Smoke and fire could be seen from several points around the entirety of the station, as well as plasmatic smoke that came from one of the pillars where reactor three was located, the reactor that took the most damage than reactor one did. The station was surrounded by the destroyers, while the battleship remained above with its artillery guns still trained to fire on it.

As for inside the station, firefights could be seen in corridors, hangar bays, galleria and promenade. Most importantly, there was a firefight on the diplomatic level that has left several ambassadors trapped. One place where there was not a firefight, was Ops, as it had fallen only an hour ago. The entirety of the staff were on their knees, if not sprawled out on the deck. They were dead.

The butt of the Vaadwaur’s rifle struck the side of Hunt’s head once more before the soldiers peeled Hunt off the deck and back onto his knees.

“Stop it!” Ward shouted before she too was struck in the face by one of the soldiers.

They were not able to retreat to the auxiliary control center but Hunt was successful in transferring all command functions from Ops to auxiliary control. And this displeased the commander of the Vaadwaur invasion fleet. Displeased him a lot apparently.

“I will not ask again, Captain. Return control of your station to these consoles, or I will start killing your people.” Said Tallix.

Hunt chuckled softly before he gathered up a wad of blood and saliva, just to spit it all onto Tallix’s boots. “Never going to happen.” Then he was struck on the other side of his head with yet another butt of a Vaadwaur weapon.

“Leave him alone!” Ward shouted before she was smacked yet again.

Tallix sighed, “I swear you Starfleet people are so aggravating. Especially your women. Especially her.” He glared over at Ward, who was brought back onto her knees. “She certainly seems rather protective of you, Captain.”

It was not the first time the station was overrun by the enemy. The last time was the young officers who were borgified during the event of Frontier Day. He was paralyzed for a while, until he had major surgery done that thankfully let him walk again but he was still weaning himself off the cane. So Hunt understood why she was being protective, it was not just her duty as his First Officer to ensure the safety of their Commanding Officer, but she saw Hunt be shot on Frontier Day. Not something anyone could forget.

“He will never give this station up to you! We will never let you have any hold of this station or this system! If we have to, we will destroy the station!” Ward growled at Tallix. “No matter what you do to him, you will never get what you want! That form of interrogation has never worked and it never will, not on us!”

Tallix knelt down so he was face to face with Hunt as he looked into the man’s eyes, well eye in this matter, as the other one was closed by all the swelling. “She really does not quit, does she?”

Hunt chuckled softly before coughing heavily, just to spit out more blood mixed saliva. “That’s why she is my first officer.”

Tallix stood back up. “Okay. Then she is the first one to go.” And in a split second, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger before Hunt could open his mouth to say anything. Hunt slowly turned his head to look with his right eye at where Ward was, only to see her headless body collapse to the deck.

“NO!” Hunt shouted, his tone mixed with both horror and rage as he turned his head to look at Tallix. “You will pay for that.”

Tallix smirked. “No, Captain. Her blood is on your hands. And if you do not give me what I want…” He pointed his pistol at another officer. “Their blood will also be on your hands!”

Meanwhile, in the diplomatic level, Abigail Maxwell had no idea what was going on at Ops but she tried to make her way to the turbolift that was designed to take any ambassador directly from the diplomatic level to ops when she was cut off by the firefight between Vaadwaur troops and Starfleet personnel. She had herself pressed up against a section that was arranged as a sitting area for diplomats, chairs, couches, coffee table, all that sorts, which gave her the cover she needed to avoid the firefight that happened in the corridor.

But then she heard shouts and cries, all that sounded like they came from the Starfleet personnel and before she could take a peak around the corner to see what had happened, a Vaadwaur soldier stood before her. He looked down at her before he trained the emitter of his rifle at her as his colleagues slowly walked by him.

“Oh god…p-p-please! D-don’t shoot! I’m an Ambassador to the Federation! A-a-a bargaining chip!” She pleaded in hopes that he would not kill her. But before the soldier could decide, there were more shouts and screams, which came from the direction of where his colleagues went towards. Both him, and Abigail looked down the other corridor to see and there was this tall hexapod being in an exosuit. “Rocene!” She shouted and the Tholian Ambassador immediately responded with his weapons, which fired several blasts into the remainder of the Vaadwaur troops.

Slowly but surely the Tholian Ambassador approached Abigail, where he made a series of clicks and chirps, then the suit’s speaker spoke in translation. “ARE. YOU. ALL. RIGHT?”

Abigail took a deep breath before she nodded her head, as she pushed herself onto her feet to stand as tall as she could to the Ambassador. “I had no idea you had this, Rocene.”

The Tholian chirped and then the suit spoke in translation. “STANDARD. PROCEDURE.” The suit’s translator seemed old, as Abigail knew that her and Rocene had much better conversations than this but she was not going to question it as there was no time. Then Rocene chirped some more. “SHIPS. ARE. COMING.” Rocene paused. “NEED. TO. REACH. OPS.”

Abigail nodded her head, “This way!” She led him to the turbolift where she inputted her authorization code. Soon as the door opened, Rocene went in first and Abigail squeezed in the best she could before she hit the button.

Back at Ops, Hunt watched another officer be executed right before his very eyes. Hunt tried to figure out why he would let Tallix continue to do this, why he wouldn’t just give the order and return the command functions to Ops. Why did he let this man kill more of his people? Hunt closed his eyes as he let out a wheezing exhale, while his head lowered in defeat. “Stop.” He said hoarsely.

“I’m sorry, what did you say, Captain?” Tallix asked.

“I said stop!” Hunt raised his head and opened his right eye to look at the monster. “I can’t return the command functions to Ops. As soon as they were transferred, someone else took charge. I am no longer in command here.”

Tallix let out a heavy sigh and tsked. “But Captain, you are in command. You are in command of your life and all of their lives.” He waved his pistol towards all those who were still alive. “So call those people, tell them to transfer command back to Ops, or I keep executing.”

“Sir!” A Vaadwaur soldier spoke up, which appeared to have annoyed Tallix greatly.

“Did I not say that I was not to be disturbed, unless it was vitally important?!” Tallix growled at the soldier.

“Yes, sir! But, sir! Our ship is reporting that the subspace interference fields have disappeared! The outposts were destroyed!” The soldier then activated the communicator where the ship could directly report the situation.

“The fields are gone! We read multiple ships on their way here at warp! Three strange needle-like vessels followed by small crafts are in our underspace. They’re responsible for destroying the outposts!”

“That’s impossible! Even so, they have a whole asteroid belt to navigate before they can get here.”

Hunt’s right eye went wide as he just realized what Ward had done with her plan earlier. The explosion in the asteroid belt, could it really leave a gap big enough for ships to warp through? The navigator would have to be insane to try it. Tokyo.

“Six ships just dropped out of warp near the station! We’re under heavy fire! Three more ships, the Tholian needle-like ships, they just left the underspace with the small crafts and are firing on our ships! We can’t-” static filled the comm before it was terminated.

Tallix grew frustrated and quickly aimed the emitter of his pistol at Hunt’s head. Hunt was ready to take the shot, for he had acted too slow. Those who were executed by this man, while Hunt did not force this man to commit such an act, it was still his fault. They were his responsibility and to replace Ward, he couldn’t even think of it. But before Tallix could pull the trigger, a turbolift door opened.

Abigail saw all those Vaadwaur troops in Ops and quickly ducked behind Rocene who then stepped out of the turbolift.

“What in the blazes is that?!” Tallix shouted.

“One pissed off Tholian! Everyone, duck!” Hunt shouted as he threw himself to the deck and as soon as the remainder of his staff did, the Rocene opened fire on the unsuspecting Vaadwaur.

—

It had been several hours since the Vaadwaur were either eliminated or captured. The station was secure, and thanks to the Tholian Ambassador, the three Tholian ships, plus the five Talarian ships, remained in orbit of the station, as if to guard it from any more invaders. The Tokyo soon returned after they had transmitted the reports to Fourth Fleet Command. Reports on the condition and situation of the entire system.

Ryker stood there by the table in the morgue, staring at Ward’s body. The sheet that covered her body did not hide the fact that her head was gone. Ryker cursed under his breath more times than he could count. He thought about all that had happened between him and Ward, the disobedient fighting they had on Ops when those telekinetic prisoners had invaded sickbay and held their people captive. Where Ryker had disobeyed and launched his team into that very sickbay to save the captives. Only by doing so, Ensign Theo Lane was killed in the line of fire.

The prisoners were eliminated, but at what cost?

Ryker thought back to the conversation he had with Fleet Captain Hunt: “Because of your insubordination and lack of trust in Commander Ward when she was temporarily in command of this station. I am giving you two options. Because honestly, anyone else in my position would have you court martialed, but I am a kind soul and I will give you one last chance. Your first option is that you keep your rank and you will be placed in command of the entire Hazard Operations of this station but you will no longer run a unit. You will be by my side where I can watch you, and you will watch your units do a job that you give orders to. But you will not be with them. OR. You will be demoted to Lieutenant, but you will remain in command of your unit and you will be with your unit wherever they are sent to but someone else will be in command of the Hazard Operations on this station and you will follow their orders to the T or I swear, you disobey one order and I will personally supervise your court martial. So you better choose.”

And so, Lieutenant Ryker stood there, staring at the sheet that covered the lifeless body of whom he had respect for. He only wished he had the chance to show Ward just how much he respected her. Ryker had found out that it was Ward who suggested to Hunt to not kick Ryker off the station. He did not know why she would make such a suggestion after their argument on Ops but he will never know now.

“Ryker.”

He snapped his head up in surprise, and saw that Hunt was there in the doorway. “How long have you been standing there, sir?” Ryker saw that Doctor Bates must have finished Hunt’s treatment. With a patch over his left eye, the man slowly approached the table.

“Long enough.”

Ryker sighed as he looked back down at the sheet. “I don’t know what to do.”

Hunt stood on the other side of the table and looked down at the sheet before he looked back at Ryker. “You do your job like she expected you to. Honor her memory, that is the least you can do.”

There was a long pause as they stared at the sheet, both of them deep in their own thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity, Hunt took a deep breath and looked at Ryker. He cleared his throat, to try and remove the lump that had grown before he spoke. “Once we are done cleaning up the mess, we will hold funeral services for the ones we lost. I exp-”

“I will be there, sir.” Ryker quickly told him.