Worst Case Scenario: The Battle of Wolf 359

by Andrey Larin, Survivor

19th December 2013

«At nineteen hundred hours yesterday, the U.S.S. Lalo departed Zeta Alpha Two on a freight run to Sentinel Minor Four. At twenty-two hundred hours and twelve minutes, a distress signal was received at Starbase one five seven. The Lalo reported contact with an alien vessel described as cube shaped. The distress signal ended abruptly, and she's not been heard from since.»  Stardate 43989.1.

This is how it all began. A few days later, on Stardate 44002.3, this became a complete disaster and massacre of Federation forces in the Battle of Wolf 359. Thirty-nine Federation starships were lost and more than 11,000 people killed or assimilated.

But first, the Borg had to gather intelligence on the Federation defenses and find someone to be the "face" of an invasion. That opportunity just walked right into their hands, when the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard,  rushed to aid U.S.S. Lalo. The Borg abducted Picard and placed him in command of the invasion. He was known as Locutus of Borg.

Meanwhile, William T. Riker assumed command of the Enterprise, making fellow officer Elizabeth Shelby the second in command.

Then all hell broke loose on the Federation defense fleet.

A single Borg Cube dealt death and destruction to a fleet of forty Federation vessels. They were no match for it, especially with Locutus in command of the invasion. A lot of good men were lost that day.

And one of those, who perished, was Jennifer Sisko, wife of Commander Benjamin Sisko. He was serving as first officer aboard U.S.S. Saratoga with his wife and son Jake living with him aboard the ship.

Saratoga was quickly overwhelmed by the Borg attack and Sisko took Jake with him to an Escape Pod. They left the ship, with Jennifer aboard, to be eliminated by Locutus’ Borg Cube. The Battle of Wolf 359 left a huge scar on Sisko's soul and the loss of his beloved wife became one of the reasons why he accepted the assignment to a distant space station in the middle of nowhere. But that's really another story.

Let's return to the acting captain Riker as he faced off against Locutus, the Voice of the Borg. After the initial battle, Riker devised a plan to retrieve Captain Picard from the Borg. This is how Memory Alpha describes Riker's plan: “By separating the Enterprise, Riker anticipates that the Borg will completely ignore the saucer section and instead concentrate on destroying the more heavily-armed secondary hull. After separation, both ships fire at the cube to no avail. The Borg then fires their tractor beam at the stardive, but Riker evades the attack. Just as Riker predicted, the saucer section was being completely ignored. The primary hull fires an antimatter spread, masking the engine signature from a shuttlecraft carrying Data and Worf. The shuttle, however, leaves an ion trail which Lieutenant Gleason speculates the Borg may have picked up on. When the tractor beam starts moving towards the spread, Riker orders the shuttle to go in unpowered. The shuttle is able to penetrate the Borg electromagnetic field, allowing Data and Worf to beam to the cube.

They locate Locutus, but come under attack by the Borg. Neutralizing five drones, they race to Locutus; while Worf restrains him, Data incapacitates him. Using their emergency transporter armbands, they transport back to the shuttle and steer clear of the electromagnetic field, allowing O'Brien to bring them back to the Enterprise, before the shuttle itself is blown away.»

So it worked and with Almost Human Locutus' help, the Borg invasion cube was destroyed and Earth saved.

Do you want to have a chance to relive the history of Federation and maybe try to turn the tide of the desperate Battle of Wolf 359? You can have your chance. Join the Big Bad Wolf online event starting at 23^rd of December.

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