Okay, i think i wrote this chapter really well, and that's saying something given some of my best chapters, i thought were terrible. i'll admit, i show alot more dynamic to these characters than even i originally thought i could. and yes, this is supposed to be an EXTREMELY dark chapter, especially toward the end. anyway, hope you all enjoy! if you happen to be following this story, please, if there is a chapter to drop a review on, this is most definitely one of them!
Kei rubbed her sore shoulder as she walked down the hall, heading for the port transporter bay. She knew they were going to be taking on passengers from the damaged vessel shortly, having decided she would help how she could. She was still a ways away from the transporter room when the whole ship lurched down, almost like the feeling of an elevator going down. She was confused, not sure why the ship would have lurched like that. She was nearly knocked off her feet as the entire ship shook, able to hear the sound of metal being rent apart.
"What the hell?" before she had time open a comms channel, she heard the distinctive sound of someone being beamed aboard, her eyes snapping down the corridor to see several sets of red particles seeming to form together into the shapes of an entire Klingon squad. There was a fellow cadet pretty well among the group, Kei watching in horror as one of them fired a disruptor bolt into the cadet's back, the energy blast going clean through. she instantly panicked, yanking her weapon from it's holster and firing, it's beam slicing through one of the klingon's chest cavity. She was horrified by what the weapon had just done, almost freezing at the sight of it. She barely managed to slam herself up against the wall, the curve of the hallway preventing their disruptor rounds from hitting her. green bolts were ripping by her as she ran along the wall, using the natural curve of the narrow hallway to cover her. that turned out to not be all that great of an idea, as a green beam ripped through the wall, plating and sent structural supports blasting out of the wall. Kei had just barely managed to fall on her chest in time to avoid a section of debris being blasted from the wall. Excruciating pain ripped into her thigh, clouding her thoughts as she rolled onto her back, seeing a piece of metal sticking out of her leg. She raised her weapon back the way she came as she opened a comm line on the security net, hearing several calls about the intruders across the net.
"This is Cadet Kei! I'm injured on port side C deck, and I have Klingons closing on me!" she didn't get the chance to continue, one of the Klingons entering her view. She reacted by firing her weapon at him, slicing a section of the wall behind him with the beam. He snapped off a pair of disruptor rounds, but was unharmed. She panicked again, trying to scramble back, despite the pain in her leg. Another Klingon rounded the bend, a massive assault cannon in his hands. It was a two handed weapon, not held up at the shoulder like a rifle. It had what looked like twelve barrels, likely using to focus a beam of energy into a highly destructive blast. She panicked again, firing her phaser only to see it glancing off a personal energy shield. She continued to hold the trigger down, her training slipping away as she tried to bring him down. She ended up dropping her phaser as it began to spark, the intense heat of the weapon burning her hands. The Klingon just laughed, moving past more of the debris to get a clear shot on her. a shot the Klingon wasn't getting. A burst of orangish red bolts ripped over her, a series of familiar high pitched blasts accompanying the shots from the phaser compression rifle. The burst of fire blasted the shield away, two of the shots missing, but one finding it's mark in the klingon's face. Another of the Klingon soldiers was stepping into her view, just to be cut down by a phaser beam. The next thing she knew, someone had grabbed one of her arms, using it to drag her back as she looked up. Hawkins was above her, one handing his rifle and firing bursts of automatic fire down the hall as he dragged her behind some debris. She was shaking as he quickly looked at the shrapnel on her leg, aiming his weapon at it and firing, leaving most of the metal in her leg but vaporizing what was exposed.
"Sorry, just trust me." She nodded as he pulled a bandage from the medical kit on his thigh, quickly wrapping the wound. "think you can walk?"
"I don't know." He nodded, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. She gingerly put weight on her leg, finding that it was hurting like nobody's business, but she was able to put weight on it. "i…. what's…" she was struggling to find words, unable to shake the images of the cadet being killed, or what her own weapon had done out of her mind. Her entire body was quaking in terror. Even the two security members with Matt looked absolutely terrified, one very pale as he stared down the corridor, phase rifle half raised, the other, a red skinned lizard like alien, cowering behind a piece of debris. It seemed quiet at the moment, but that could very well change.
"Jen. Breath. We gotta move. Port weapons control needs to be retaken. Okay? She nodded and his attention focused to his two team mates. "Harris, Padual, hold this location, focus on suppressing them. I'll try to get you two back up." They nodded as he continued, the human gulping as the alien shuddered. "Harris, I need your pistol." He nodded, tossing the phaser to Matt, which he instantly shoved into her hands. She shakily nodded, him giving her arm a comforting squeeze before he took off down the hallway, Kei struggling to keep up. The pain in her leg was much worse now that she was running, making her half limp the whole way. She barely noticed when he began to slow down, a T-intersection on their right. She shot past him, right into view of the intersection. She barely had time to register that there were a pair of Klingons in the side hall, one facing her, when Matt slammed into her, shouting. The Klingon fired, his first shot striking Matt in the back as they fell. He was still on top of her, but she still managed to aim from underneath him, sweeping her beam across both of the Klingons. Both dropped, screaming.
"Matt! Matt!" she screamed as she managed to snake out from under him, instantly checking his back to find the cloth of his vest gone, a chunk missing from the hard ceramic plate hidden beneath. He groaned as he rolled himself over, clutching his head.
"Ow. Fuck I think I knocked myself out for a second there." She glared at him, able to see a bump forming on the side of his head already.
"Damn it Matt! Don't you ever scare me like that again!" she smacked his chest plate as she yelled at him, having to shake her hand from nearly bruising it on his chest plate. He startled at her yelling, just before smiling.
"Jeez Smalls, remind me to not piss you off again." Her fear at the situation melted for a second, too annoyed at hearing her nickname to notice.
"Quit calling me that already!" he smirked before getting to his feet, bringing his weapon back up and continuing down the corridor. They could hear distant disruptor fire, the unique sound of the weapons carrying through the ship, along with the much quieter phaser discharge, almost inaudible. The two of them slowed down from the crazy sprint they had been moving at, Kei taking the interior side of the hall, Matt taking the exterior. That way, he would be the first to see a threat, given his rifle had much more firepower than her smaller weapon. They both were moving at a brisk walk, weapons up and ready to fire off a shot. Matt had always called this the high ready, were your weapon was raised like you were about to fire, but you weren't looking down the sights. And they did this without saying a word, having run almost all of the tactical scenarios together. Before long, his weapon began firing, him rushing to a support pillar on the wall to use as cover. She quickly moved up, using a pillar further down the hall so she could see while he kept firing, making it harder for the enemy to return fire. Even so, a few disruptor bolts zipped down the hall way, leaving burn marks on the walls. The corridor further ahead was covered in debris, mostly ceiling panels and supports. The roof was dented in, but still holding atmosphere, the Klingons using the debris as cover. She quickly aimed and fired, a short burst from her beam weapon boring through a Klingon soldiers skull. Three of the aliens were on the ground from Matt's weapon, with a hell of a lot more burns on the walls behind them from his misses. She ducked back into cover, seemingly just in time as a pair of disruptor bolts whipping by, one crazing the support she was behind. She was about to curse when she was slammed into the support pillar, not even sure what had happened as her world went black.
"I need ideas! We cant fight that ship head on!" the captains shout came clear across the bridge, silence following. This is stupid, but it might just work. Morikawa Rei took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts so that he would speak in a relatively calm voice.
"If we rein force our forward shields, then ram their vessel at full impulse, we may strike with enough force to jar their systems offline sir!" the bridge was silent, and he silently cursed to himself, realizing that it likely sounded dumber out loud than in his head.
"We'll need all the speed we can get. Wash, do it!" he went wide eyed, about to rush to put all of their shield power to the front, only to realize that the pilot was looping them around an asteroid. He quickly powered the rear shielding, just in time as a burst of disruptor rounds hit the shielding. The pilot, meanwhile, had already begun pitching the ship, the throttle maxed. He was also pulling the throttle up, firing the underside thrusters to help redirect their momentum. They were almost scraping their shielding on the asteroid, leaving very little time for Rei to redirect the shield power to the front. He barely had time to tell the system to load up a torpedo before they were ripping out from behind the asteroid. "All hands! Brace for impact!" no one had time to know before the ship was slamming into the Klingon warbird with enough force that everyone was slammed forward, several people sent over their consoles. Both he and the pilot managed to stay in their chairs, no one else managing too. But that was all they needed. Rei could barely breath from the pain in his chest, but he forced himself to focus. The pilot already had the ship in full reverse, Rei pulling up his tactical feed on the enemy ship. its shields were still up, but it had nearly lost all of them, a collective total of around six percent. But that was still enough to keep a torpedo from doing much damage to the enemy ship. he cursed, having hoped they would have had more of an effect.
"Damn it, minimal effect on target! Enemy shields are still up!" damn it, if only we had a second torpedo tube. That thought raced through Rei's brain as he spoke.
"Fuck, that hurt. Better effect than you thought kid. Look at her engine emissions! You must'ave given her a nasty shake!" the captain was still picking himself up off the deck as he spoke. The enemy ships engines were sputtering, the larger ship slowly drifting away from them. "Status report!" Rei was the first to speak, coughing as he did so.
"Shields….. shields at seventeen percent, aft, port and starboard at nothing. Phaser firing control still offline." Wash instantly followed him up.
"Warp core is offline. Impulse and thrusters reading green." Another one of the cadets spoke, a male that Rei didn't know.
"Mutilple hull breaches. Containment fields have already triggered. All where the disruptors grazed us sir!" they didn't get the chance to go further through the status report, the enemy ship beginning to turn away. rei noticed it's shields drop off, it's cloaking field beginning to activate.
"Fuck! Torpedo away!" he barely managed to get a guidance lock before firing, the ship vibrating as the red orb lanced away, closing the multi-kilometer gap in seconds. But the enemy ship had already disappeared, Rei's gut dropping out as he realized that he more than likely missed. Only to be rewarded with the torpedo impacting something. Metal and atmosphere blasted into space, the green hull around the impact site appearing as the cloaking system hiccupped. But the torpedo punched clean through without detonating, shown by the ship's cloaking system recovering. The weapon slammed into one of the small asteroids, detonating on impact. "Damn it! negative on a kill! Positive impact!" he heard several curses from around the bridge, beginning another check of his systems and making sure another torpedo was loaded and armed.
"Sensors are on the fritz. I'm rebooting them now!" the female voice sounded pained, Rei glancing back to see that there was blood flowing from her hair line.
"I need a method of tracking them, ideas? Morikawa, rebalance the shields and divert weapons power to bring them back online!" he was already doing so when a new voice spoke, that of Cadet T'Vrell.
"Sir, Klingon vessels use plasma to power their vessels. It is possible that the impact ruptured the containment on their plasma cells, and the hole the torpedo made could very well be leaking plasma and radiation into space." Rei nearly cheered as his weapons came up green, butting back into the conversation again before anyone could speak.
"We have weapons control! Phaser's and Pulse phasers ready to fire on command!" before more could be said, the sound of transporters gained his attention, several sets of blue orbs forming together all across the bridge, forming together to make an entire Klingon squad. He would have reached for the Phaser he had set on the console if it hadn't been launched across the room on impact. Several disruptor blasts rang out in the room, killing one of the science officers who had reached for a Phaser and the two security team members. He slowly put his hands up and stepped away from his console as the obvious leader of the Klingons stepped right up to the captain.
"Order ship surrender. Now!" he aimed his long pistol straight at the captain as he spoke in very crude English. One Klingon stepped up to rei, attempting to jam his weapon into Rei's face as a threat. The next and last thing the Klingon knew, it was staring down the barrel of it's own disruptor. Rei had moved with the speed of a cat, slamming one of his hands into the Klingons wrist to point the weapon up, and his other into the crook of the Klingons elbow to bring the weapon under his chin. In the same smooth motion, his left hand slid up to the trigger of the weapon and jammed the Klingons own finger down on it. as the weapon discharged, he grabbed it with his right hand, fluidly bouncing it into a proper grip as the Klingon fell, his grip on the weapon broken. Two Klingons dropped from green bolts fired from his weapon as several bridge crew members managed to grab phasers and disruptors. The captain had tackled the enemy squad leader down, but not before the Klingon managed to fire a bolt, straight into his gut. Rei was mortified, seeing the Klingon shove the dying captain off of him. before he could do more, Wash was firing a recovered Phaser into the Klingon, burning a hole clean through him. the bridge had gone mostly quiet, but there wasn't a second to stop, as one of the doors was blown in, several Klingons moving to storm in.
Matt felt the ship jerk out from underneath him, forcing him to roll around the support he had been leaning on. Before he could really register what was going on, wind started to tear at him with enough force to send him flying down the corridor. Instinct alone was all that allowed him to grab on to a jagged section of steel from one of the supports, glancing up just in time to see Jenifer flying toward him. he threw his arm out, nearly losing his grip as she slammed into him, barely managing to catch her around the waist before he pulled her tight to his chest. The howl of the wind dropped off as suddenly as it had come, Matt slamming to the floor with Jenifer on top of him. he groaned, every muscle in his body now aching, both from the adrenaline from the fighting, excretion in that last moment, and the near constant smoke session he had already endured today. Add to it a near miss from an assault cannon and the disruptor round that had hit his back, he was hurting. Kei was totally limp, his arm still protectively clutching her to him. her head was resting beside his neck, Matt oddly not feeling all that uncomfortable with the position. He assumed she was hurting as bad as he was, given she hadn't moved either. he wasn't worried about her, mostly because he could still feel her chest rise and fall as she breathed. He wasn't really sure how long he sat there when an all too familiar voice rang out, drawing his attention.
"Come on guys, get a room already!" he looked up to see an upside down Spencer, a phaser rifle in his hands. Or at least, he was upside down from Matt's perspective.
"Do you even see what just happened to us!? I don't even want to fucking move right now!" I felt like I was missing something, spencers next comment reminding me of what.
"Smalls, you're looking pretty comfy there?" Matt started to panic when she didn't move or respond to Spencer, having expected some sort of jibe back at him. Matt tried to be as gentle as possible as he rolled her off of him, panicking outright when he saw the blood on the side of her head, streaking down her face from a spot in her hairline.
"Jenifer!" he snapped into a crouched position over her, terrified that she hadn't responded. Spencer was beside them in a heartbeat, all joking thrown aside.
"Hey, come on smalls, snap out of it!" Spencer gently shook her, a small groan slipping out of her. Matt sighed in relief, letting himself fall back onto the floor.
"Ugh…. My head's killing me…. What did I miss?" Spencer chuckled, Matt's eyes opening to see him still crouched over her. she was pressing both hands against her temples.
"We nearly got sucked into the black, that's what. You alright Jen?" she nodded at Matt's words, Spencer giving both of them a startled expression for half a second, followed by a devious smirk.
"So it's jen now huh? Can I call you that too?" she was instantly glaring at him.
"Fuck no. it's Jenifer or Kei to you, jerkface." He laughed, offering her a hand up as Matt leapt back to his feet. He took a deep breath to try and settle himself, even that being painful as he grabbed his rifle, still securely attached to him by it's single point sling. "Gimme that." Spencer didn't even get a chance to respond as she tugged his pistol from where it was tucked into his pants, a faint whine emitting from it as she powered it up. He shrugged and waved both of them after him, heading back the way we had come.
"Lets go make sure the port firing control is ours." Matt was instantly following, Kei close on his heels. The trio quickly worked their way around the hull breach, easily finding the door to the firing control. It was closed when they arrived, Matt sliding to the front of the group as he spoke.
"Just remember how we drilled it. I'll get the panel before going in, Smalls, take the rear." Both Jenifer and Spencer nodded, stacking up behind Matt as he slipped up to the door, weapon aiming at the door, but not sticking out from the door jam. Matt took another painful deep breath, trying to settle his nerves, and completely unable to do so. Alright, here goes….. with that thought, he lunged forward, fluidly slapping the door switch with his left hand before stepping into the room, ignoring the room at large as he aimed at the close corner across the door from him, clearing it before his attention went to the room at large. The three of them had moved so fast that they had practically stepped into the doorway together, all three firing on the two Klingons in the room almost simultaneously. The twin beams and single bolt were more than enough to kill the two aliens, both collapsing to the ground like sacks. Without a word, all three of them moved to separate consoles around the room, reactivating the targeting and control systems for the weapons.
"Alright, weapons should be up. Kei, get see if you cant get some security here. Matt, we should go see if we can secure th-" Spencer's voice dropped off as a voice came off Kei's still open comms channel.
"To any personnel hearing this! the Klingons are attempting to use our transporters! Cut the power to them!" they were all moving out of the room in an instant. "Damn it! where the hell are they trans-ing to! Security to bridge, the Klingons have used the transporter system, port transporter room secured." Matt breathed a sigh of relief, that relief evaporating as they all realized that the bridge didn't respond. "Bridge, how copy my last?!" before more could be said, a new voice joined the channel.
"This is Commander Horst! The enemy has transported to the bridge! All available hands, get there on the double!" they could hear the sounds of Disruptor shots intermixed with the commander's call, not one saying a word before they took off for the bridge.
Spencer fought to stay in control of his breath, rushing past hallways and bulkheads as fast as his legs could carry him. they were only one turn away from the bridge, rounding the corner to find the commander standing alone amongst several bodies outside the bridge door, both Klingon and human. He was holding a Klingon weapon, waving them over as soon as he saw them.
"Come on! We need to secure the bridge!" Spencer didn't bother responding, still sprinting when something hit the back of his legs, slamming him to the floor. His eyes watered from the pain radiating from his face. Before he could have the thought of seeing what brought him down, he heard a disruptor shot, a scream nearly covering up a compression phaser shot, and the sound of bodies hitting the floor. He rolled over, clutching his nose to find Matt lying on his back, Kei and Spencer had apparently brought down by him, a Klingon corpse down the hall from them still smoking from the phaser round ripping through him.
"Fu-ch vhat hurv!" Kei rolled her eyes at Spencer as he felt the area under his nose, confirming his suspicion as blood was running quite freely from it. she was propped up on her elbows, seeming no worse for wear from the likely equally hard impact. Her eyes slid away from the two of them, Spencer seeing them widen at something behind him. "Vhav ish ith!?" what little color her face still had seemed to drain away as she scrambled to her feet, heading for the bridge door. That's when his eyes fell on the commander, who was sinking to the floor, clutching at his throat to try and stop the blood that was pouring from it. he gave Kei one last pained look before his eyes seemed to glaze over.
"Come on! We gotta secure the bridge! On me!" Spencer felt riveted to the spot, almost ignoring Hawk's words. "Spencer! Get off your god damned ass!" he glanced up, seeing that Kei was already trying to settle herself, standing beside the door switch, Hawk standing across from her. he scrambled to grab his rifle and slipped in behind him, deciding a simple nod was enough. Matt quickly nodded as well, but this time to Kei. She activated the door, Matt throwing his arm out to stop himself and Spencer, spencer feeling his face burn as a pair of disruptor rounds ripped past his face, temporarily blinding him with their green flashes. Almost as soon as the moment had come, it was gone, Hawk launching through the door with Spencer right behind him. both opened fire almost immediately upon entering, Spencer firing very short spurts of beam energy at the blown out door across from them, Hawk unleashing the fully automatic fury of his weapon into the gaping doorway. "Jen, frag, now!" Spencer went wide eyed, dropping behind one of the consoles as Kei pulled a grenade off of her belt, tossing it through the door before both of them dropped behind one of the flight consoles, most of the bridge crew already hiding from Klingon fire. The grenade detonated, reverberating through the ship. Hawk and Spencer were instantly moving stepping through the door to find what little remained of the Klingons that had been on the other side, a sight that made Spencer puke. Hawk on the other hand only grimaced, but Spencer knew him well enough to know the sight disgusted him too. Spencer just guessed that he had seen worse, given the way he acted from time to time. With out a word both of them returned to the bridge, finding it a mess. There were burns all over the walls and consoles, several of the consoles likely inoperative at this time. Half the bridge crew was wounded in some way, Rei and Wash already crouched over the captain. Kei had moved over by T, who had a black burn through her leg, her greenish blood leaking out as she groaned in pain. The sensor officer was lying on her back, moaning as her entire body quivered, a spot on her stomach being soaked a deep red, contrasting sharply with her grey uniform. Spencer was at her in an instant, his weapon clattering to the floor as he started putting pressure on her stomach.
"Helv mth!" Hawkins had seemed to have completely frozen, his eyes bouncing between the corpses across the bridge, as well as the wounded. "Hawth!" Spencer, as screwed up as his voice sounded right now, finally seemed to break him out of his trance. He was still completely pale, but he snapped over to beside Spencer, pulling a pouch off his left side, opeing it to reveal it as filled with primitive combat meds.
"K-Keep pressure. H-ere. U-ss-se th-is." His was was shaking like crazy as he handed Spencer a roll of gauze, Spencer quickly pressing it on the wound. "T-talk t-to h-er. Try to k-keep her calm." He was shaking like crazy, seeming to be much worse anytime he looked at the blood leaking into the gauze, slowly soaking it. Spencer nodded to him, him suddenly standing and tapping commands into his wrist Padd. "All hands, we need medical teams to the bridge ASAP!" Spencer's attention returned to the red head beneath him, instantly speaking.
"Othay, uh.." he froze for a second, trying to remember her name. "Haley, rigth?" he nearly cheered when she nodded. "Do you underthsthanth me?" he noticed that he was at least gaining some control to his voice again, although he still didn't didn't sound right.
"Y-our… your n-ose. It…. it's ble-eding." She tired to reach up and touch his face, Spencer managing to grab her hand without releasing pressure and gently lay it back at her side.
"Isth fine! Thalk tho me. How arth thou feeling?" she seemed extremely pale, almost unfocused.
"I'm c-c-cold. Rea-really cold." His mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do. An idea sparked in his mind and he ripped his top off, leaving him in a skin tight t-shirt as he did his best to wrap her smaller frame in the shirt before resuming pressure on her stomach.
"thorry, canth do more rigth now." she was still shaking like crazy, Spencer starting to panic when she didn't respond again. "Haley! Keeth thalking tho me! Where arth you from!?" she had a look of mild concentration for a second before she spoke again, her voice much weaker, now, but seemed to not be shaking as much.
"B-brooklyn, New York. Lived there…. Lived there as lo…." She blinked several times, seeming to have more and more trouble talking. "As long as…. As I can remember…." She wasn't looking at him at all anymore, just staring off at the ceiling. He quickly pulled one of his hands away from her stomach, gently grabbing her hand. that seemed to get her attention again as he spoke, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
"Hey, come on, sthay with me!" he didn't even realize that he was starting to cry, feeling her hand go limp in his. "Haley, come on…. Sayth something!" he felt more than saw Hawk rushing back over, holding something in his hands. Spencer didn't fight as his hand was pulled away from her stomach, unable to pull his eyes from her now cold and lifeless stare. His body shuddered for a second, wanting nothing more than to look away, but he couldn't find the strength to even blink. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hawk's panicked expression melt into anger as the older man saw that she was no longer bleeding, standing up only to scream out a swear word, slamming his fist into the wall. That seemed to be enough to break what ever had a hold on Spencer, Spencer shakily standing up. Hawk was now leaning his forehead up against the wall, his hands resting above his head. One hand was holding a hypospray, likely holding something that might have saved her life. The glove on his other hand was starting to tinge red, blood leaking out of the fingerless gloves from his knuckles.
"Where's Commander Horst!?" Spencer glanced up at Morikawa, seeing the fear evident in every face on the bridge. Everyone seemed to be looking to him. as if he something he didn't want to happen had happened.
"He's dead." Hawkins was the one to speak, his voice quiet, slightly muffed from his position, but still rang clear across the empty bridge.
"Armstrong….. the captain…. He's…." Wash was speaking, his voice cracking and dying out as he tried to speak, Spencer finishing for him.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Wash and Rei both nodded, Spencer mentally cursing to himself. Looks I'm the captain now. he shuddered at that thought, the weight of knowing that every life on the ship now rested squarely on his shoulders. I can not let them down! No matter what! He took one look at Hawkins, still leaning against the wall and shaking uncontrollably, letting his eyes sweep the room from there. Every other face was turned toward him alone, except for Kei, who seemed to have split her focus with T, Hawk, and Spencer. He took a deep breath, trying to control his voice and speak as clearly and confidently as he could. "Clear the corpthes from the bridge, geth the wounded tho medical. I wanth engineers gething mithon critical stathions online, and I wanted that yethterday! Hawth, thake Sensors, Kei, on comths. Nitha, Wasth, man your stathions!" the roomed echoed with 'aye-aye sir's, chilling spencer in a way that he could never describe. Now let's go get this son of bitch.