The rimward and spinward Blackout boundary had fallen, and now there were Starfleet ships on approach. The Federation had launched a counteroffensive, but it was ill-contrived. What did those fools think three ships could do against the might of the Supremacy?

But then everything changed.

“Spike at the aperture on the far side of Gorion VII. Incoming ships.”

The Vaadwaur commander looked up. He knew the aperture. It had been the one they used to storm the system and take the station just ten days prior. The problem, though, was that they weren’t scheduled to receive any more reinforcements. He’d run an effective campaign, taking the sector with relative ease after Archanis Station had fallen, and forces were being directed to other areas not so well addressed. But that could only mean one thing. “Ours or theirs?”

“Theirs, sir.”

He considered the news. He’d just sent two Astika class battlecruisers and five Manasa class assault escorts away from the station to head off the incoming Starfleet cruisers. He still had another Astika and four Manasas in reserve though, plus the formidable armaments of the station itself. This station was nothing to be trifled with, he knew. He’d had to fight through its defenses to take it in the first place. “How many ships?”

“An Odyssey class capital ship, ident USS Polaris, accompanied by one Alita class heavy cruiser and two light cruisers, a Pathfinder and a Norway. Should we call the others back?”

“Negative,” the Vaadwaur commander replied. The math was still in their favor at each individual point of engagement, and he’d rather not complicate the battlespace around the station. “Keep them on their vectors, and order our remaining assets to tighten up around the station.” 

They owned this place. Layering the station’s arsenal on top of their own, they had more than enough to deal with a Federation explorer and her three friends.

But he’d missed one crucial element.

Tucked away beneath the waste reclamation plant in the bowels of the station, far from prying eyes, Ensign Maya Ortega sat in a makeshift command center they’d built out over the last four days. She was no fighter, and she’d never even fired a phaser off the range, but here, she would take the opening shot in the battle for Archanis Station.

She said a brief prayer for all those on the station, hoping with all her heart that the explosives she was about to set off wouldn’t cause any collateral damage, and that their teams embedded on the station would prevail without loss of life. And then, with a deep breath, she popped the safety cap off the detonator and tapped her combadge.

“All teams,” Ensign Ortega declared. “Execute.”

And then she pressed the detonator down.

All across the station, decks shook, displays flickered, and residents trembled as a dozen warheads strategically placed in key locations went off, disabling specific systems that the special operations team had identified over the last few days as more trouble than they were worth. The blow had been dealt, and now, the battle would begin.

On the promenade, a scraggly little drifter, mumbling to herself, heard the call over her cochlear implant, embedded out of sight deep within her ear cavity. As the station shook, she dropped her innocuous veneer as she brought a ruggedized sidearm up from the folds of her tattered, loose fitting jacket. 

The four Vaadwaur soldiers guarding the community clinic noticed the movement.

But they were too slow to react.

Petty Officer Samira Sasori squeezed the trigger, striking one of the soldiers in the chest, and then death rained down from the rafters above, Lieutenant Camille Anderson unloading on the others from her perch. Three guards were felled without firing a shot, and as the last opened fire towards Petty Officer Sasori, Lieutenant Anderson shot him dead.

“Guards down,” Lieutenant Anderson reported cooly over the link. “Go. Go. Go.”

The bulkhead built into the wall just beyond the clinic popped open, and out emerged Lieutenant Commander Kehlani Koh, Commander Kris Eriksson, and six officers from the Diligent‘s security department. Rifles raised, they advanced swiftly towards the clinic.

Commander Eriksson was first through the door. His men sat on the ground, nearly sixty in total, sequestered here by the Vaadwaur ten days ago to reduce the risk of an insurgency developing. He swept his muzzle around, his scope finding a target, a Vaadwaur sentry standing over the security officers. He squeezed the trigger, and the soldier died in the blink of an eye.

Lieutenant Commander Koh came next, tight on his six, sweeping the opposite side and opening up on a pair of Vaadwaur soldiers just as they started to raise their rifles. Both fell without getting a shot off. Two more down.

Splitting the seam between them, the rest of the team surged forward, fanning out and dispatching the five other Vaadwaur guards that’d been assigned to keep watch of the sequestered security officers.

It was over in seconds, signalled by a series of calls in quick succession.

“Left, clear!”

“Right, clear!”

“All clear!”

Eight Vaadwaur dead on the deck, plus four outside, with not a single injury sustained. The Diligent‘s security team was a well-oiled machine, and this was simple work for them, especially with the enemy distracted by the force advancing on them from the space beyond.

Lieutenant Commander Koh tapped her combadge. “Security contingent alpha secure.”

As she relayed the news, Commander Kris Eriksson drew up in the middle of his men, all still seated on the floor. He’d expected them to leap up, an excited and rally-ready group ready to strike back at their oppressors, but they just sat there. As he stared at them, they looked like the life had been sucked from their eyes. What had happened here?

“The cavalry has arrived!” Commander Eriksson announced.

But after ten days held in captivity, many of them had given up. Not just that, but the Vaadwaur had fucked with their heads too. No one leapt to their feet. No one dared.

“What of their deal?” one of his squad chiefs asked warily. “Ten for one. That’s what they said.” The Vaadwaur had made it abundantly clear through the public executions they’d livestreamed for all to see. For each of Vaadwaur killed, they’d execute ten residents. There were twelve dead on the floor, and that meant the Vaadwaur would respond in kind with one hundred and twenty. It was a trade no security officer, right of mind, could make in good conscience.

“Oh, that deal is off,” Commander Eriksson countered, understanding now the fear that had sedated their will to resist. “Polaris is on final approach, and we’re taking this place back!”

Wait, what? It had seemed like that day would never come, but as they looked at their chief, they could see the resolve in their eyes. This was a full on rebellion. They were going to retake this station. Slowly, they began to rise from the ground, one by one at first, then a few at a time, and finally by the dozen until all were standing at the ready.

“What’s the plan, boss?” asked one of Commander Eriksson’s lieutenants.

“Arm with what you can,” Commander Eriksson gestured at the Vaadwaur all around them, their rifles lying by their bodies. Not enough for everyone, but a start. “And then we make for the promenade security office to get everyone else sorted out.” There were large weapons lockers there, just a short distance away. Once the team was all loaded out, they could get to work.

Several dozen decks below, a shot rang out, a supersonic ballistic round racing towards a duranium wall. But a microsecond before impact, the bullet blinked from existence, propelled by the microtransporter affixed to the TR-116 rifle, skipping past the duranium plate and continuing forward unimpeded. It found its mark in the fleshy neck of a Vaadwaur soldier standing watch over the main computer core.

The Vaadwaur soldier crumpled to the floor.

Against the whir of the computer core, the others heard it, and turned to see his body on the ground. What the hell? Where’d that shot come from? They raised their rifles, eyes darting around, seeking a target. But there was no one in sight.

And then another fell, and a third in quick succession.

One by one, the Vulcan sharpshooter cut them up, sight unseen, from the laboratory next door. This gun took some getting used to, but it’d become one of T’Aer’s preferred tools over the years, a means to kill someone without ever being detected.

As the Vaadwaur panickedly identified the wall as the threat, the door to the computer core slid open, and in stepped Cassius Stone. So distracted by the invisible hand of god knocking them off one by one, they didn’t even notice his arrival, and Cassius didn’t wait for them to. He just squeezed the trigger and held it down, mowing through their flank. 

One… two… three… a half dozen felled before they realized what was happening.

Eventually, the remaining members of the Vaadwaur security team got themselves situated behind cover and began to return fire, forcing Cassius to duck behind a large terminal.

What they hadn’t noticed in all the chaos, though, were the two lithe operators that had slipped into the server bank from a jeffries tube in the back of the computer core. Mara Selene moved left, and Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir moved right, their footsteps silent as they weaved through the server racks and approached the enemy shooters from behind.

Completely undetected, Mara got behind a Vaadwaur soldier spraying polarons at the spot where Cassius had taken cover. And then her blade was out. With one hand, she covered his mouth, and with the other, she slit his throat, catching him as he fell. A perfectly silent kill.

On the other side of the room, Chief Shafir got behind a pair of shooters equally distracted. She quietly raised her sidearm to the back of one of their heads and pulled the trigger, blowing his brain goop over the far wall. As the other turned, the sound drawing his attention, she brought her sidearm around and pulled the trigger again, point blank in his face. More brain goop, this time spattering against a server rack.

Chief Shafir’s shots drew the attention of the others, and she had to leap out of the way as they sprayed polarons towards them. But as she hit the deck and a console exploded behind her, she heard a supersonic crack of another round from the TR-116 as it skipped through the wall, T’Aer’s shot finding purchase on the Vaadwaur soldier that’d just fired at the chief.

They’d turned the computer core into a kill box.