The countless Starfleet personnel moved through the Promenade of Deep Space Nine on both the upper and lower decks, each one heading to their own respective starship. Commander Sparhawk walked with his fiancé to Upper Pylon Two, where the Challenger was docked. He would have to report to the transporter room since the Alexandria orbited the station.
"Promise me something, Jason." She said.
"Sure, anything." He replied.
"Promise me that we both come back alive."
"I had planned on it." He said with a grin. "I plan on marrying you after the war."
Suddenly, the red alert klaxon sounded all throughout the station. Then, Captain Sisko's voice came through the intercom. "An Imperial fleet has just appeared through the Bajoran wormhole and is on an attack vector for the station."
Seconds after Sisko's voice stopped, the station shuddered under the attack of the Terran Empire. Jason looked to April.
"Come on, I'll get you to your ship." He said.
"What about you?" She asked.
"I can beam from anywhere on the station. I don't have to go to the transporter room. Come on."
He grabbed her hand and they rushed to where the Challenger was docked. The station rocked violently as they struggled to keep their footing. Minutes later, the two reached the corridor that led to the upper pylon. Then without warning, the station rocked more violently than before, knocking both officers off their feet. Jason's head bounced off the wall, knocking him unconscious.
Jason awoke shortly later, he didn't know if was seconds, minutes, or even hours. He figured it couldn't have been too much longer since the station still rocked viciously. He slowly pushed himself upright, shaking his head to straighten his mind.
"April, you okay?" He asked. He opened his completely and saw the corridor completely filled with smoke. April still hadn't responded to his question. "April?" Jason stumbled to his feet and saw that part of the ceiling had collapsed…with April underneath.
Jason ran over and began pulling the debris off of his fiancé. "It's all right, April. I'll get you out of here." He had gotten a lot of the debris off of her by the time he had heard someone approaching.
"Help me." Jason called out.
The footsteps quickened and seconds later the individual appeared from around the corner. It was Doctor Julian Bashier. Bashir ran up to him, opening his tricorder. A monotone beep came from the small device. Regardless that Jason knew exactly what that sound meant, he continued to try to pull the debris off of her. Julian holstered his tricorder.
"I'm sorry, Commander. She's gone." He said pulling on Jason's arm. "We gotta go. This deck is about to breach."
"We can't just leave her here." Jason said.
"She's gone, sir. We need to go." Julian said pulling on him.
Jason felt another pair of hands on him. It was Captain Sisko. He had come up to the deck as well to assist Julian in evacuating the deck of any possible people there. He knew how Sparhawk felt in this situation. It was similar to when he lost Jennifer at the hands of the Borg at Wolf 359.
The two of them struggled with Commander Sparhawk as they pulled him out of the corridor and to safety before the deck breached. Jason looked out one of the windows and saw identical starships fight one another. It was like watching twins fight each other to the death. One of the starships erupted into a ball of flames and Sparhawk hoped that it was an imperial starship.
"Looks like you're stuck here until the battle is over, Commander." Sisko said.
Jason looked at Captain Sisko as Bashir looked him over with a tricorder. Sisko placed a comforting hand on Sparhawk's shoulder. "I'm sorry about your fiancé."
Jason nodded, thanking him. Bashir walked off to handle other injured crewmembers; once he was satisfied that Jason was going to be okay.
Meanwhile, the Alexandria whipped around and launched its weapons at the pursuing Imperial starship. The fierce volley of photon and quantum torpedoes broke through the Intrepid class ship's shields and ultimately destroyed. Captain Allensworth allowed a brief moment for celebration for beating another opponent and surviving the attack before giving orders to go after another ship.
"McKenzie, target the ISS Stalin and fire at will." Allensworth ordered.
"Aye, sir." She said as she entered the commands.
Allensworth walked over to Hoshi's station and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and pressed a few buttons as the captain walked away.
Allensworth looked at the screen just in time to see two quantum torpedos slam into the bridge of an Imperial Nebula class ship, that later spun out of control, out of the Alexandria's way as the Sovereign class ship moved past to put its attention to another Imperial ship. The Alexandria fired three photon torpedoes from its aft launcher that struck the derelict ship, causing it to explode.
Hours later, the Federation came out victorious in their defense of Deep Space Nine with the destruction of the final Imperial ship. The Empire lost over three hundred starships while the Federation lost a little over a hundred ships. Now, the Federation fleet was moving into position to head to the heart of the Federation, Earth.
"That attack was unexpected." McKenzie said.
"This is war, Lieutenant. Expect the unexpected." Allensworth said.
"Why did they come through the wormhole and not through one of their own anomalies?" Dowey asked.
"Probably so we'd have less time to react." Merriell said. "When they use one of their own wormholes, we can detect them and prepare ourselves. If they did it in the Gamma Quadrant and then entered the Bajoran wormhole then we wouldn't detect them until the wormhole opened and by then it would be almost too late."
Commander Sparhawk walked on to the bridge and headed straight for his chair. Allensworth had heard what happened on the station and he didn't dare talk to his first officer about it. Jason would talk about it when he felt it was time. Captain Allensworth sat down in his chair, ready to get underway.
"Mister Dowey, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."