Commander Palmer was on her feet in an instant, practically running on air as she crossed the bridge to the Operations consoles. The order for the bridge lockdown had come from her combadge, and she could hear the echoing of the message being broadcast to every other badge on the command deck. Forcing Ensign Romanov from her post, she brought up the prompt for lockdown, began to enter her own code, and swore under her breath as she realized no one else on the bridge had the level of clearance necessary to match the order's double factor of authentication.
"Mr. Chase!" She called down to Miles, and he spun to acknowledge her. "In Varik's absence, I need you to enter in the second part of the authorization! Get to his station, and I'll give you your half of the code sequence!" Miles leapt from his station, hopping over the railing behind the command chairs used by the captain and first officer. He could hear faint orders as Captain Garrett continued to address every combadge on the ship directly, bypassing the ship's intercom to avoid giving their invaders the benefit of knowing their emergency procedures. Miles' heart pounded in his ears as he rounded into Varik's station, relieving the ensign filling in that position. He swallowed hard, fighting to keep his anxiety from overwhelming him. He had been in combat situations before, and was able to keep his composure with no trouble, but all those times, he had been in his element, at the controls of a starship. He didn't have any training in close-quarters combat outside of a semester of personal defense training at the Academy, and that felt like decades ago to him now.
He shook himself back to the present as he realized Commander Palmer was shouting at him.
"Mr. Chase! Snap out of it!" she called. He gave himself a smack to the side of his head with his palm, driving the fear from his head.
"Yes, ma'am! Ready!" he shouted.
"Authorization is Phi Beta Three, Omicron Sigma Two, Gamma Gamma Five, Level Alpha!" Miles' hands shook as he entered the sequence, gave the display a double-check to make sure it was correct, and gave the Commander a nod when he was certain his part of the code was correct. Palmer gave him a countdown from three, and they entered their codes in unison. The bridge lights dimmed and faded to red, and the sound of blast doors clamping down over the turbolift exit filled the room.
Commander Palmer gave him one more reassuring nod. "Weapons." She said, gesturing over to the officer's briefing room adjacent to the bridge. "It's not much, but the Captain has a small phaser locker in the briefing room for just such an occasion." She led Miles into the conference room, and at the back of the room, behind an innocuous-looking panel on the wall, a concealed weapon locker had opened, revealing three Type-2 phasers and two Type-1s. Grabbing the weapons, Palmer and Miles distributed them to the handful of officers on the bridge. They had just finished when the faint hiss of what sounded like a welding torch became apparent over the alarm klaxon blaring overhead.
"Commander, the blast doors!" One of the junior crewmen yelled, pointing towards the turbolift. The sparks of melted metal were just beginning to peek through at the top right corner of the sealed doors, slowly working its way down, with another flare-up starting at the top left.
"They're cutting through!" Miles yelped, immediately grabbing his bridge station chair and hoisting it above his head, starting towards the turbolift.
"Everyone, follow his lead! Anything that isn't bolted down, goes to the door!" She grabbed the other helm chair. "Quick thinking, Mr. Chase," she added under her breath as she passed him. "I knew there was a capable officer inside you, I just needed you to see it for yourself." She smiled warmly, impressed at this quick turnaround from a panic-stricken statue moments earlier at Varik's station.
"Th-thank you, ma'am," he stammered. "Still a b-bit scared, tho." He admitted as he jammed the chair into position, blocking the lower portion of the door.
"Fear is normal, but you can't let it control you," she said, adding her chair on top of his. "We'll get through this, Miles. Trust me." She said, not entirely believing it herself, but she kept her face as reassuring as she could. "Have you thought about applying for the Kobayashi Maru test?" She asked, as both a way to distract her subordinate from the fear that hung in the air all across the bridge, and as a genuine inquiry.
"If we get out of this, Commander-" he began.
"-when we get out of this.." Palmer cut him off.
"Right. When we get out of this Commander... I'll gladly take it." he forced a weak smile, returning to the makeshift barricade.
The blast door was now halfway to being cut clean through, when the torches stopped for just a moment. After a few tense seconds of silence, one of the points of light resumed, but the other did not. Commander Palmer pondered this new development for a moment. She came to the quick conclusion that one of the hostile commandos was no longer working on the door. The stoppage was mostly likely a receipt of new orders, and potentially one of them had left on a new assignment.
"One of them is either trying to find an alternate way in, or he's trying to help out his friends down below." She said aloud.
"What do we do, then?" a bridge yeoman asked, midway through securing the last chair into place.
"If it's the former, he's probably found a way into the Jefferies Tubes. If it's the latter... there's probably friendlies trying to get up to us."
/
Corvin poked the muzzle of his blaster back around the corner in the general direction of his attackers, his eyes still overwhelmed by the flash grenade. He sprayed blindly at the commandos, hearing the impacts against the bulkheads as his shots mostly went wide or high. He did hear the muffled grunt as a scarlet energy dart struck one of the armored soldiers, but judging by the sound of their blaster carbines returning fire, it was not enough to put the man out of commission. Pulling the blaster and his hand back behind the safety of his cover, he rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear the dazzling starfield that filled his vision.
Slowly, his sight returned to normal, but his eyes still throbbed ever so slightly in pain. His hearing was also partially returned, though there wasn't much to hear above the mix of blaster and phaser fire in the corridor. He glanced down at the power pack in his blaster carbine, it showed three-quarters of the energy had been depleted. He blind fired around the corner again to empty the power pack, and produced one of the three remaining spares on his newly acquired belt and reloaded.
"We can't stay here forever, Captain!" Corvin shouted across to the other bulkhead where Garrett and Varik sheltered. "We need to press our numbers advantage!"
"Agreed," the Captain replied. Then, signaling with his hands, he indicated Corvin to aim high on the commando to the left, and the two of them would aim low. Counting down from three on his fingers, they swung into the corridor in unison. Corvin scythed blaster fire across the Commando's shoulders, taking only the barest of seconds to aim his shots. Garrett and Varik sent vermillion beams of phaser fire at the same man's legs. The barrage of energy connected all at once, flinging the commando back against the turbolift doors. As Corvin slid back behind cover, he saw the man slumping to the ground, unmoving.
"One down!" he hollered. Clicking the eject latch on the blaster's power pack, he flicked the carbine to dislodge the spent energy cell and produced a new one from his belt. Slapping the power pack into the weapon, he checked his corner to see how the lone trooper reacted. To his surprise, the blaster fire being returned his way had actually increased rather than diminished. His eyes widened as he took in the scene. Two commandos still controlled the far end of the hallway, one holding a DC-17m carbine in each hand, having appropriated the weapon of his fallen brother.
"Dammit! Our friend got some backup!" Corvin called out.
"It is likely he came down from the Jefferies tube we intend to use to ascend to the bridge!" Varik called back, lancing phaser fire back down the corridor. Corvin peeked around to add to the suppressing fire, and immediately pulled his head back. The newcomer had been in the process of converting his blaster carbine into a grenade launcher by virtue of the modular attachments the commandos carried.
"Get cover, now! Explosives in play!" he shouted, spraying blind blaster fire around the corner to give his comrades covering fire as Garrett and Varik dove away from their bulkhead to join him on the far side of the hallway, affording room to retreat down the passage as the first grenade slammed into their old position. Shrapnel from the bulkhead spattered off the walls, forcing Corvin to cover his face with his arm. He winced as several hot sparks of metal burned his flesh through his flight suit.
"We can't do a damn thing against this kind of firepower!" Corvin swore as he shook his arm.
"I've got an idea!" Garrett said. "How good a shot are you, Darick?"
"Nothing special, why?"
"You think you could hit one of those grenades as he's loading?" Garrett replied.
"Maybe. Unless one of you is a better shot." He offered up his blaster. "The scope is good on this thing. Imperial precision at its finest." Another grenade hit the wall near them. Varik set aside his phaser rifle and extended a hand to take the blaster.
"I will take the shot. Please provide covering fire." Corvin surrendered the carbine, drawing his heavy pistol. Once the third grenade exploded, he dove back towards the Captain and Varik's old position. Lining up, he squeezed off several shots at the commando with dual blasters primed. Captain Garrett did the same, phaser fire combining with the blaster bolts to force the trooper to recoil for the barest of moments.
Varik took the opportunity to swing out into the hallway, sighting down the scope of the blaster rifle. The commando with the grenade launcher had in fact been in the process of reloading for another shot, but he too had flinched in the face of the suppressing fire. Varik took careful aim at the anti-armor grenade still in the trooper's grip, and squeezed the trigger. A single blaster bolt struck the projectile in its explosive payload, detonating in the commando's hand, and propelling both troopers into opposite walls. Both slumped to the ground in a mess of blood, smoke and mangled armor. The stink of burnt flesh wafted down the hall, the light-fight over.
Varik rose to his feet from his combat crouch, returning Corvin's blaster to him. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Now Captain, I suggest we make haste to the bridge."
"Agreed. Let's move. Into the Jefferies tube!"
/
The door was almost three-quarters of the way open by the time the bridge crew was as armed as they could be. Miles braced his shooting arm against his helm station, wiping sweat from his brow with his free hand. The bridge lights, still dimmed to a blood red in the midst of the ship-wide alert, pulsed slowly, almost in rhythm with the alarm klaxon blaring in his ears. He took a deep breath, and released it slowly as the glow from the cutting torch neared its end point.
Movement from the maintenance panel near the Captain's ready room caught his attention, and he swung his phaser over to track the new arrival. "Commander!" he called.
"Hold fire, Mr. Chase!" a muffled, yet familiar voice responded from inside the shaft. A few moments later, Captain Garrett emerged from the panel, followed closely by Varik and Darick Corvin. Bringing his phaser up and to a safe angle, Miles couldn't help but smile broadly at their arrival.
"Good to see you, sir. You're just in time!" he motioned to the door that was about to be fully cut through. Signaling Corvin to one side of the turbolift exit, Garrett took the opposite side. The torchlight receded, and a grey-clad boot kicked through the freed section, scattering the bridge chairs with a strength that baffled everyone who witnessed it. As the last Commando stepped into the room, blaster raised, Corvin sent the butt of his carbine into the side of the trooper's helmet. The blaster carbine discharged once, momentarily bathing the room in purple as the blue ionized bolt mixed with the alarm lights. At the same moment, Captain Garrett grabbed the top of the trooper's carbine and forced its muzzle towards the ground. The commando reeled for just a moment, but reacted in the very next. A quick grinding of metal against armor clicked from his wrist as a blade emerged from the commandos left gauntlet, just over the knuckles. He dropped the rifle, the inverse of what Garrett had been expecting, so while the Captain had been exerting all his force to wrest the blaster away, he was put off balance.
At the same time, the commando drew his sidearm, swiping at the Captain with his left while trying to target Corvin with the blaster pistol now in his right. The former move grazed Captain Garrett across the chest, cutting his tunic and drawing blood, but luck alone spared his vital organs and major arteries from being hit. He grit his teeth and regained his composure, also losing his grip on the carbine as it clattered to the deck, and instead grasping for the trooper's left wrist.
The latter of the commando's actions was also unsuccessful, unable to accurately target Corvin in such close proximity, while also maintaining focus on both him and the Captain. Corvin slapped with the muzzle of his blaster across the other man's right hand, slapping the weapon away, before bringing the flanged barrel sharply upwards, back into the commando's chin. The T-shaped visor lifted as the helmet was thrown free from his head, and the clone's olive skin glistened with sweat. One of the flanges cut the man from chin to cheekbone on the left side of his face. He gritted his teeth and spat blood at Corvin, trying to free his left hand to attack either of his assailants. Corvin recoiled from the bloody spittle, then clicked his blaster's selector switch over to stun, and fired. The blue stun bolt mixed with the red lights on the bridge, causing the room to once again flash violet for a split second, and the Imperial Commando took the disabling shot in the upper torso, and he staggered for a pair of heartbeats. As he tried to lash out once more, Corvin merely fired another blast that finally put the commando out of commission.
"Is he..." Miles asked, as he trained his phaser on the man slumped on the floor.
"Stunned, yes." Corvin shucked the blaster rifle into the holster on his belt, and checked the various equipment pockets around his waist. "Damn, these stormies weren't carrying binders on them. Check his belt, there should be some kind of binders or manacles in his kit." Corvin knelt down and removed the bladed glove from the commandos hand, before appropriating the cuffs and shackling the man with his hands over his head on an energy conduit.
"Well done, Mr. Corvin." The Captain removed his tunic and checked the wound through his undershirt. It was nothing lethal, but there was a fair amount of blood. He began to use his uniform to try and stay the bleeding as he took a seat in his command chair. "How many more of these bastards on my ship?" he asked.
Commander Palmer checked her display panels for incoming reports that had gone unnoticed in the fortification of the bridge.
"Security reports all intruders either terminated or incapacitated, casualties are not nearly as bad as I would have feared, but we have reports of at least three crewmen dead. Medical has wounded under control, and Engineering reports the warp core is secure and operational."
Garrett suppressed a pang of guilt at the thought of losing three crewmen that never should have been put in harm's way. "Get us out of here. The prisoner in the brig said that Admiral Karath would be returning soon to finish us off. Any heading, maximum warp."
Miles leapt over his bridge station, entering the calculations while standing to avoid wasting time by recovering a chair. As he keyed for warp, the engines shuddered and wavered for a moment, but the ship did not enter warp.
"Something's wrong. We're not moving."
"I thought the warp core was secure and operational." Garrett said.
"It is, sir. All systems are functional, but it looks like the emergency fail-safes are engaged. But, that only happens if there's a planetary body, or a star blocking our vector, sir."
"Oh no," Corvin suddenly said, his eyes widening. "Captain, the main viewer." He said, pointing to the inactive display at the forefront of the bridge.
"Give me visuals," the Captain ordered. As the view screen came to life, Corvin's worst fear was realized. There, in the black of space, was Admiral Karath's Interdictor cruiser, the Star Crusher. Her starboard gravity well projectors were damaged, but the portside generators were very clearly operational, and it was now abundantly clear that they blocked warp travel just as efficiently as hyperspace travel. Moments later, Hammer of Dawn appeared at the edge of the Star Crusher's mass shadow, and cruised into formation alongside her, several kilometers separating the two wedge-shaped starships from Orion. Almost immediately, verdant bolts of turbolaser fire bristled from Hammer, closing rapidly on the small, trapped Intrepid- class ship.
"Shields up!" Garrett cried out as Varik scrambled to his station, activating the shields mere moments before the first barrage hit. The ship rocked with the impact, but the shields held.
"Sir, we can't stay here! We have to escape their mass shadow!" Corvin called. As Captain Garrett began to order maximum impulse, the main viewer switched to an image of Admiral Karath himself on the bridge of his Star Destroyer.
"No escape this time, I fear," the Admiral smirked. "As I learned in my previous encounter with some of your Federation vessels, you cannot fight us, and it would simply be easier to destroy you and the sensitive information your Rebel friend carries. So, as much as I would love to threaten you some more, I will simply say goodbye, Captain. May you find peace in whatever afterlife awaits you and the rest of this pathetic galaxy." The viewer switched off, and the Captain watched as the remaining two Star Destroyers of Karath's fleet arrived in the system with a flicker of pseudo-motion. He sighed as he stood up, letting his blood-soaked tunic drop to the floor. As he crossed the bridge to both relieve Miles of his helm duties and issue the order to abandon ship, he watched the volley of laser and missile fire close the gap between the two sides. He knew in that moment there would be no time for the crew to get off Orion.
As he stared their imminent death in the face, another flicker of pseudo-motion from their portside caught his eye as a cruiser of unknown origin flashed into existence and moved into the path of the Imperial's withering barrage. The ship was not quite as large as any of the Star Destroyers, but certainly dwarfed Captain Garrett's ship. Whereas the Imperial vessels were very sharp and angular, this new arrival had very smooth curves, and blisters adorned the hull, likely housing various stations and weapon emplacements. It was painted off-white, with subtle seafoam highlights. Two main engines were housed in an arrowhead shaped pod at the rear of the ship, connecting by a thinner section that blossomed back out into the ship's elongated main body. The shields on the newcomer held and absorbed the fire, and then Captain Garrett watched as a dozen fighters of different makes emerged from the smoothly angled ship's hold. Several of them matched Corvin's X-wing, and two of them looked to him like the letter "Y," with two engine pods on struts extending from a straight framework attached to a cockpit that looked almost like a snake's head, weapons emplacements on its nose and above the pilot's canopy. A third distinct pair of ships resembled a giant cross, with a cockpit that allowed the long, slender body of the craft and its outstretched wings bristling with weapons to rotate freely around it. The final trio of ships, a smooth wedge shape loosely resembling a letter "A," with large stabilizer fins above and below their oversized engines, sped out in front of the other, slower snubfighters, most likely some kind of interceptor. Garrett imagined that blistering speed would give them quite an edge over other one-man ships. The remaining nine fighters began to assemble in a formation and closed rapidly on the Star Crusher. The Captain looked over towards Lt. Corvin, and saw the younger man's jaw had dropped almost to the floor in surprise.
"Friends of yours?" Garrett asked, a smile of relief pursing his own lips.
"I don't believe it," Corvin said in astonishment. "It's the Alliance."