Battle of Wolf 359

Admiral Hanson's fleet engages the Borg cube.

The **Battle of Wolf 359** was a battle between Starfleet and the Borg Collective. It took place in the Wolf system, just eight light-years from Earth. It is, as of the beginning of "Shield of Tomorrow", the most destructive battle ever fought in Federation history.

## Prelude

On stardate 43989.1, the USS Enterprise arrived at Jouret IV, twelve hours after the Federation lost contact with their colony there: New Providence. The Enterprise crew found that New Providence had been completely destroyed...literally scooped from the planet's surface.

Admiral J.P. Hanson and Lieutenant Commander Shelby of Starfleet Tactical Command arrived to investigate the disappearance. An away team discovered that the weapons that wiped out the colony left energy signatures similar to those used by the Borg cube encountered by the Enterprise a year ago. Realizing that devastation of this kind had been found even earlier on several outposts in the Romulan Neutral Zone (Federation and Romulan alike), Starfleet immediately began preparations for a possible Borg invasion.

Admiral Hanson returned to Starbase 324 to discuss a defensive strategy against such an attack with Starfleet Command. Starfleet's first action was to impose a fleet-wide yellow alert, warning all Federation and allied outposts.

That evening, the USS Lalo departed Zeta Alpha II on a freight run to Sentinel Minor IV. Roughly three hours later, Starbase 157 received a signal from the Lalo: they reported contact with a "cubical object", before being cut off mid-transmission. The Lalo did not respond to further hails.

When Admiral Hanson relayed this information to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Enterprise set a course for the Lalo's last known location. With Starfleet reinforcements at least six days away, the Enterprise was on its own. En route, the Enterprise made contact with an unknown object: a Borg cube. In addition to the Borg's normal hail, they also demanded Captain Picard beam himself aboard the cube for an unspecified purpose. When Picard refused, the two vessels briefly exchanged fire. Enterprise was forced to retreat to the nearby Paulson Nebula, with the Borg close behind. The Borg forced the Enterprise out of hiding by launching magnetometric guided charges into the dust cloud. With minor damage to the Enterprise, Picard was forced to order his ship out of hiding. In the ensuing Borg attack, a Borg drone beamed aboard and captured Picard. With Picard beamed aboard the cube, the Borg vessel left at high warp on a course for Sector 001: the location of Earth, and the core of the Federation.

Commander William T. Riker assumed command as Acting Captain, and ordered the Enterprise to pursue the Borg cube. An away team beamed aboard the Borg cube and was successful in forcing the vessel out of warp. Before Acting Captain Riker could attack the cube with the Enterprise's deflector dish weapon, they were hailed from the Borg cube...by Picard. Now assimilated into the Collective as "Locutus of Borg", the Borg sought to use Picard's military knowledge to assimilate the Federation. With the cube temporarily disabled, and unwilling to allow the Borg to utilize such a valuable asset, Acting Captain Riker ordered the Enterprise to fire the deflector weapon. Unfortunately, the Borg used Locutus's knowledge to prepare countermeasures that easily shrugged off the Enterprise's assault. The Borg cube then resumed its course for Sector 001.

The Enterprise was forced to stay behind, having suffered extensive damage to its deflector array and warp core by firing the deflector weapon. In the meantime, Admiral Hanson hastily assembled a fleet of 40 starships in the Wolf system to destroy the Borg cube, or at least stall it long enough for Klingon (and potentially Romulan) reinforcements to arrive.

## The Battle of Wolf 359

On stardate 44002.3, the Borg cube entered the Wolf system. Locutus hailed the assembled fleet:

"Resistance is futile. You will disarm your weapons and escort us to Sector 001. If you attempt to intervene, we will destroy you."

Admiral Hanson responded by ordering the fleet to engage the Borg. The fleet engaged the cube in lines of battle. Such tactics were common in Starfleet, as it allowed ships to attack in formation without fear of friendly fire. However, Locutus was able to anticipate such a fleet formation, and the Borg cube simply picked off the Starfleet ships one at a time. In addition to vaporizing approaching ships, Locutus also simply neutralized others. Thus, when other ships rushed to rescue the disabled ships (i.e. USS Saratoga), the Borg cube could destroy the distracted rescuers as they entered the combat zone (i.e. USS Yamaguchi and USS Bellorophon).

After literally minutes of combat, Admiral Hanson knew his fleet faced utter defeat. He attempted to rally what few ships remained for a last-ditch assault, but his ship was shortly destroyed after giving the order. His last words were his orders to Acting Captain Riker on the Enterprise: "The fight does not go well, Enterprise. We're attempting to withdraw and regroup. Rendezvous with fleet-" Communications were cut off mid-transmission as the Borg cube destroyed Admiral Hanson's flagship.

Junil Rue was onboard the USS Roosevelt, which fought at Wolf 359. They were one of the few who managed to escape as the Borg beamed aboard and assimilated the crew. After assimilating the USS Roosevelt, the Borg beamed their new drones to the Borg cube and destroyed the Roosevelt.

39 starships were destroyed, with a total loss of 11,000 lives dead or assimilated. The Borg only spared a single ship: a civilian transport caught in the middle of the battle. As the ship was heavily damaged and attempted to evacuate its crew and passengers via escape pods, the Borg assimilated them.

## Aftermath

After the battle, the Borg cube resumed its course towards Earth, almost undamaged. In preparation for the Borg invasion, a state of emergency was declared on Earth. Though the Enterprise finally completed repairs and caught up to the Borg, it did so just as the cube brushed aside the Mars Defense Perimeter. The Borg cube had just taken up position in Earth's orbit when the Enterprise crew recaptured Locutus and used his link to the Collective to plant subversive commands in the other Borg. The Borg cube was deactivated and destroyed, saving Earth from assimilation.

Klingon reinforcements did arrive at Wolf 359, but not in time to join the battle. Instead, the Klingons chose to mop up any Borg survivors in the Wolf system and Sector 001.

## Legacy

Though the outcome of the invasion could have been much worse, the Battle of Wolf 359 was a disaster for the Federation. Federation historians (Human and alien alike) would unanimously agree that the Battle of Wolf 359 was "the worst defeat in military annals since the Spanish Armada was sunk".

The loss of an entire fleet meant that the Federation was now unprepared to fight any sustained conflict...a fact that was a key factor in the negotiating of the Federation-Cardassian Armistice later that year. Though a special task force (led by now-Commander Shelby) was able to rebuild Starfleet and return it to previous deployment levels, the process took up to a year.

Starfleet learned their lesson from the Battle of Wolf 359 by adopting "swarm" tactics instead of lines of battle. The heavily-armed Defiant-class that year was also a direct result of the Battle of Wolf 359, and Commander Benjamin L. Sisko (the former first officer of the USS Saratoga and a survivor of the battle) was part of the development team. However, the prototype USS Defiant was later redeveloped and commissioned four years later specifically to counter the Dominion threat.

## Known starships lost at the Battle of Wolf 359

* Admiral Hanson's flagship (Galaxy-class)
* USS Ahwahnee (Cheyenne-class)
* USS Bellerophon (Nebula-class)
* USS Bonestall (Oberth-class)
* USS Buran (Challenger-class)
* USS Chekov (Springfield-class)
* USS Endeavour (Nebula-class)
* USS Firebrand (Freedom-class)
* USS Gage (Apollo-class)
* USS Hoagland (Miranda-class)
* USS Hood (Excelsior-class)
* USS Kadosca (Ambassador-class)
* USS Kyushu (New Orleans-class)
* USS Liberator (unknown class)
* USS Melbourne (Excelsior-class)
* USS Potemkin (Excelsior-class)
* USS Princeton (Niagara-class)
* USS Reliant (Miranda-class)
* USS Righteous (Excelsior-class)
* USS Roosevelt (Excelsior-class)
* USS Saratoga (Miranda-class)
* USS Tolstoy (unknown class)
* USS Victory (Constellation-class)
* USS Yamaguchi (Ambassador-class)
* USS Yorktown (Zodiac-class)