Silent No More Part II

Posted on Tue Oct 21st, 2025 @ 3:16pm by Ensign Millicent Ambrose & Captain Edmund Merrick & Lieutenant Commander Brianne Redstone & Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren & Lieutenant Ja'sol H'ros & Lieutenant Kolok & Lieutenant Narin Valen & Lieutenant Junior Grade Rachel Sinclair & Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & 1st Lieutenant Jeksyne Vale & Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Lieutenant Junior Grade Anzhelina Walker & Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael Harris & Ensign Hoa Nhi Nguyen & Ensign T'Ket & 1st Lieutenant Edward O'Rourke & Staff Warrant Officer Rommie & Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan & Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr & Master Sergeant Flarn & Gunnery Sergeant Tessia T'Lar & Staff Sergeant Shayla Kunadt & Sergeant Adélaïde Moreau & Sergeant Azure Thompson & Sergeant Andrew Shy & Sergeant Rairror Thoran & Sergeant Tyrigus Fry & Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Edited on on Thu Oct 23rd, 2025 @ 4:40pm

5,146 words; about a 26 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Below the surface of Wren IX
Timeline: MD010 1630 hrs

Last Time On Silent No More Part I
Lachlan blinked at the advancing wall of green lasers, then actually laughed—short and sharp.

“What the fuck is this—Borg now?!” he barked, shouldering a leap and blasting a bug mid-air. “Nice try, sunshine. You want my greatest fear? It’s bein’ stuck wi’ the same lass every night explainin’ why I’m late—no’ some cosplay Cube fan club!”

A drone shape flickered at his periphery; he raked it with fire, watched it smear into chitin and shadow. “Aye, very scary—ten out of ten for theatre. Four for realism.”

He snapped his comms local. “Cure—ignore the green disco! Shoot what bleeds, crush what squirms! Flarn, left! Thoran, on me—push the line two meters!”

A plasma pop blew hot air across his face; he ducked, rolled, came up firing. “Come ahead then, you knock-off Borg bastards. Resistance is… enthusiastically applied.”

“All Pioneer Elements,” Neil whispered over the tactical net, his voice ragged and labored, as if the words were draining his last full measure of devotion. The rest of the message came through crisp and clear. They seemed to be the final orders from the man in command of the ground forces.
And Now The Conclusion...

Neil's private message to her almost dropped Jayna to her knees. "I love you, too. But you will not die! You can't! You have to hold on until we get you out of here. It won't be long now." She wanted to strip off her gloves and do a mind meld to help strengthen him, but if she did, they might both die. When she lost the connection with him, she told her suit to contact Schultz. "Miranda, Neil is critical. Find a way to get him help or get him out."

"I heard," Schultz replied. "I'll try to get another message to the Hawkeye." But she was afraid it might not happen until--if--the shuttle found a way to get to them.

Fry turned as he cleared his immediate front of targets and the rumbling You will be assimilated filtered through his pickups. He froze for a moment, as his sensors began filling with Borg Drone target representations.

They’d trained for the Borg… He finished his periphery sweep to make sure the line was being maintained, then snapped back as his threat indicator buzzed and saw two Borg drones moving at him

Fry caught the arm of the first drone and exerted full power to his suit’s servos, the Bowie he'd been using dropping away to retract on a lanyard. "Going hand to hand," he said to no one but himself.

A twist dislocated the Borg’s arm fully, and then Tyr ripped it away slammed the spasming armored limb though the face of the other. Both drones staggered and he was already moving ahead, shoulder blocking the first as he let go of the arm and stomped through the drones chest cavity as it went completely limp. Stiffened fingers went for and then through the humanoid mouth, the pale skin mushing inwards and teeth spraying.

The drones phasic shielding attempted to stutter around his armored hand, but it was already too late. Tyr picked up the body, then hurled the drone at the next wave, as rushed arms out, taking the fight to the enemy.

The Cure had trained for the Borg. The Suits were built to deal with Borg…

A shrilling sound in his mind, Edmund's vision blurred for a moment, then it cleared what happened to the bugs? They had morphed into combination of Borg and spiders? He was fearful not cause of these new critters, but-they just kept on coming. He was more afraid of- failing. His mind snapped into action, emptied the last of his phaser batteries, his phasers going back into their place.

Arms reached out grabbing two Borg, slamming them together, grabbing the tendrils that were shooting out from the Borgs to try to attach to him. Changing of his strategy his movement, A grab on his arm he twisted out of it, Merrick wincing as he felt his shoulder pop out of place then back in.

Pain killer activated, so he could keep on going.

Azure's first impulse was to check on Merrick, but then the Borg appeared. She wriggled a quizzical antenna in the confines of her helmet.

Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she held her left arm straight, and using her right hand to retrieve the a blade from the scabbard in her suit's inner arm.

"Slice and dice." She said as she approached the closest Borg.

Assimilation tubules stretched out towards her.

She severed the attached arm in a clean slice, before decapitating the drone.

Another drone grabbed her by her shoulder and turned her to face it and was rewarded with a blade through its face.

Miranda froze. Borg. She'd never faced Borg before. For several long seconds, she couldn't think. Couldn't move. Then she began to pay attention to the fighting around her. It didn't look...right. Not the Marines, but the Borg. Did Borg even move that way? It was enough for her to get control. She mentally shook herself and raised her weapon. She was a Marine and she had one job to do. "Assimilate this!" she shouted as she began to fire on the enemy.

Alyssa felt the entity approach. She could almost see where it was as it moved towards them like a giant ripple that moved around and through the bugs. And then, all of a sudden, there were 300 Borg. That didn't make sense. Unless…

She'd been keeping her telepathic shields up—except for her link with the Silence. Now she opened up to feel the entity and not the Borg. And then, she knew. She strengthened her shields again. "It's the entity. The Borg are only as real as you believe them to be."

Half of Jayna's thoughts were on Neil and keeping him alive, so when she saw the Borg she wasn't quite sure what to think. They hadn't been there a moment before. They just dropped into existence. Then she heard Alyssa, and it clicked. Of course it was the entity messing with them. She wasn't sure if it was stress about Neil's condition, Lachlan's comments, or just a need to relieve some of her stress, but she began to laugh.

At Lachlan's side, Rarrior blinked as a Borg appeared as drones converged on them, the Orion grabbed one by the throat, a quick flick of the wrist and the drone fell lifelessly to the floor. Grabbing another he said "Resistance is Futile." and threw it into a wall.

Jeksyne hearing all this, just looks at the large Orion in shock. "Holy shit" was all that Jeksyne could say before he too turns and grabs a drone and rams the barrel of his phaser pistol, more like the phaser pistols of old, into the gut of the drone and fired point blank. The drone exploding in a shower of blood and viscera.

Pausing for just a moment to situate, the Colonel's words haunted Tyr's thoughts. It was a rallying speech...

"Team One, get me a sitrep!" Jeksyne called to his team over the comm.

Dripping with viscera and unidentified parts, Tyr shrugged off more arms that were reaching at him, removing another set from individual Borg drones and using them as fighting clubs. Taking in the tactical breakdown on his HUD, Shy dutifully reported in. "Looks like a SNAFU, that is going to bypass FUBAR going right for BOHIC, Lieutenant. Looks like the line is holding. I am OUT of all practical munitions."

Sadly, Tyr wasn't even close to kidding..

Then he waded into more Borg.

"Same here, Sergeant, goin be fighting with bare hands and knives before too long." Jeksyne quips back at his sergeant as he slammed a fist into the stomach of another drone and shot it again with his phaser pistol which clicked on empty charge.

He froze in fear when Borg appeared, then a shot being fired brought Ja'sol out of it. He had fired and the phaser fire bounced, he pulled out his blade wielding it with skill, cutting off the arms.

Ja'sol heard through the haze of his fighting, Lachlan's words. He blinked, then saw that the sergeant major was right. "Knock off shoddy work with the Borgs. Are you freaking kidding me?" he started laughing, as he struck at another one.

Lachlan’s laugh cut through the noise, sharp and certain.

“Listen up—these aren’t Borg. They’re fear made pretty. No tubules that work, no shield bloom, no adaptation. They drop like bad holos. They’re only as strong as your fear.”

His tone steadied, anchoring the line. “So starve it. Breathe—in two, out two. If it bleeds or breaks like chitin, it’s real. If it pops like smoke, ignore it and push.”

He keyed local. “Cure, Fleet—mock it, sing at it, sneer at it—I don’t care. No fear. That’s its meal.”

Orders cracked out, crisp: “Flarn—left sweep, show ’em how illusions die. Thoran—pull Sinclair’s flank in tight; three-meter advance on my mark. Moreau—buddy teams, staggered push. We go forward.”

Mercy watched as the insects became Borg. She shock her head and blinked. Hearing the Top's instructions, the Sniper began singing 'Hit me with your best shot', as she sniped the faux Borg.

Edmund perked up, hearing the whisper of Neil! That combined with Lachlan's urgings, fear, which was clouding his thoughts. Fears that he had held within, fears of getting to know others. Fear of Borg. Well the Borg clones were honestly laughable. Either way, Edmund became pissed, he wasn't going to be taking this anymore!

Twisted Sister 'Were not gonna take it' kicked in, his mind and Edmund belted out the song, his voice hitting all the notes just right a fierce grin appearing 'NO we ain't gonna take it'. His other blade came out, now he was fighting with two blades

The 'Borg' popped in front of him, revealing the true enemy, another bug, which on its hindlegs was as tall as him. It had been cloaked by the fake fear created Borg.

He quit singing, needing his breath to deal with what was at hand.

He had to dodge to keep from getting grabbed by the strong jaws of said bug. It swooped its head to one side then to the next. It swept him to one side, as his foot skidded on the husks of other bugs. He grunted at the impact, rolling back to his feet He came in at an angle behind the sweeping mandibles to it more vulnerable spot, its neck. This wasn't going to be a one shot hit.

He plunged his swords into the neck, ending up on the back of this bug. It bucked wildly around, trying to shake him off. He stuck to it like a cocklebur does in an animals fur. It the back of his mind, Edmund was glad it wasn't any larger this was proving a bit of a challenge. He drove the swords deeper, working to cut the head off. One final swing of the bug's head, it separated the head going one way and Edmund and his swords the other. Edmund quickly regaining his feet to take on more bugs lining up with other Marines.

"Thanks Lachlan!" he shouted out, grinning, adding himself to the line of defense.

Shayla could not believe what she had read. Her orders were clear, but what was not clear was how the hell she was supposed to execute them. "I don't have time for this. Computer access any instructional video on how to rewire a deflector array." The Hawkeye's computer took a moment to access the file but shortly an image of a Klingon woman appeared on the screen. She wore a gold Starfleet uniform. When the program began she introduced herself. "I am Lieutenant Commander B'Lanna Torres and you are about to learn how to rewire a deflector array." Shayla sighed as she opened the engineering tools. She hoped she could get it done in time.

Harris' eyes widened as he looked at the scans of the Borg. "Commander Maren..." He shouted over the din of battle. "Those Borg. That is it. That is the source of well everything. They need to get the drones through the portal then we can shut it down. Every last one of the drones."

"Yeah, the entity...morphed," Alyssa replied. "But...every one of them?" "Okay then." This was going to stop. Now. She was tired and sore and emotionally drained from her connection with the Silence. But she could not give up on them.

Over the comms, she shouted: "This is Commander Maren. Every single one of those Borg is to be driven or thrown into the portal. They are one entity. I don't care how you do it, but get every single Borg the hell out of here! That's our ticket home! Got it?" She'd already placed the explosives. Once the Pseudo Borg were through the portal, Harris could work his magic. As a final shout of encouragement, she added, "Semper Fi, do or die!"

Andrew was buried, with the weight of a ton or so of bug, now Borg, on top of him. He pushed up, then tucked a shoulder and rolled his suit soggily responding as he got himself out of the swamp that was the dead that the Cure had piled up. As he gained his feet, some of the Borg drones staggered back and he Shy got himself orientated to the battlefield once more. He'd heard the Colonel's words and as commands filtered through, his HUD flagged the most senior and a grin split his face as Commander Maren's order filtered in.

Jumping with the suits enhancements let him clear the knot that had him separated from the Cure's ragged battle line and he took one of the Borg-drones with him. As he hit the apex of his jump, he twisted and hurled the Borg at the Portal. The body missed and cracked into the floor three meters to the left, leaving a smear as the now dead Borg left a smear. "Just a bit outside," he called with humor. Then he was landing, getting himself situated into the Cure's perimeter again, his computer updating as he reached for kicked another drone in the chest, caving that in while he picked up yet another drone and chucked it at the portal.

Lachlan heard Maren’s order and the world narrowed to one clean thing: get that lot through the hole and shut it. He snapped the comm open and barked, every word a cut through the din.

“Aye—Commander Maren’s order is on. Flarn, Thoran, Moreau — form three shove teams. O’Rourke, line the pinch with the mines Edward’s got; make the choke predictable. Mercy, Ja’sol, Rachel — pick heads and legs, make ’em easy to grab. Andrew, Shy — use your jump packs, clear paths and heave anything you can’t carry straight at the portal. Edmund, Rairror — if you can’t throw it, cut it in half and shove the halves. Everyone else, buddy up and pass bodies forward — we funnel them like cattle. Schultz, keep that drone relay hot for Harris; we need that pulse when the last one's through.”

He let that hang, then lowered his voice so the men and women next to him heard it like a promise, not an order.

“Right then — no cowardice, no hesitation. If it moves like fear, shove it; if it bleeds, finish it. We push, we throw, we make room for the scientists to do their job. On my mark, we shove forward and we don’t stop until that portal’s smothered. Semper—” he cut himself off with a grin, half-rough, half-urgent, “—do or die, people. Move!”

Rarrior smiled at the order. "Hulk smash!" He shouted as he waded into the struggle. Faux Borg he picked up and threw through the portal, like they were pigskins in a gridiron game.

O'Rourke placed the last of his mines, they were programmed to explode only when detecting movement, and out of range of the Marines, or Crew, due to the transponders in their suits. Of course as Combat Engineer, he could still activate them by remote.

Faux Borg/bug heads exploded as Mercy picked them off as, using the shots from 'Ruby's' very last power pack, soon she'd have to go CQC on them.

Miranda nodded at Barr's order, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. She wanted to play Kick the Borg Into the Portal, but waiting for the signal to bring in teh Hawkeye and seal the deal was more important. Even so, any Borg that came close to her got a good, swift punch or kick in the right direction.

Ja'sol listened to the orders coming over the comms, He was out of power cells and grenades. He was cut and lightly bleeding from several areas, and he was also bruised and battered and would feel like hell in the morning, if there was a following morning to wake up to that is. Ja'sol was down to his sword and pulled it out and started hacking off arms and kicking Borgs towards the portal, He winced in pain with every kick, But it was better then being dead.

With the assistance of those around him Michael was able to pinpoint the life signs of the being that attacked them. The being that held The Silence hostage. This was the final piece of the puzzle. Frantically he tapped Schultz's leg as she knelt next to him. "Send this to everyone, use smoke signals if you have to. The Borg is the Entity. It has split itself into each drone. Killing them is not going to end this. The Drones simply respawn. If each and every Drone is driven into this portal the Entity would be trapped there. Time is of the essence."

She almost told him that Commander Maren already did, but decided it was worth repeating anyway. Besides, he was a fleet officer and she didn't want to argue with a fleeter--or anyone--right now. She keyed her comms. "Schultz to all Marines. If you don't get every part of those Borg wannabes, they'll re-spawn. Kick their scrawny Borg butts into the portal and score one for the home team!"

Neil's voice coming into his ear. "Ed: When and if you pull out, use your command override to force Jayna out and forget about me. If this goes any more pear shaped, I’m just meat. She’ll be pissed, but you’re used to that in women.”

Used to women being pissed at me a soft chuckle escaped as Edmund thought over what Neil said. It was true. The smile slipped away, Time to send the fake Borgs to hell.

Slice in half sending the pieces as what Lachlan said, halfsies Edmund jumping upwards and sending the pieces with a well aimed kick. He matched movements with Rarrior, talk about being a on an disassembly line. No assemble only disassemble.

Jayna hadn't left Neil's side, and wouldn't until they succeeded in liberating the Silence or died trying. She'd used up all her ammunition and now chose to vent her fury with the entity for hurting Neil by throwing every Borg at the portal. Most went in, but some impacted on the side and hung there until something knocked them in. "Someone needs to make sure every part of the Borg bodies goes in. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

While Alyssa waited for the Hawkeye to come in, she stayed near Harris and the portal, occasionally pushing in Borg parts that missed the hole. She didn't have a suit, and she didn't have a weapon--except her phaser--but she had to do something. At least this way she was doing what she could to help free the Silence--and each one of them. Right now, this was a game of all or nothing and if she had to go down, she'd do so fighting.

Andrew felt hands pulling at him as the Borg attempted to overwhelm him, but the other members of the Cure were in a ragged formation and he had his arms out, scooping and holding as he went shoulder to shoulder pushing the massed horde of entities toward the portal as directed. Digging in his booted feet, Shy had to work to keep any sort of traction. The suits powered legs gave them the advantage and Shy felt more like a footballer pushing the pile than anything else.

Jeksyne added his own strength and suit into pushing the horde into the portal. Not that he hasn't done that kind of thing before but there was a difference in pushing something into a portal and body driving someone into a wall.

Still he put his back into it.

"TEAM ONE, PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT, BEAT THEM IF YOU HAVE TO!!" Jeksyne called into his comms to his team.

Mercy cursed in Klingon, as 'Ruby's' last energy cell drained. She strapped her sniper's rifle to her back, and then throw herself punching kicking, and slashing at the enemy K'Bar in hand.

Tyr rose in the air over the battle, red lining his fuel cell, bowie dripping ichor in one hand and the colonel's flamer in the other. He hadn't used that before but it wasn't complicated. Hitting the trigger on the weapon and washing bubbling naphtha flame over the borg/drones as he used momentum to slam into a wall of the enemy behind their front line and breaking the mass that pushed at the Cure's formation. The crispied bodies of borg/drones flew from the impact and he caved int he face of another by throwing the now empty flamer into the borg's face and punched still another drone in the face with the knuckle duster part of his bowie.

"Killing is our business and business is good!!," Fry called out over the suit's PA, putting his own fear into that quote, wondering if the entity could understand.

Lachlan moved like he’d done a hundred of these things—short, brutal bursts of movement, all elbows and aim. He slid beside Moreau as she pivoted on a heel and drove her blade through the neck of a pseudo-drone; they fell in a stack at their boots. He grabbed the next one by the carapace, split its thorax with a clean burst, then shoved it trunk-first toward the portal. Moreau was already there, hauling halves and pushing broken limbs with the toe of her boot, turning the chaos into a conveyor. They fell into a rhythm—Lachlan cutting and throwing, Moreau securing the flanks and shoving the wreckage home—until the last of the fake drones tumbled over the rim and disappeared into the hungry dark.

He straightened, chest heaving, boots slick with gore, and keyed his comm once, voice flat and controlled. “Cure, Fleet—site secure. All visible pseudo-drones accounted for and driven through. Portal clear on this side. Science team, you’re green to close it.”

Alyssa nodded, then spoke over the comm channel. "Copy that, Barr. Excellent work. Schultz, bring in the cavalry. Harris, get ready to do your magic." She would stand ready by the portal for whatever was needed.

"Aye, ma'am." Miranda made sure all the drones were still in place, made a few tweaks, then called Shayla. "Hawkeye, we're all set here. Come in and do your magic. Harris is ready to seal the portal."

Then she looked down at Michael. "It's all up to you and Hawkeye now." She wanted to add no pressure, but she wasn't sure the fleeter felt any.

Ja'sol had expended all of his power clips and the four grenades that he had brought with him, He pulled his short sword and started hacking and slicing at the Borg and throwing any parts that were near him into the portal. " Hey!! I'm starting to run low on parts to process, can you herd some my way? "

Flarn snorted at Ja'sol's remark. "Your order is received and Flarn will follow Lieutenant." He said although it came out more like a snarl as he pulled the arms off of a drone and threw them in Ja'sol's direction. H'ros for his part caught the parts with a smirk and tossed them into the portal.

As Flarn tossed the head of the drone to Ja'sol he fired on two more that were coming up toward the Science team. As luck would have it those two fell into the portal. He then noticed Lachlan fighting in his vicinity. "You know Flarn never thought he would die fighting side by side with a Scot." Lachlan laughed and tossed another Borg toward the portal and Ja'sol. "I never thought I would die fighting side by side with bacon. We aren't dyin so keep fightin." Lachlan replied.

Azure's blade slashed at the enemy. Whichever guise they took, they still bled and that was fine. She let out roar, as she was sure she could feel her Andorian blood flowing through her modified human veins. She was a fusion of two warrior races. She laughed deeply at the thought of her suit being drenched in her enemy's blood.

1st Lieutenant Edward O'Rourke usually made light of his empathic powers, but the mixture of emotions from his fellow Marines, Starfleet crew, the Silence (though he did not remember who they were), and the hostile entity were starting to tear at his psychic defenses. The pressure brought him to knees.

Thoran saw O'Rourke fall to his knees, and ran to the officer, discarding enemy body parts as he ran.

Reaching the Marine engineer, he help the man to his feet. The Orion then secured the 1st Lieutenant to his back and carried him to safety. "Can't let you die on my watch, Sir, they'll bust me back down to Private." He joked.

Rachel’s rifle had run dry, now she was using it as a club, bashing everything that wasn’t wearing a Starfleet uniform that came close to her. Fear she didn’t have time for, her head was full of rage and exhaustion as she bashed in the head of another Borg drone. She fought more like a wild Klingon than a Starfleet trained Romulan.

To Be Concluded...

A Joint Post By

Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael Harris
Science Officer, USS Pioneer