The only familiarity we had of the Borg, in our previous reality, was the knowledge that a species, by that name, had attacked and conquered the El-Aurian homeworld nearly a century ago. No one had seen, or reported, any other attacks from them since then.
In this altered reality, however, things have not been as blissful. There were rumors of Borg ships operating outside Federation space, but no one viewed them to be any more than deep space ghost stories. Then, on June 2, 2366 (last year), the USS Cairo, an Excelsior-class starship under the command of Captain Edward Jellico, was attacked by a massive Borg cube ship while responding to a distress call from the colony on Jouret IV. The battle was quick and brutal, with the Cairo crew managing to launch a commship to Earth, shortly before being destroyed. When that commship arrived at Earth, 12 days later, they reported that Captain Jellico and most of the crew had been “assimilated” – turned into half cybernetic “Borg creatures”, and that the cube ship intended to attack Earth next.
With the sensor data from the USS Cairo, Earth Defense put together a joint fleet of Starfleet and Port Guard ships, and were waiting for the Borg ship when it arrived two days later. They had considered mounting a defense at Wolf 359, but did not have the necessary resources. Unfortunately, when the Borg ship arrived at the Sol System, it decimated the defense fleet, and moved on towards Earth. “Assimilated” Captain Jellico, renamed “Locutus”, led the Borg attack.
At Earth, a smaller line of defense was waiting, although, it consisted of lighter ships, as well as ships that had been in drydock for repairs or upgrades. Many of those ships were also obliterated, until the USS Galaxy, a Galaxy-class ship nearing the end of a refit, was launched with minimal crew, on a last-ditch attempt to hold of the attacking monolith. The Galaxy’s self-destruct system was armed, and it rammed into the cube at high impulse. The Borg ship was destroyed, leaving a massive field of debris that is still being cleared today.
A total of 39 Starfleet and Port Guard ships, as well as 11,000 personnel, were lost that day – June 16, 2366 – in what is now known as the Battle of Sol. Fifteen months later, Starfleet is still struggling to rebuild and recover, while operating in a state of war against both the Borg, and the Cardassians (in the ongoing Cardassian War).
No further Borg attacks have been reported since the Battle of Sol.
Considering the USS Enterprise-D’s sudden return -- three years after our presumed deaths in the Devron Anomaly, as well as the dual state of war in the Federation, the Earth Defense response doesn’t seem all that unusual anymore.
We’re definitely in an altered timeline. The Borg are real, Earth narrowly escaped “assimilation”, and we’ve been “dead” for three years. It may take a while to get used to all these changes. I sincerely hope time is done messing with the USS Enterprise-D.
-Lieutenant Sam Archer
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September 30, 2367 -- (Devron Timeline w/ Temporal War Reset)