Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

Admiral Vulnis, RNS Battle Roc
Personal Log

This afternoon, at 17:42 hours, an unknown object appeared on the extreme edge of our long range sensors, four sectors away from the Takara sector. I was immediately informed of this new threat, and recognised the power signatures of the intruder instantly.

It's the Borg. Sensors detect a single cube, currently holding position in sector Thelta, at the edge of our sensor range. Even though I have never encountered the Borg in battle before, I have heard stories. Rumours. Their ships are rumoured to be infinitely strong, self-regenerating and nearly impossible to destroy.

And here I thought things were finally peaceful at the Klingon front. The Klingons have made no move against our superior forces, and all the fighting that was done here consisted of a few minor border skirmishes. The Klingons are powerless to stop us -- we have them cornered in their own section of the galaxy. The real fighting is taking place dozens of sectors away, at the Federation front. Reports are still coming in about the glorious victories of Admiral Lonal's forces over the Federation fleets.

Because the real action does not take place here, all the newer ships and the better crews were sent to the Federation front. All I have are a couple of destroyers and a bunch of ships we stole from the Klingons. All in all, I have no more than 25 ships at my disposal, spread across six sectors. I have given the order for all available ships to cancel their current missions and proceed at best speed to the Takara sector. If the Borg attack, it is most likely they will attack there. For now, however, we remain hopeful that the Borg might simply leave us alone.

End log.

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Admiral Vulnis, RNS Battle Roc
Personal Log.

The impossible has happened. Within the confines of a few hours, the Borg cube disappeared off our sensors, only to reappear again (using a transwarp conduit, perhaps) in the Andor system, where it attacked and destroyed the orbital outpost and the single destroyer that were guarding the system. They barely had time to send out a distress signal. Recent reports confirm the destruction of our forces in that system, and state that the Borg cube has begun transporting Andorians up from the surface and turning them into drones. Other, more preliminary reports show that the Borg are firing some sort of beam weapon at the surface of the habitable planets in that system, wiping out entire cities and turning whole continents into deserts. 142 million casualties have already been reported.

I have recalled all my forces and have ordered them to rendezvous in the Andor system in two days. My ship is currently en-route as well at maximum warp -- we will meet the Borg in battle in two days and try to put an end to this planetary genocide. With 25 ships, there must be some damage we can inflict on the Borg. It may not be much, but it's all we have.

I have contacted Admiral Lonal over subspace, and she has agreed to send a total of nearly forty ships to Sector S-9, three sectors away from Andor. Since they are unable to reach our position in time, the ships will have to set up a secondary defence perimiter in that system. The reinforcements will not arrive there before we engage the Borg either, but if we fail, they will make their last stand there.

The next two days will be filled with reports of even more casualties, as the Borg will continue to turn the planets of the Andor system into deserts. Why they do this is unknown to me, but the fact remains that their actions will wipe out millions of Andorians every day. The Borg seem to be content with exterminating all life in the system. It is cruel to even think it, but I hope the Borg will want to remain in the system until they have destroyed every single living organism there. That will keep the cube there until our fleet arrives. And when we do arrive, we will engage the Borg in the name of the millions of Andorians who have died. We will attack them and we will win. We simply have no other choice.

End log.

Categories: BOTF  

Admiral Lonal, Starbase K'taria
Personal Log.

Some would call it luck. Others would call it pure brilliance. I am not sure what I would call it. Good planning, I suppose. But I'm getting ahead of things. Let's first start at the beginning, as the humans say. I mentioned the victory in the Titus and Sol systems in my previous personal log -- that seems like as good a place as any to start.

After those victories, it seemed that there was nothing we couldn't do. Some enthusiastic members of my staff suggested we fly straight to Sol and conquer Earth. Deal a crippling blow to the Federation. But I knew we had to be more careful than that. I have always been taught never to reveal your true strength. If we rushed into an invasion now, we might not be ready for the opposition the Federation would throw at us. So instead, I ordered a task force of destroyers to raid the Sol system for several days -- lay siege to the system, if you will. This not only prevented important Federation leaders from entering or leaving the system, but it also struck fear into the hearts of our enemies. They knew we were out there, ready to strike at any moment.

These raids bought time for the rest of our ships to attack other Federation systems first. The Sol system was a few sectors away, mind you, and we couldn't just charge it without first forming an effective supply route to that system. To do so, I ordered a fleet of warships and troop transports to begin an invasion of Kea, the Federation system nearest to our borders. Resistance was light, and Kea quickly fell under our control.

The Corvan system was next. Our entire assault fleet assigned to these sectors participated in the conquest of Corvan, and it too fell without much losses. We were advancing on the Federation, and they must have known that we wouldn't stop now, because they kept trying to distract us by attacking our fleets in desperation. I do not know whether the Federation commanders were brave or foolish for taking on our fleets of warships with their single science vessels or Miranda-class destroyers. Did they hope these last-ditch efforts would make us see how stubborn the humans were? I must admit I was hardly impressed. We subjugated Klingon colonies before and bent them to our will. Humans could not be much harder to conquer.

The closer our attack force got to Sol, the heavier the resistance became. Ultimately, though, the opposition was no match for us. Their heavy cruisers were blown to smithereens as their commanders were paralysed with fear when they saw our fleets decloaking before them. But that didn't stop the Federation from trying, again and again, to stop us from reaching the Sol system.

By the time we did reach the Sol system and our attack fleets were getting ready for the invasion of Earth, four Galaxy class command cruisers showed up. Alone, they would not be much of a threat for our massive invasion fleet, but they had the orbital defence platforms around Earth and the other planets to aid them. I must admit, they fought bravely, and they did manage to take out an entire squadron of destroyers. But in the end, the orbital platforms were destroyed and the burning wrecks of the Galaxy class cruisers vaporised in Earth's atmosphere, even as our troop transports began their descent.

But the people of Earth were not yet beaten. They struck back hard and hit our troops with every weapon at their disposal. When we incinerated the Federation headquarters in Paris, however, most humans started to realise that there was no fighting us. The resistance was quickly suppressed by our military troops, and order was restored. The Sol system had fallen; Earth was part of the Romulan Star Empire.

We will not stop here. We will continue to push on until the entire Federation has fallen, or until they surrender unconditionally to us. I only hope that the people of Earth will be able to see that living under Romulan rule is not the end of the world. Ultimately, they will be better off, because their planet is now under Romulan leadership and is therefore no longer on the losing side.

I am leaving for Earth shortly. Plans are underway to construct a Starbase in its orbit, from where I will be guiding the fleet, as I have done here in the K'tarian system. K'taria hasn't been the front line for quite a while, and as borders change, so does my temporary home. I am leaving commander Jitala in charge of the K'tarian sector; I trust she will handle the job with distinction.

With any luck, this is my last personal log from the K'tarian starbase. The next log entry will hopefully take place from Earth... from the ruins of Starfleet command.

End log.

Categories: BOTF