- "What began over 35 years ago ends tonight."
- — Jean-Luc Picard, 2401
The Battle of Frontier Day was the final engagement between the United Federation of Planets and the remnants of the primary Borg Collective as well as the conclusion of the Changeling conspiracy.
Both seeking revenge upon the Federation, a rogue faction of Changelings had allied with the surviving Borg to destroy their enemies, culminating in the takeover of Starfleet by the Borg on Frontier Day.
Prelude[]
In 2375, the Dominion War came to an end with the Battle of Cardassia and the Treaty of Bajor. (DS9 episode: "What You Leave Behind")
However, not all of the Changelings were pleased with the peace following the war and under the command of Vadic, who had suffered greatly as a part of Project Proteus, these Changelings broke away from the Great Link. (PIC episodes: "Dominion"; "Seventeen Seconds")
Following this divide in the Great Link, Worf was contacted by Odo, and warned of Vadic's break away, rogue terrorist faction. Out of the mounting fear of reigniting the Dominion War, Starfleet was not able to acknowledge their existence, and Vadic's forces slowly integrated themselves into the highest echelons of Starfleet itself, by using the very abilities they were given against their former tormentors. (PIC episodes: "Seventeen Seconds"; "Imposters")
In 2377, the Borg Collective was decimated to the point of near-extinction when an Admiral Kathryn Janeway from the future infected the Collective with a neurolytic pathogen, combined with the USS Voyager destroying the Borg transwarp network. (VOY episode: "Endgame"; PIC episode: "The Last Generation")
The Borg Queen eventually made contact with Vadic and the two formed an alliance to destroy Starfleet and exact revenge by using the latent Borg DNA that had been placed in Admiral Jean-Luc Picard when he was transformed into Locutus of Borg and which had been passed down to his son Jack Crusher. Recovering Picard's original Human body from Daystrom Station, the Changelings used the fleet's transporter system to incorporate the Borg DNA into all Starfleet personnel, allowing for their assimilation via a remote signal when the time came. (PIC episode: "Võx")
However, the plan experienced challenges when Picard and the crew of the USS Titan-A began working to protect Jack. In addition, they received help from Worf and Commanders Ro Laren and Raffaela Musiker who were investigating Changeling conspiracy. This culminated in the deaths of Vadic and her forces and the destruction of the Shrike, but in trying to understand what was going on with him, Jack was drawn to Jupiter where he met with the Borg Queen aboard her Borg cube where he allowed the Borg Queen to turn him into Võx and the command signal for the Collective. (PIC episodes: "Imposters"; "The Bounty"; "Dominion"; "Surrender"; "Võx")
The battle[]
The assimilation begins[]
After discovering the truth, the USS Titan-A raced back to Earth, arriving as the Frontier Day celebrations, led by Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby aboard the USS Enterprise-F were underway. As Shelby began to demonstrate the new fleet formation mode, the Borg command signal suddenly activated, beginning the assimilation of both the fleet and the Starfleet personnel aboard the ships. Only those over twenty-five years of age were immune to the Borg takeover and they quickly became targets of their assimilated crewmates, with Admiral Shelby and Captain Liam Shaw being among those killed in the fighting.
The unassimilated crew of the USS Excelsior managed to regain control of the ship's bridge, but the automated system quickly retaliated by moving the ship directly into the firing line of the USS Cochrane, USS Hikaru Sulu, USS Intrepid, and USS Luna, which destroyed the ship. As Commanders Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker stayed behind on the Titan to try to retake the ship, due to Seven of Nine having been promoted to acting captain by the dying Shaw while Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, Admiral Kira, Captains William T. Riker and Worf, Commodore Geordi La Forge, Doctor Beverly Crusher, Counselor Deanna Troi, and Data escaped in a maintenance shuttle, and warped away from the battle, making their way to the Fleet Museum, where they reactivated the rebuilt USS Enterprise-D, which was the only Starfleet starship immune to the Borg takeover, due to be old, and also not being connected to the Starfleet mainframe. (PIC episode: "Võx")
Defending Earth[]
As the ships assimilated by the Borg targeted Earth, it was defended by Sol Station and Earth's planetary shields, which would be unable to hold up to that kind of firepower for long, Earth's orbital defense platforms having been destroyed. President of the United Federation of Planets Anton Chekov issued a planetary distress call warning all ships of the Borg threat and to stay away from Earth, which was facing imminent destruction with no one able to figure out how to break the Borg control.
On the Titan, Seven managed to retake the bridge with the help of Musiker and several older crewmembers. In order to buy Earth more time, Seven had the cloaking device stolen from the HMS Bounty engaged as the automated system worked on line of sight, allowing the crew to regain control of their ship. Using every prefix code they had to scramble the shields of as many ships as possible, the Titan made attack runs on the Borg-controlled vessels. However, the Titan alone was only able to make a minimal difference. Eventually, the assimilated crewmembers broke out of where they had been locked up and destroyed the cloaking device, rendering the Titan vulnerable to the Borg automation again, before heading to the bridge to confront Seven's crew.
Despite the valiant defense of both the Titan and Sol Station, the latter eventually fell, taking the planetary shields with it. The Borg ships then began targeting every major population center on the planet for destruction from orbit. (PIC episodes: "Võx"; "The Last Generation")
Battle with the Queen's cube and the final end of the Borg[]
Deducing that the Borg had to be in close proximity for their command signal to work, the Enterprise located the Borg Queen's cube hidden in the center of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. The cube proved to be only thirty-six percent operational, with what power it did have left being used to broadcast the hive mind. After detecting the Enterprise, the Borg Queen disarmed her ship's weapons and lowered her shields in an invitation to invite Jean Luc Picard aboard to witness her so called final victory. Realizing he had no choice, Picard ultimately decided to beam aboard the cube to find his son, while Riker and Worf joined him in search of the beacon that was broadcasting Jack's voice as the command signal.
Using his residual link to the Collective, Picard was able to track Jack to the unimatrix array, where Picard unsuccessfully attempted to reach his son, now Võx of Borg. He was also confronted by the Borg Queen herself who told him that he was too late to save his son, while gloating over her victory. At the same time, Riker and Worf found most of the Borg drones to be dead, having been consumed by the Queen in her desperation to survive. The two eventually located the Borg broadcast emitter and sent its location to the Enterprise before having to fight off a few Borg drones that were somehow still alive only to be quickly killed by both Worf and Riker.
The Enterprise meanwhile was fired upon and engaged directly by the massive Borg Cube's numerous weapons batteries. The Enterprise, despite being a relic, and having her shields reduced, she managed to hold her own against the massive cube, thanks to Beverly Crusher's experience.
The Enterprise crew soon discovered that the beacon was located at the very heart of the cube, a seemingly impossible location to fly to even for a computer or the best pilot. However, Data insisted upon his ability to fly and La Forge, in command of the ship while both Picard and Riker were on the cube, agreed. Although the cube turned its weapons on the Enterprise, Crusher managed to destroy the defense turrets. Data was able to fly the ship through a treacherous path to the middle of the cube, where the crew found the beacon, but were faced with a dilemma as it was tied into the very substructure of the cube, meaning that destroying the beacon would destroy the cube itself, with Picard, Riker, Worf, and Jack still on board.
With no other choice under the circumstances, the Enterprise fired on the beacon, triggering a cataclysmic chain reaction. In a final attempt to reach his son, Picard linked with the Borg hive mind and successfully convinced Jack to break free and return to his family. Although the Enterprise was initially unable to lock onto the four, Troi telepathically detected their position after hearing her husband's goodbye, and flew the Enterprise in to beam them out. The Enterprise escaped as the Borg cube exploded, killing the Borg Queen and destroying what was left of the primary Borg Collective.
The destruction of the Borg cube and the rescue of Jack cut the Borg command signal, breaking the Borg's control over Starfleet just in time to save both Earth and the crew of the Titan. (PIC episode: "The Last Generation")
Aftermath[]
Following the battle, the full scope of the Changeling and Borg plot was fully exposed. As the new head of Starfleet Medical, Admiral Beverly Crusher was able to devise a fleet-wide transporter solution to remove the Borg DNA, bringing a final end to its threat being used again in the future. She was also able to devise a way to detect and expose the remaining Changeling infiltrators.
For their actions, the Enterprise command crew received pardons while Seven of Nine was promoted to the rank of Captain. In addition, the Titan was rechristened as the USS Enterprise-G. (PIC episode: "The Last Generation")
Starships present:[]
| Class | Number | Named ships | Unnamed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | |||
| Odyssey class | 13 | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F)
USS Hikaru Sulu (NCC-92420) |
11 unnamed |
| Sovereign class | 38 | USS Ark Royal (NCC-75922)
USS Arsinoe (NCC-75307) USS Gilgamesh (NCC-74669) USS Glasgow (NCC-75117) USS Hrothgar (NCC-74975) USS Hutchinson (NCC-74957) USS Igraine (NCC-74980) USS Inaieu (NCC-75018) USS Jaresh-Inyo (NCC-75020) USS Musashi (NCC-74660) USS Okuda (NCC-74107) USS Pachacuti (NCC-74181) USS Valkyrie (NCC-74877) USS Venture (NCC-75306) USS Warspite (NCC-74922) |
23 unnamed |
| Ross class | 10 | USS Archer (NCC-76725)
USS Forrest (NCC-75077) USS Hanson (NCC-76726) USS Ross (NCC-76710) USS Vanguard (NCC-75148) USS Yi Sun-Sin (NCC-76545) |
4 unnamed |
| Inquiry class | 22 | USS Cabot (NCC-86539)
USS Cochrane (NCC-86516) USS Janaran (NCC-86518) USS Magellan (NCC-86509) USS Nathan Hale (NCC-86501) USS Norgay (NCC-86538) USS Rustazh (NCC-86503) USS Shackleton (NCC-86517) USS Zheng He (NCC-86505) |
12 unnamed |
| Constitution III class | 1 | USS Titan (NCC-80102-A) | |
| Duderstadt class | 2 | USS Intrepid (NCC-79520)
USS Trumbull (NCC-72370) |
|
| Sutherland class | 4 | USS Almagest (NCC-91870)
USS Huygens (NCC-91814) USS Ibn al-Haytham (NCC-91965) USS Sutherland (NCC-91800) |
|
| Sagan class | 14 | USS Ashland (NCC-82835)
USS Chawla (NCC-82807) |
10 unnamed |
| Echelon class | 13 | USS Cole (NCC-97938)
USS Minor (NCC-97452) USS Sternbach (NCC-97942) USS Yorktown (NCC-97422) |
9 unnamed |
| Excelsior II class | 14 | USS Eureka (NCC-42023)
USS Excelsior (NCC-42037) USS Mestral (NCC-42027) |
11 unnamed |
| Pathfinder class | 38 | USS Voyager (NCC-74656-B)
USS Drexler (NCC-97626) USS Eaves (NCC-97621) |
35 unnamed |
| Gagarin class | 24 | USS Christopher (NCC-97936)
USS Cunningham (NCC-97949) USS Gagarin (NCC-97930) USS Gotana-Retz (NCC-97951) USS John Kelly (NCC-97944) USS Passaro (NCC-97955) USS Resnik (NCC-97945) |
17 unnamed |
| Edison class | 22 | USS Harlan (NCC-52277) | 21 unnamed |
| Luna class | 36 | USS Amalthea (NCC-80108)
USS Ariel (NCC-80114) USS Callisto (NCC-80109) USS Charon (NCC-80111) USS Europa (NCC-80104) USS Galatea (NCC-80112) USS Ganymede (NCC-80107) USS Himalia (NCC-80116) USS Iapetus (NCC-80115) USS Io (NCC-80105) USS Luna (NCC-80101) USS Oberon (NCC-80103) USS Proteus (NCC-80117) USS Rhea (NCC-80110) USS Tourangeau (NCC-80113) USS Triton (NCC-80106) |
20 unnamed |
| Alita class | 14 | 14 unnamed | |
| Akira class | 18 | USS Akira (NCC-62497)
USS Firesword (NCC-64280) USS Helios (NCC-63284) USS Masaka (NCC-63277) USS Rabin (NCC-63293) USS Spector (NCC-63898) USS Thunderchild (NCC-63549) |
11 unnamed |
| Steamrunner class | 1 | USS Appalachia (NCC-52136) | |
| Reliant class | 24 | USS Clark (NCC-90206)
USS Cobb (NCC-90219) USS Enkidu (NCC-90205) USS Maha Naree (NCC-90221) USS Reliant (NCC-90200) USS Tiro (NCC-90216) USS Uhura (NCC-90214) |
17 unnamed |
| Defiant class | 18 | 18 unnamed | |
| Nova class | 18 | USS Erebus (NCC-72435)
USS Mandel (NCC-72210) |
16 unnamed |
| Jupiter | |||
| Borg Cube | 1 | Borg Queen's cube | |
| Galaxy class | 1 | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) | |