-1

Alek and the rest of the boarding team caught up to the large Security Chief while he held the lone entrance to the station cargo bay. Steam was starting to come off of Arrik's armour as his suit's temperamental shielding outpaced it's cooling system. The Chief fell back a moment allowing other members of the boarding team to take his place, firing down the hallway.

"How many? asked Alek.
"Not so many yet, and they all seem to be equipped with different forms of scout trooper armour. They have a security station at the end of the hall with an E-web."

"Can we risk heavy weapons?" wondered Alek.

"We won't have a choice in a minute or two. We have to get inside before they seal this section and deactivate the magcon field or it's going to get a whole lot harder."
The noise of blaster fire increased substantially then, making it harder to hear.

"Do it!" Alek yelled, but he swore inwardly at how expensive it would be to buy replacement weapons once this was over.

Arrik waved in his heavy weapons specialists then hand signalled their firing order. One of the Twi'lek's fired a pair of concussion grenades down the hallway first to clear out any troopers. After the debris had cleared from the second blast, two other members of the security team leaned out from cover and launched a pair of shoulder fired concussion missiles down the corridor. The combined explosion was nearly powerful to knock some members of the boarding team off their feet. A cloud of fast moving debris flew out from the doorway pushing along a broken Stormtrooper helmet.

"Not quite all scout troopers." Alek mused.

"Move!" shouted Arrik as he lead the way, charging into the station's interior.

+

Ten minutes later the main boarding team burst into the station's operations center. Three officers spun away from control consoles and fired at the intruders with pistols. Stun bolts struck two of the officers and the third took a headshot from a Heavy Repeater. Other members of the boarding team paused and looked over at the Sullustan carrying the Repeater weapon.

"Sorry." he mumbled sheepishly after realising the mess the dead officer had made.

As some of the team began checking over the controls Arrik started unlatching parts of his armour. After a few seconds he unslung the backpack sections containing the power systems of the suit.
"My suit's down for the next hour." he declared, unhooking the Medium Blaster from the suit and attaching a power cell to it.

Alek looked up from one of the consoles. "Alright then... Arrik can you take care of operations and get more of our people aboard? I'm going to take some people down and check out these medical suites that are set up on the lower levels."

"Sound good." Arrik agreed. "Chev, this station isn't going to explode is it?"

One of the boarding crew members wiped blood left from the dead Imperial off of a console then replied. "No... they didn't finish entering the self destruct."

"That's good news. Alek stay in contact, we'll get you some map info incase your team gets lost down there."

+

Arrik's distorted voice came over the com. "You're coming up to the main Junction now."

A set of double cargo doors slid into their housings as Alek and the team advanced. Inside was an outer medical ward apparently used for support duties.

"Right on the money control." Alek replied into the com. "What do the rest of the scans show?"

"It gets a little unclear." the com crackled. "What are you seeing?"

Alek glanced either way as they moved farther in. "The halls branch off in either direction. More sealed rooms both ways from what I can see."

"Ok... to your right should be the main stasis storage and on the far left are some high security lab rooms."

"Sounds about right" Alek whispered to himself.
"Ok let's split up." he said looking to the rest of the team. "Two with me, we'll check out the high security rooms. The rest of you check the stasis bays. Whose to say what they've got locked away in there."

A female Sullustan and a male Twi'lek shouldered their weapons as they fell into step with the Commander. Knowing the human's penchant for finding trouble they spread out to either side of the hallway as the three advanced.

"Are you showing any life signs down here?" Alek asked into the com again.

"Negative. Just a lot of static."

"Jamming?"

"That's affirmative... Bright Hope is showing these decks as a big blank spot on active sensors."

The team passed more enclosed and sealed operating theatres with transparisteel walls. Large tables were set up in the center of each room and equally large ceiling mounted armatures were suspended above carrying equipment. Life support equipment covered the back walls. Every last operating room was empty of life. All of the equipment inside them so clean they might never have been used.

"Commander, look." said the Twi'lek, pointing through the armoured viewport at what had to be a mug of Caf. Steam was still rising from it.

"This is Alek, we are inot/i alone down here. Somebody here likes their Caf nice and hot."

Before any one in the station's control room could reply, someone else broke in on the same channel. "Team Two here, we've got bodies in the stasis storage bay."

"Roger that. But I'm more worried about who's still alive down here Team Two."

They rounded a bend in the corridor trying to stay as quiet as possible. On the left side of the new stretch of the hallway was an open loading door. Alek rushed to the edge of the entrance and glanced around the corner. Nothing shot at him so he looked again. Facing him was an identical, though closed door about five metres in. This door also had a large biohazard symbol painted on it.

"Looks like we just scored a pure Sabacc." Alek commented. "Masks on and don't touch anything." he ordered before stepping through the open entrance.
The moment his foot touched the floor inside the entrance it set off disguised pressure plates. With barely any warning the heavy loading door fell from it's mount in the ceiling. The other two team members were fast enough to jump back, but the human leading them was not. Alek was trapped inside. Before he could even respond to this new situation however he heard something.

The sound of a descending sentry gun.

004