Slaughter of Sector 108

The Slaughter of Sector 108 was the name given to a massive, if brief, engagement between Starfleet forces and the Borg supercube during the supercube crisis of 2380. The battle was the first major engagement with the cube after its assimilation of the USS Einstein and USS Thunderchild, and was only the second time the supercube made use of its recently developed new assimilation technique of absorbing.

Three dozen starships engaged the cube on its way to Earth; they began their attack by targeting the position of a weak point that allowed Starfleet forces to destroy the Borg cube in the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373. The tactic did not work, indeed the weapons' impacts were merely absorbed into the cube and used to bolster its energy reserves.

After the opening barrage the cube made a dramatic acceleration, plowing into a group of starships and instantly absorbing them; increasing its mass and drone complement accordingly. The cube then used its tractor beams to snare the remaining vessels and absorb them as well.

The entire battle lasted ninety-seven seconds. Only a handful of ships managed to escape, including the USS Nautilus which transmitted a distress call with a recording of the massacre.

Upon viewing the footage of the battle on the USS Enterprise-E Captain Jean-Luc Picard decided further direct engagements with just Starfleet vessels would be futile and ordered a course change to initiate a plan his crew had previously discussed; to activate the doomsday machine and use it to attack the cube.