RJ reacted without thinking, diving for cover as the first disrupter bolts whistled by his ear. Yells and the sound of shattering glass filled the air, telling him the others had done the same. Flipping a table up on its side, he crouched behind it, risking a glance to work out where Sinistra’s goons were. Shots crisscrossed the room, each beam leaving lines across his vision he had to blink away.

He spotted Murphy not far from him, crouched behind a collapsed lighting rig. Sparks surrounded his broad-shouldered figure, highlighting him like he was the hero of a damn action movie as he exchanged fire with two of Sinistra’s men. RJ gritted his teeth. Murphy’s hair wasn’t even ruffled. His grin was gone though, replaced by a focused expression that made him look far less like the admiral’s brat and far too much like Mason for comfort.

A deep bellow had his head snapping around to find Mason himself near the center of the room. He’d tucked himself in behind a pillar and RJ’s eyebrow winged up. For that cover to be effective, the big guy would need to loose a good couple of inches off his shoulders.

But he wasn’t staying still and giving their enemies a target. Instead, he wasusing the pillar as little more than a dance partner. His hulking form and tattoos caught the sparking lights as he leaned out of cover, methodically picking out his targets and dropping Sinistra’s henchmen one by one.

Then his phaser sputtered and failed, leaving him totally open on the left as he leaned back against the pillar, ducking with each shot that came his way as he tried to sort it. Movement in the shadows caught RJ’s eye. His own phaser was in his hand before he could think about it and the leering guard from earlier dropped like a stone.

Mason looked over and nodded his thanks. The next second, he was gone, peeling away to the right to where Rennox was crouched behind a speaker stack by a small stage trying to lay down covering fire for Murphy. It wasn’t great. His eyes were so wide RJ could see them from where he was, and each of his shots were so wide or high that their enemies would be safest stood right in front of him. RJ stopped paying attention to the kid the moment that Mason reached him. Rennox would be fine. Mason wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

RJ turned his attention back to the room again. Vayne was long gone, no sign of their ‘ally’. RJ snorted. The guy had probably sold them out before they’d even arrived.

He ignored the squeaking ferengi in the corner, crouched in a plush booth with velvet covered seats, and swept his gaze over the ruins of the rest of the room.

Chairs were scattered everywhere and the table they’d been sat at was little more than firewood on the floor. He kept up a constant barrage of fire, trying to keep their enemies heads down as he looked across the wreckage. Where the hell was the damn chip? The case was in the center of the chaos, but he could see from here that it was empty. It must have been thrown free.

His jaw tightened. Shit. They couldn’t lose the chip.

But the fact that Sinistra’s people were still here firing at them said the chip was still here. Somewhere.

Letting off another volley of phaser fire, he barrelled out of cover, cutting through the room in a zigzag pattern, using whatever he could as he searched for the tiniest glimmer that would reveal the chip’s location.

He made it halfway across the room but then the back of the room exploded, a thunderous blast knocking him off his feet as sparks and shrapnel from the equipment there peppered the room. Flying through the air, he grunted as he slammed into a booth wall. Agony exploded like a starburst at the back of his head, and everything went black.