Exodus
Encountered by USS Daedalus in 2401 as part of the Fourth Fleets investigations into increased Borg signals, Exodus was the home of a group of Unimatrix Zero survivors following the Borg Collective's restructure caused by the release of the Neurolytic Pathogen.
When Daedalus encountered the vessel it was severly damaged as a result of its journey from Borg terretory, those aboard were considering abandoning the vessel
Service History
Service to the Collective
Constructed in 2375 at Unimatrix 325, the vessel began as Sphere 531 and was assigned a variety of obejctives in service of the collective. It was present in the Yontasa Expanse during the assimilation of several planetary systems and operated in an exploratory and monitoring function at the border of the Kremin Imperium, deep in the Delta Quadrant.
Release from the Hive Mind
In 2378 the crew of USS Voyager released a neurolytic pathogen in the heart of the collective causing the apparent death of the Borg Queen and the desctruction of a large portion of the collective's internal functions. This pathogen seperated a substantial number of drones and vessels from the Hive Mind's control; where other drones fell into a state of confusion those drones with the genetic mutation that allowed them to retain their indentities within the hive mind (who had at one time formed Unimatrix Zero) found themselves fully released from the Borg control. By chance several of these Unimatrix Zero surivors were aboard Sphere 531 when the pathogen rendered the vessel immobile.
Following several days of work the survivors were able to isolate the remaining drones and take direct control of the vessel and began searching for any further remnants of the Unimatrix. As a result of several attempts to make contact with other survivors by the small crew of the sphere, now named Exodus, several other clusters of survivors joined from disabled vessels skirting the edge of Malon & Hirogen space.
Journey to the Federation
The Unimatrix attempted to make contact with several other vessels but found them either completely disabled or operating in a state of base responsiveness, forcing them into conflict as the Borg remnant attempted to reintegrate them. Following a particularly dangerous engagement with a remnant sphere they discovered the Collective was not as dysfunctional as they had assumed following the pathogen's release and a programme of aggressive resource collection and territorial expansion was underway by the newly modified Hive Mind.
Following this discovery of a renewed Borg threat and aware they were not likely to be welcomed by the local races who had suffered at the hands of the Collective for decades, the community voted almost unanimously to begin travel towards the Alpha Quadrant following the promises once made by Janeway to the original inhabitants of the Unimatrix.
After several years of travelling, the Unimatrix found their ability to maintain and supply the new community to be declining as a result of the failing vessel; once designed to be operated by the full hive mind, the Unimatrix was unable to operate the vessel at full capability. As a result of repeated conflicts at the newly resurgent Vaadwuaar border, Exodus lost a significant portion of its power systems and as a result was no longer able to reach transwarp speeds. Still intent on journeying to the promised lands of the Federation but facing a journey of several decades the Unimatrix made the decision to attempt to utlise the underspace corridors of the Turei to speed their transit. During their attempts to use the corridors they were repeatedly engaged by Turei forces, who despite their tactically inferior vessels were able to cause significant damage to the sphere. Exodus was forced from the corridors near the edge of the Beta quadrant and forced to continue under their standard warp capabilities.
Talvath Cluster and USS Daedalus
The journey towards Federation territory took several years under standard FTL and the Unimatrix continued to suffer losses as the infrastructure of the vessel failed without the constant upkeep undertaken by hundreds of drones. By the time the vessel arrived in the Talvath cluster at the far edge of Federation and Romulan territory only a half dozen members of the community remained alive. Since their initial release form the Hive Mind, the community had operated a modified vinculum aboard the vessel to act as a focal point for the shared virtual reality they developed to recreate Unimatrix Zero. When a series solar events caused major damage to the ship's hull the dying community decided to channel all their efforts into adapting the vinculum's long range transmission abilities into a distress beacon.
Overwatch station, still under construction at the edge of the cluster detected the Borg transmission and following review with Starfleet command USS Daedalus was dispatched to the cluster to investigate the possible threat.
Upon arrival at the site Daedalus found the vessel heavily damaged and only 4 members of the Unimatrix alive aboard. At the instruction of Task Force 72 command the crew began to provide aid in an attempt to make the vessel safe to continue its travels into Federation space.