Chapter 10: Assault

Archer opened up the weapons case, grabbed a hand held phaser and handed it to Rick, "This setting is stun and if you press that red button right there it will set it to kill." Archer paused and looked around at the group that surrounded him and sighed, "According to Luke we're going up against something very formidable and we unfortunately don't have the luxury of just stunning them." Archer sighed and looked down, "Set them to kill..." Archers voice cracked, the others could tell that this decision isn't something the captain could stomach, but he had too.

Reed put his hand on his Captains back, "It's quite alright sir, we can't always spare every enemy we meet, we've been lucky so far but now... We'll have to."

Rick shook his head and put his pistol in his holster, "Malcolms right, when you need to kill to protect your family, you kill. No questions asked. Nothing to be ashamed of John." Rick looked towards Shane and pointed to the shot gun in the corner, "They'll be expecting us to carry these types of weapons you gave us, we should carry our as well, just in case."

Tucker nodded at Rick as he strapped a phase rifle to his chest, "That might not be a bad idea cap'n, they sure as hell know we're not from around here, I'm sure they've detected our force fields, It might help if I can have someone man the Phase cannons I put on the roof." Tucker paused and turned to T-dogg who was in the corner of the room loading his pistol, "T-dogg, remember how to use the Phase cannon? I showed you how to operate it, think you can operate it while they're far enough away?"

T-dogg nodded as the sound of his pistol loading echoed in the cell block, "Yea, I think I can manage that."

An alarm sounded off on Tuckers communicator, "Cap'n we have company, they're here and they're using plasma weapons on our force fields!" Tucker yelled as he ran to a control panel.

Archer nodded at Tucker as Luke ignited his lightabre and the others ran towards the entrance to fend off the intruders, "Keep those shields up as long as you can Trip." And with that, he ran towards the entrance as well.

Trip sighed and stared at the panel, "I'll try Cap'n, I'll try."

The Enterprise-E was more than holding its own, it was sending half of the Vulcan fleet in a full retreat, and with the NX-01 less than 3 minutes away things were looking up, Picard held on to his seat as the shipped rocked a little and looked towards his tactical officer, Ensign Singh, "Fire a low yield photon torpedo at the lead ships starboard engines and disable them Ensign."

Singh nodded, "Aye sir, we have a lock."

"Fire." The torpedo launcher made the all too familiar sound of launching a torpedo, soon after the report came in, their starboard engines were completely offline. Picard turned to his helmsman, "Get us around the lead vessel and lets take care of the rest of them." Before the helmsman could comply sensors started to beep and go wild. "Mr. Singh, Report?"

"Fifty Vulcan ships are enroute sir, they'll be here in less than ten minutes." Singh replied as he began to set up long range scans.

Picard sighed, "Mr. Singh, set our torpedoes to their highest yield and set our phasers to their maximum setting, we have no choice."

Captain Kirk looked at Earth on the viewscreen and pointed towards central Georgia, "They're right there but they have a few force fields up and they're failing, we've detected weapons fire and once one of those shields fail I intend to beam down there with Mr. Worf and an assault team to back up Captain Archer, any objections?"

T'Pol looked up from her science station, "Yes Captain, the Enterprise needs her commanding officer aboard in case a situation were to occur up here. Whether that be you or Captain Archer, needless to say, Captain Archer isn't here... So naturally command falls to you."

Kirk grinned, "In that case sub-commander, I relinquish my command, she's all yours. Worf, Mayweather come with me, we're going down there."

Kirk, Worf, Mayweather and a few others stood still on the transporter. Kirk nodded at T'Pol, "place us as close to Captain Archer as possible, and make sure he knows that it's us beaming down if you can."

T'Pol nodded as she pressed the controls, "I'll try." and with that Kirk and the others faded into nothing.

Archer fired his phase pistol at the never ending wave of Vulcan commandos, The governors forces had apparently allied themselves with the Vulcans and were now carrying plasma pistols themselves, very crude ones but still more than enough to kill someone. Archer heard a buzzing sound, he and Rick turned towards the sound and aimed their phasers at it, crouching on the ground was Captain James T. Kirk, his helmsman Mayweather, Commander Worf and a few others from Enterprise's crew. Archer held his hand up at Rick to let him know they were on their side, he nodded at Kirk who nodded at his men, stood up, ran for cover and fired at the oncoming Vulcan onslaught. Rick took out his pistol and threw it into the middle of the Vulcan squad, fired at it with his phaser and smirked as he watched the pistol blow up and take out a few commandos with it. Archer nodded with an impressed look on his face, "I should have thought of that, gunpowder ignites and blows up when confronted with heat, I read about that in history class I should have remembered." Worf stabbed a Vulcan commando that came too close to the group with a small concealed dagger he held underneath his uniform, the commando gasped, fell to the floor and died instantly. Worf ran over the Rick and Archer and kept firing his phaser at the approaching Vulcans. "How the hell did you guys get down here?" Archer asked through the sound of phasers and plasma rifles firing.

Worf looked at Archer and pointed behind them, "I'll explain later Captain but for now we need to fall back, if we don't we'll be overtaken and most likely killed, we can regroup later." Archer nodded at Worf and fired his phaser a few more times before he, Worf and Rick went towards the Vulcans to cut around them and Kirk and the others retreated deeper into the Prison.

Reed shoved the butt of his rifle into the Vulcans head as he was about to deactivate the doctor, the Vulcan fell limp to the floor and Reed nodded at the doctor, "Go somewhere safe and hide, we don't need you being kidnapped."

The doctor scowled at Reed, "I will not hide Commander, I can easily stay undetected and give medical attention to those who may need it on the battlefield, I'll be fine." The doctor walked past Reed and into the courtyard to find those who may be in need of assistance. Reed rolled his eyes, pointed at Shane and Tucker and looked up at the stairs.

"If we can get up there that will give us the higher ground, the more we can see the more we can kill, which would give us a slight upperhand seeing that we're outnumbered fifty to one." Reed said as he climbed up the stairs.

Shane nodded in agreement as he fired his shot gun at the Vulcan commander who stormed in, shooting him dead. "The more we see the more we can kill, I like the sound of that we need to even the odds in our favor, your ship needs to get here faster."

Tucker sighed, "I'm sure they'll be here soon, probably dealing with these bastards friends up there." the trio climbed up the stairway and stepped onto the roof above, Tucker almost yelped with excitement, "One of the phase cannons up here is still online, I'll get it going and we can definitely even the odds that way... I wonder how they didn't detect this one, the rest were destroyed almost instantly."

Reed grinned, "Alright Mr. Tucker lets get it online, lets show them what we're made of."

Tucker nodded, "My pleasure." Tucker pressed a few buttons and sat down in the seat of the cockpit of the phase cannon, "Here goes nothin." Tucker aimed the phase cannon at a mass of Vulcan troops and fired, sure enough the cannon came to life and obliterated the Vulcan troops and everything around them. "Woo hoo, now according to my scanner we've almost evened the odds, we're only outnumbered ten to one now."

Reed smiled but kept his rifle at the ready, "Good, we can handle the rest of them hand to hand if we must." All of a sudden Shane flew into a brick wall and fell down, unconscious. "What the hell!" Reed yelled as he looked around, something caught his eye. About fifteen yards away there was a man with a red and black stripped face and horns on his head staring at him with cold yellow eyes. Malcolm felt a chill go up his spine, Tucker stood up, unable to speak himself. The man took out a silver rod and ignited two red tinted blades from each side of it and slowly walked towards the two starfleet officers. Malcolm fired his phaser but it was only deflected in an opposite direction with the strange mans lightsabre. Malcolm gulped and turned slightly to Tucker, "I don't suppose you know where Luke is... do you?" Tucker shook his head and backed up until he hit the edge of the roof. "We need to find away out of this... maybe we can try firing the phase cannon at him?" Reed asked Tucker with a hint of fear hidden beneath his usual calm demeanor. Before Tucker could answer Luke jumped out of the shadows and struck, the strange man blocked Lukes sabre with his own and began to attack Luke relentlessly. Luke summer salted over him and used the force to send him flying over the building and onto the ground below. Luke looked at the two scared starfleet officers, nodded and jumped off the building to face his opponent.

Tucker looked over the building at the Jedi and sith fighting below, "Malcolm, whata you say we get the hell out of here?"

Malcolm nodded as he picked up the scanner that he had dropped in fear, "I say... that's a very good idea." the two men composed themselves and ran to the nearest exit and headed back down into the cell blocks below.

Captain Kirk turned the corner and aimed his pistol at the nearest Vulcan and shot him dead, he had been cut off from his strike team when a group of Vulcan commandos had cut them off. But Kirk wasn't worried, he'd be fine, he had after all done things like this countless times before and escaped unscathed. Kirk stopped and looked around as he heard a crunch, Kirk turned around and had his phaser knocked out of his hand received a blow to the face. Kirk got up and tackled his assailant, knocking his weapon to the ground as well and stood up. His attacker was human, about five feet nine inches and had a eye patch across his eye. Kirk held up his hand, "look, whatever the Vulcans told you about us they're wrong, we're here to help." The man snarled at Kirk and lunged at Kirks throat, Kirk dodged the man and double fist punched him into the nearest wall. "Did you hear what I said?"

The man snarled, "I'll enjoy killing you, liar."

Kirk sighed, "Oh I get it, you're being used as a pawn, you're that stupid? I'm Human, they're not... isn't that enough proof for you?" The man snarled and socked Kirk in the face and ran for his weapon, Kirk got up and drop kicked the man away from his weapon and kicked it outside the prisons fence. "Listen to me, you're being used. The next time you attack me I'll have no choice but to kill you." The man smirked and shook his head and hissed one word, "Liar!" a look of pure insanity filled the mans eyes and he jumped at Kirk with a hidden switch blade he had under his shirt. But Kirk saw the blade just in time, grabbed the mans hand and shove the blade into his jugular. The man gasped as blood spurted out of his neck and almost instantly, he was dead. Kirk sighed as he stared at the dead mans body, "Time to find the others." Kirk picked up his phaser and jogged off towards the sound of what sounded like a lightsabre dual.

Darth Maul had Luke on the ropes, and they both knew it. Maul was too fast and too experience for Luke, 'How can I stop someone this fast?' Luke thought to himself as he felt himself tiring quickly. Luke stopped Mauls blade and parried, sending Maul staggering back a bit, Maul tried to recover but not before Captain Archer jumped out of a doorway and punched Maul in the face, sending the lightsabre flying out of the mans hands. Archer jumped on top of Maul and socked him in the face a few times while he was on the ground before he used the force to send Archer flying into Luke. Archer staggered up and saw that Maul had already grabbed his weapon using the force and reignited it, "Son of a bitch." Archer muttered to himself as he reached for his phaser. Luke grabbed Archers hand and shook his head. Archer sighed, got the message and ran into the nearest exit he could find, he had tried to help Luke and failed, it was up to Luke to hold his own now. Luke held his lightsabre up and lunged at Maul who dodged and parried back, the ground around them tremored, the two men held their own and continued pressing down towards one another, Luke kicked Maul who flew backwards and flung his lightsabre at luke cutting Lukes hand off. Luke screamed and fell to the floor as he held his hand, it was over. Archer looked from the exit he had hid in, cursed and set his phaser to kill. He'd be damned if he watched as Luke got slaughtered. Maul sensed Archer coming as he walked towards Luke and grabbed Archers throat with the force. Archer choked and fell to the ground, a little blood coming out of his mouth while he gasped for air. Just as Archer was about to lose consciousness he saw an object fly from behind a water tank and hit maul right in the head. Maul fell over and yellow blood spurted out of his head. He felt his throat suddenly untighten and began to breathe heavily for air, he felt himself being pulled up and he looked at who had saved him, it was Daryl.

Daryl smirked, "And Ya'll made it look difficult to kill that ugly bastard." Daryl lifted Archer on his back, grabbed Luke and headed back to where he was hiding to avoid what was left of the Vulcan assault forces, the Doctor was waiting, "Found em over there, see what you can do for em." Daryl said to the doctor as he held out his crossbow.

The doctor frowned at Lukes wound and began to patch it up with a medical device neither Daryl nor Archer was familiar with, before long Luke was lying on the ground still with only one hand but the bleeding had stopped. The doctor looked over Lukes wound and patted him on the back, "You'll be happy to know that you lost your cybernetic hand, not the real one." Luke nodded his head in return and closed his eyes. The Doctor scanned Archers neck and smiled, "You'll be fine, just a few minor lacerations to the back of your throat. They should heal up by themselves, I don't have anything to treat it at the moment but I do have something for the pain." The doctor took a hypo out of his bag, pressed a few buttons on it and pressed it to Archer. "Feeling better Captain?"

Archer nodded, but before he could talk he heard a noise behind them, Archer and Daryl spun around to face the sound behind them but lowered their weapons, it was Kirk. "What the hell happened to Luke?" Kirk asked as he jogged over to his friends and knelt beside the fallen Jedi.

Archer squinted into what was left of the Vulcan commandos, they were in a full retreat, the battle was won. "The Vulcans had another Jedi with them, this one a bad one." Archer said in reply as he pressed his comm badge, "Archer to Reed, you guys alright." Reeds voice came over the communicator, "Yes sir, Commander Tucker suffered a minor plasma burn to his left arm but he should be fine once one of the doctors patches him up, how are you holding up?" Archer sighed, "Well Luke is missing a hand, and I suffered a few minor cuts in my throat, we're fine other than that, stay where you are and stay hidden, we should be back aboard Enterprise shortly. Archer out." Archer looked up at Kirk, "We will be back on board soon right?"

Kirk nodded, "Yes, we will be." Kirk pressed his combadge, "Kirk to Enterprise, beam up all Human biosigns in and around the prison."

T'Pols voice came over the communicator, "Sir that would indicate that you intend on taking the group of humans that Captain Archer had taken refuge with, if that is the case that is against the prime directive, we shouldn't contaminate this timeline."

Kirk raised his voice, "What timeline? There isn't a timeline to contaminate here. If we leave them here they'll all die. If starfleet feels that I made an error they can court martial me. I will not leave these people here to die, is that understood sub commander?"

T'Pol responded, "Yes sir, beaming you all up now."

Before Kirk knew it they were all aboard Enterprise, everyone was accounted for. Himself, Archer, Mayweather, Data, Malcolm, Tripp, The Doctor, Luke, Rick, Daryl and the rest of the survivors as well. But before they could celebrate they had to outrun the Vulcan fleet first. Kirk, Archer, Data, Worf and Rick headed to the bridge. Archer turned to Rick, "You don't need to be here, you should be with the rest of your group, this could get ugly." Rick nodded at Archer, "You saved us and as far as I'm concerned this crew is now a part of our family. We will stand by your side to protect this ship and her crew, no matter the cost." Archer and everyone else stopped and turned towards Rick. Archer smiled and held out his hand, "In that case,welcome to the crew."

The ship suddenly shook violently, the Vulcans had caught up to them. "Reed to the captain, we're dropping out of warp... and we're venting plasma from our left nacelle!" Reeds voice came over the intercom. Archer pressed his combadge and ran into the lift with the others, "We're coming right up, try to hold them off, Archer out."

The bridge was loud and filled with panicked voices when Archer and the others came in, Archer pointed at Worf, Data and Mayweather to take their respective stations. Archer ran to the captains chair and pressed a few buttons, "Do we have weapons?"

Reed nodded, "Yes sir we do but shields are close to failing, we'll be destroyed if we lose our shields."

Archer sighed and looked over the ships specs from his chair, "Then polarize the hull plating, we still have that ability right?"

Reed nodded in response and pressed a few buttons, "Alright, hull is polarized sir and shields are at twenty percent." the ship shook again, "Fifteen percent sir we can't hold on much longer, the Enterprise-E is taking quite a beating herself sir but she still has sixty percent shields." Reed held on to his station as another blast rocked the ship. "Sir, we're close enough to the nebula that we could use a transphasic torpedo on one of their ships and go back the same way we came here, and I suggest we do it fast our aft hull plating is offline."

Kirk nodded at Reed from the center of the bridge, "Agreed, take us in Lieutenant." Archer nodded at Reed to do as Kirk said and Reed complied. "Oh, and let Captain Picard know to follow us in so he can come back as well." Kirk said as he poined at Hoshi. Hoshi nodded and sent a message to the Enterprise-E, "Got it, they are following sir." Kirk walked closer to the viewscreen, "how much longer until we can create the same anomaly that brought us here?"

Reed pressed a few buttons and looked down at his station, "Another kilometer and we should be fine." another jolt rocked the ship and Reed cursed under his breath, "That is if we make it that far in one piece." Archer looked at his armory officer, "try to keep us in one piece Malcolm, this is close enough fire." Malcolm sighed and fired the torpedoes, the torpedoes ripped into two of the Vulcan carriers and destroyed them on impact. The sensors started to go wild.

"Captain, the same affect is approaching us rapidly, it will consume us in fifteen seconds." T'pol said from the science station as she braced for impact.

Archer pressed a button on his command chair and informed his crew, "Archer to the crew, grab hold of anything you can or lie down, we're all going to pass out again, out." Archer looked to Data, "Wake us up as soon as you can." Data nodded and the ship was sucked into the massive subspace hole. Archer held onto his chair with all of his strength and tried to stay awake, he felt himself fall to the floor and looked up at the rest of the bridge, everyone else was out with the exception of Data. Archer tried to get up but fell face first into the ground, that was the last thing he remembered. After that, everything went black.