Allensworth turned back to the viewscreen where Captain McAuliffe was still waiting.
"It would appear that we have an infiltrator at Starfleet Headquarters."
"Who?" McAuliffe asked.
"Admiral McKeen."
"You're kidding."
"All of the instances that Commander Sato translated from the Temarian language fits. Infiltration, would be McKeen getting into Starfleet Headquaters. Assassination suggests that she killed her counterpart. I'm guess that she had a hand in the attack on the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards. And she did send us on this suicide mission where Imperial forces acted rather quickly."
"It makes sense." McAuliffe said. "What are your plans, Captain?"
"I want your and your crew to head back to Earth and take out Admiral McKeen. The Thunderchild will stay here with us and we'll try and find this cloaked ship and we'll try and open the anomaly back up and go and save our people."
"Sounds like a plan, Captain. Good luck."
"Same to you, Captain."
Sparhawk nodded to his girlfriend who was sitting at her station on the right side of the Captain's chair. She nodded in return and the screen switched off.
Captain McAuliffe looked at her navigator. "Helm, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."
The ship moved in position to leave the system. Suddenly, a photon torpedo came out of no where and slammed into the underside of the Challenger's saucer section.
"Sir, Challenger's been hit." Perim said.
"Shields up, red alert." Allensworth said. "Where did that torpedo come from?"
"Unknown, sir." McKenzie said.
Allensworth sighed. "Great, a ship that can fire when cloaked." He turned to McKenzie. "Lieutenant, prepare a full phaser spread zero elevation, all banks on my mark. Scan for shield impacts and standby photon torpedoes."
"Aye, sir."
"Fire."
The Alexandria fired phasers horizontally in all directions. A few phaser beams struck the cloaked ship. Then the Alexandria fired photon torpedoes that slammed into the ship.
Captain Stork stood from his command chair. "Target that explosion and fire."
The Thunderchild fired quantum torpedoes and struck the cloaked ship. The ship now became visible.
"It's a Prometheus class ship." Allensworth said. "Fire quantum torpedoes before they can separate into its three components."
Both ships fired upon the Prometheus class ship, ultimately destroying it.
Commander Zofchak and Lieutenant Fulks sprinted through the corridors of the building. They had just set the charges and had only minutes to get out. Imperial soldiers appeared in front of them, not expecting to see them and were ultimately gunned down. They reached a door and kicked it open. It was a hangar bay full of Peregrine class fighters.
"Let's steal one of them." Zofchak said.
Before they could move, a phaser blast struck the wall behind them. The two ducked as a reflex and returned fire.
"We don't have time for this." Fulks said.
"I know. Let's head for the nearest one."
The two stood up and ran for the nearest fighter. They fired at their enemies more intensely as they ran. They successfully got to the fighter and entered the small craft. The two of them sat down in the two seats in the cockpit and activated the controls.
"How are we going to get out?" Fulks asked
"Like this." Zofchak said as he pressed a few buttons on the console.
The fighter lifted into the air and fired at the wall, destroying it. The Peregrine class fighter shot through the opening and into the night sky.
Merriell and Stull in the same place that they've been since their battle a few hours ago. Alex had ripped off most of the arm of his shirt and used it as a bandage for Stull's wound. She was completely pale and looked sickly. She had lost a lot of blood in these past few hours. Alex knew that if she didn't get proper medical attention, then she'd surely die.
Suddenly, he heard a loud explosion in the distance. Stull moved her head slightly toward the direction of the explosion.
"That must be Dustin's doing." Alex said.
Michelle smiled weakly. Then Alex heard a twig snap. He ducked down and looked towards where the sound came from. Shadows emerged from the trees and it surely wasn't the cavalry. A group of Imperial forces came marching from the forest.
"Damn it." Alex whispered. "They'll definitely find us."
He drew his phaser and fired.
Stull slowly moved and with the strength she had left, she aimed her phaser rifle and she too fired at the oncoming soldiers.
"Damn it." Merriell said as he fired some more. "They just keep coming."
Then he heard something from above. He looked up to see a Peregrine class fighter in the air heading in their direction. The fighter swooped in low and fired its pulse phaser cannons at the mirror forces. On their first attack, they took out most of the troops. They came in for a second pass and fired some more.
One of the Imperial soldiers aimed a photon cannon at the ship and fired. Two purple colored torpedoes struck the under side of the ship. The ship went down and crashed just in front of the tree line of the forest.
"DUSTIN!" Alex yelled. He looked back to Michelle. "Come on, let's go."
Stull nodded as she stood up and with Alex's help they jogged through the field and over to the fallen fighter. An Imperial soldier rose from the grass and took aim at Alex. But Alex saw him first and fired, hitting the soldier square in the chest with his phaser beam.
The two of them reached the ship that obviously had better days. It was damn near in pieces. Stull leaned up against part of the ship and ended up sitting down. Fulks pulled himself from the rubble of the ship and stood up a bit wearily. Dustin was lying up against part of the ship. Alex ran up to him. A piece of metal was sticking out of Dustin's neck. He winced in pain as he tried to move.
"Man, I really messed up now. Hoshi is going to have my hide for this one."
Alex knelt down and pulled the piece out. "You're lucky that wasn't a major artery."
Then a shadow loomed over both of them. Dustin's eyes widened as Alex turned around to see it was an Imperial soldier. The soldier slammed the butt end of his rifle into Alex's head. More soldiers came over as they had their weapons trained on the four officers. One came over and started tying Dustin's legs with a rope and began pulling him another draped Fulks's arms over a piece of wood and began tying them there. They forcibly pulled Stull to her feet and began tying her arms behind her back.
"Leave her alone." Merriell protested as he tried to resist his capture.
As Zofchak was being dragged away, he saw a fallen phaser on the ground. He reached over and grabbed it. He aimed it at his captor and fired. The soldier fell just as Dustin fired two more shots into the soldiers that were tying up Fulks. With all of her might, Stull put her shoulder into her captor and drew his phaser shooting more soldiers. The soldier who was tying up Merriell stopped what he was doing, pushed Merriell to the side and drew his phaser. Zofchak aimed his phaser at him and pressed the firing stud.
Nothing happened.
The phaser jammed and the Imperial soldier took aim at Zofchak. He fired and at the last second Fulks jumped in the way of the blast. The phaser beamed ripped through Fulks's torso and he fell to the ground. Stull fired her phaser at the Imperial soldier, and he too fell.
Zofchak crawled over to Fulks. "Why did you do that? You didn't have to jump in the way."
"It was my duty, sir." He said. "I was ordered to keep you alive. Plus…someone once said, 'The needs of the many… outweigh the needs…of the few."
"That doesn't apply here. It would've been me dying, not you. That's still one person."
Fulks did his best to smile. He felt his life leaving him. He only had moments left. You're…needed on…the ship. You're…going to be a…"
Fulks closed his eyes and died.