possibly-if they could run fast enough from the Borg ship and make it to meet with their reinforcements. With any luck the closest ships of their pack were only a matter of hours away by now. The alternative, he knew was assimilation. And he wouldn’t settle for that. He wouldn’t even wish that condemnable fate on his prey, and he'd be damned if it would befall his crew. “For how long?” the beta asked “we can't sit here in this nebula forever.” “For as long as it takes” the alpha answered “once the engines are back up to full power we will prepare to make our next move.” “And what will that-” the beta was cut off by a sudden jolt from starboard and the alarms at the main console. “The Borg are firing into the nebula. Some kind of particle weapon charges.” The alpha nodded “It is time. Take us out of the nebula, vector 234 point 7. Arm all weapons.” As the Hirogen ship cleared the edge of the nebula with increasing speed in an attempt to flee past the Borg cube the cube moved in for the proverbial kill, opening fire with a barrage of plasma torpedoes, rocking the Hirogen vessel and battering its hull shielding. The Hirogen vessel returned fire, its first two shots scoring apparent hits on the Borg cubes hull, while the last three bounced harmlessly off the ships energy shielding. The Beta punched his console in disgust “they've adapted to our weapons!” Ducking sparks from an exploding upper console as another barrage struck home the alpha nodded “Our hull shielding is almost gone.” An engineer at the aft console added “they've damaged the engines as well.” Hearing an alarm sound the beta looked up “shields have failed. We're being boarded.” The alpha grabbed his favorite energy weapon from the wall rack, a very large polaron beam rifle and turned to the beta and the other three Hirogen on the deck “They will not take this ship. Prepare to fight.” The beta had no sooner grabbed his own weapon than four Borg materialized on the smoldering ruins of the bridge. The alpha opened fire, immediately taking out two of the drones, while simultaneously the engineer at the back of the bridge rushed a third sending them both into the wreckage of the aft consoles. Having vaporized the fourth drone the beta moved to the back of the bridge to assist the struggling engineer but was denied access as four more drones materialized, one directly in front of him. He fired directly into the drones’ sternum, but to his surprise and horror the drones’ energy shields deflected the blast. Instinctively the beta raised his weapon to use it like a bludgeon, but was stopped mid-swing by the drones iron grip. As the drone held his fist to the Hirogens neck and injected him with nanoprobes the beta saw his equally beleaguered alpha, now confined by two Borg drones, dematerialize from the bridge. A moment later he felt the tingle of the transporter beam.
Lying confined by energy fields on the metal slab while two drones removed his armor and replaced it with its Borg equivalent the alpha could already hear the collective voice in his head. “...operation complete. Vessel assimilated. 12 drones assimilated.” 12. That accounted for most of his crew, sans two who may have been lost during the battle. In truth he couldn’t help but admire the Borgs tactics as hunters: the way they had stalked their prey, cornered them, flushed them out, and then moved in for the kill. Hearing and feeling the crunch of the Borgs saw as his left eye was removed from its socket (which strangely didn’t hurt as much as it probably should have) and replaced with a cybernetic implant he struggled to keep his mind focused. He tried to ignore the voice-the voices-the collective voice in his head, but the voice grew louder, more incessant.
“My designation-”
“No! My name. My name is Kimmek. Hirogen Alpha. Kimmek.”
“Names are irrelevant. My designation is four of-”
“Kimmek. Hirogen. Alpha!”
“My designation is four of nine auxillary processor of unimatrix 414.”
As the restraint field released four of nine, the Borg drone formerly known as Kimmek, formerly a member of species 478 rose from the table and followed one of the drones out of the assimilation chamber and down the corridor to his assigned alcove.
Deep in the Delta Quadrant, approximately 60,000 light years from Earth
The alpha Hirogen checked his status board “the prey is maintaining course. He will reach the binary system in five minutes.” Beside him the beta, a proud younger Hirogen named Lanik nodded “his ship is strong, he can probably withstand the radiation longer than we can.” Kimmek, the alpha glanced up at a display showing the scans of their prey, a reptilian creature known as a Voth “he has been a formidable adversary, but it is time to end the hunt. Full speed, move to intercept.” Several brief minutes of pursuit later the beta looked up as an indicator sounded on his console “He's come to a full stop.” The alpha nodded “he's turning to make a final stand.” He moved to a wall where several large weapons were hung “prepare to board his ship as soon as we're in-” He was cut off mid-sentence by an alert at the main console. His eyes widened as a distinctive cube shaped vessel appeared on the sensor display. “The Borg.” The beta nodded checking his own readout “they have scanned us. They're moving to intercept.” The alpha made his decision “we'll have to continue this hunt another day. Take us out of here, keep maximum distance between us and the cube.”
Twenty minutes later. Checking an indicator on his console the beta looked up “they are gaining on us. We can’t maintain this speed much longer. Our engines are starting to overheat.” The alpha quickly checked the sensors “there is a nebula at vector 270 point 5. Set a course. We'll try to lose them in the dust cloud.” Working his controls to change their course the beta looked up “we should call for reinforcements.” The alpha sighed “I already have. The rest of the pack are almost a day away. We're on our own.”
Four hours later. As the Hirogen ship sat concealed for the moment in the dust cloud the beta rechecked his board “the Borg ship is holding position. They are waiting for us to come out.” The alpha stared at his own console “and they can wait. We will continue to sit here. Patience.” In truth he knew that hiding was only a temporary solution. Eventually they would have to leave the nebula. Then they would have one chance-possibly-if they could run fast enough from the Borg ship and make it to meet with their reinforcements. With any luck the closest ships of their pack were only a matter of hours away by now. The alternative, he knew was assimilation. And he wouldn’t settle for that. He wouldn’t even wish that condemnable fate on his prey, and he'd be damned if it would befall his crew. “For how long?” the beta asked “we can't sit here in this nebula forever.” “For as long as it takes” the alpha answered “once the engines are back up to full power we will prepare to make our next move.” “And what will that-” the beta was cut off by a sudden jolt from starboard and the alarms at the main console. “The Borg are firing into the nebula. Some kind of particle weapon charges.” The alpha nodded “It is time. Take us out of the nebula, vector 234 point 7. Arm all weapons.” As the Hirogen ship cleared the edge of the nebula with increasing speed in an attempt to flee past the Borg cube the cube moved in for the proverbial kill, opening fire with a barrage of plasma torpedoes, rocking the Hirogen vessel and battering its hull shielding. The Hirogen vessel returned fire, its first two shots scoring apparent hits on the Borg cubes hull, while the last three bounced harmlessly off the ships energy shielding. The Beta punched his console in disgust “they've adapted to our weapons!” Ducking sparks from an exploding upper console as another barrage struck home the alpha nodded “Our hull shielding is almost gone.” An engineer at the aft console added “they've damaged the engines as well.” Hearing an alarm sound the beta looked up “shields have failed. We're being boarded.” The alpha grabbed his favorite energy weapon from the wall rack, a very large polaron beam rifle and turned to the beta and the other three Hirogen on the deck “They will not take this ship. Prepare to fight.” The beta had no sooner grabbed his own weapon than four Borg materialized on the smoldering ruins of the bridge. The alpha opened fire, immediately taking out two of the drones, while simultaneously the engineer at the back of the bridge rushed a third sending them both into the wreckage of the aft consoles. Having vaporized the fourth drone the beta moved to the back of the bridge to assist the struggling engineer but was denied access as four more drones materialized, one directly in front of him. He fired directly into the drones’ sternum, but to his surprise and horror the drones’ energy shields deflected the blast. Instinctively the beta raised his weapon to use it like a bludgeon, but was stopped mid-swing by the drones iron grip. As the drone held his fist to the Hirogens neck and injected him with nanoprobes the beta saw his equally beleaguered alpha, now confined by two Borg drones, dematerialize from the bridge. A moment later he felt the tingle of the transporter beam.
Lying confined by energy fields on the metal slab while two drones removed his armor and replaced it with its Borg equivalent the alpha could already hear the collective voice in his head. “...operation complete. Vessel assimilated. 12 drones assimilated.” 12. That accounted for most of his crew, sans two who may have been lost during the battle. In truth he couldn’t help but admire the Borgs tactics as hunters: the way they had stalked their prey, cornered them, flushed them out, and then moved in for the kill. Hearing and feeling the crunch of the Borgs saw as his left eye was removed from its socket (which strangely didn’t hurt as much as it probably should have) and replaced with a cybernetic implant he struggled to keep his mind focused. He tried to ignore the voice-the voices-the collective voice in his head, but the voice grew louder, more incessant.
“My designation-”
“No! My name. My name is Kimmek. Hirogen Alpha. Kimmek.”
“Names are irrelevant. My designation is four of-”
“Kimmek. Hirogen. Alpha!”
“My designation is four of nine auxillary processor of unimatrix 414.”
As the restraint field released four of nine, the Borg drone formerly known as Kimmek, formerly a member of species 478 rose from the table and followed one of the drones out of the assimilation chamber and down the corridor to his assigned alcove.
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