Dramatis Personae:

Alliance Forces

Hans "Lobo" Allen, Pilot/Marine (male Human)
Rob "Biggs" Baden, Commander Red Squadron, Pilot (male Human)
Andrew "Dobber" Dobson, Commander Blue Squadron, Pilot (male Human)
Doda Farr, Marine Captain (male Rodian)
Deanna "Dee" Hashi, Pilot (female Human)
Sooli Kitz, Intelligence Officer (female Zeltron)
LaSalle Larringer, Captain, Rapier (female Human)
Chris "Pip" Layne, Pilot (male Human)
Lohk'har, Marine Lieutenant (female Twi'lek)
Chelsey "Vape" Maxfield, Pilot (female Eh´shu´lan)
Steve "Thumper" Michadick, Pilot (male Human)
"Pappy", Chief Mechanic (male Human)
Dargon Seylik, Bartender (male Human)
Paul "Rogue" Sweet, Pilot (male Human)
Richard "Wildstar" Vogel, Pilot (male Human)
Jamie "Shadow" Wetherill, Pilot (male Human)

Imperial Forces

Garik Arnjak, Captain, Harbinger (male Human)
Roan Deo, Soldier (male Human)
Viled Gremory, Imperial Scientist (male Human)
Irena Hesh, Commander (female Human)
Lilith Jahi, Imperial Scientist (female Human)
Tam Ramis, Sergeant (male Human)
Zeff Teer, Lieutenant (male Human)

Prologue

[Research lab, on board the Imperial factory ship Harbinger, two days ago]

As the door to the lab slid open, Commander Hesh walked straight in. Her E-11 blaster carbine was in her hand and her finger on the trigger. She was flanked by two Stormtroopers who also had their weapons drawn. They escorted their shackled prisoners into the room. A total of ten prisoners, all wearing orange jumpsuits, were marched into the room. As the last prisoner entered the room, two more Stormtroopers took position on either side of the door with their weapons held ready. The prisoners consisted of five Humans, two Twi'leks, a Bothan, a Trandoshan, and a Wookie.

A man in a white lab coat walked over to Commander Hesh and held out his hand. Irena handed him the data pad that she had been holding in her left hand. The man looked at the pad, scrolled through the report, and looked at back up at Irena.

"I was told I would get two Wookies."

Irena's voice was slightly distorted by the comm. unit in the Stormtrooper helmet she wore. "One of the Wookies broke free and killed two of my people. We had no choice but to kill it. Doctor Jahi suggested that the Trandoshan would be a suitable replacement for you."

"Hmmm…a pity. However, Lilith is right; the Trandoshan will do just fine. Escort the prisoners into those holding cells, two prisoners in each cell." The Stormtroopers did as they were ordered with the guidance of lab assistants on which prisoner went in which cell. With the prisoners secured, Irena signalled two of her people to take up guard positions at the lab door. "That won't be necessary, Commander."

"Excuse me, Doctor Gremory, but it is necessary. Imperial guidelines clearly state…"

Viled waved his hand to silence her. "This room is going to be sealed and, as of now, this area is off limits to you and your people. My people will be more than able to deal with any problems the prisoners may give me. That will be all. You are dismissed, Commander."

The tone in Viled's voice left Irena with no doubts that protesting would do her no good. Irena turned on her heel and headed out of the lab with the four Stormtroopers marching behind her. Once they were out of the room, Viled closed the door and keyed in a code that locked it.

Lilith walked up to Viled. "Are you ready to start?"

"Yes, let's proceed; shall we?" Viled walked over to a consolee and keyed in an access code. A panel in the wall opened up revealing five vials of a blue liquid.

"Prepare the samples."

Assistants loaded the vials into hypo sprays. Viled walked over to the detention cells. They had transparent fronts, allowing the Imperial researchers a clear view of their prisoners. "I will point to an individual in a cell. That individual will then place his left arm through the feeding slot and be injected. Understood?"

One of the Human prisoners that was in with the Trandoshan spoke up, "You can go to hell if you think I'm doing anything for you, Imp!"

Viled raised an eyebrow at the man's remark. He stuck his right hand into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a small blaster and, through the feeding slot, shot the man in his left leg. Crying out in pain, the man fell to the floor in a heap. "Now I don't need you all to be fit and healthy for this, so I can shoot you all like our friend here and do as I plan, or you can all save yourself some pain and suffering and do like I have asked. It's your choice!" Viled pointed at the five people that he wanted to be injected. One by one, they reluctantly came forward and put their left arms through the feeding slots. After they were all done, Viled threw a bacta bandage to the man he had shot and the Trandoshan that was in the cell with the man helped him put the dressing on his wounded leg.

Lilith was at Viled's side, "Now we wait?"

"Now we wait."

[Two months earlier]

"Break left, Rogue!"

Paul yanked the flight stick to the left and up. His fighter responded immediately to the command. Laser and ion bolts shot through the space where Paul's Y-wing had just been. "Any time now would be fine, Thumper!"

"Almost there." Steve kept the R-41 Starchaser in sight as it tried to get another lock on Paul's Y-wing. As Steve pulled his throttle back to two-thirds, he pulled back on his flight stick, putting his B-wing right on the tail of the Starchaser. Then, squeezing his trigger, he sent a steady stream of laser bolts into the pirate's fighter. A few seconds later, the enemy fighter exploded unable to stand up to the sustained fire.

"Cheers, Thumper. I owe you a drink when we get back."

"Any time, Rogue."

With the pirate fighter destroyed, Paul looked at his holo display. The pirate's capital ship, a Quasar Fire Carrier, had not been attacked. So far, Blue Squadron was dealing with the enemy fighters, leaving the Frigate alone. Paul targeted a pirate fighter. It had the body of an X-wing, but the wings of a TIE Interceptor. The Ugly was trying to get a lock on Hans' B-wing, but the Blue pilot was making the task difficult for the pursuing pilot by performing a series of evasive manoeuvres. Paul managed to get a snap shot off at the Ugly and was rewarded by one of his laser bolts clipping the port solar panel. Forgetting about Lobo, the pirate tried to get away from his attacker. He didn't get very far. A burst from Paul's Y-wing turned the Ugly into a fireball that eventually exploded.

Although the pirate fighters had almost outnumbered the Alliance fighters three to one, the Alliance pilots were the ones that were winning the fight. The pirate group had relied on its numbers to intimidate their targets into surrendering, but their lack of discipline and training was now leading to their destruction.

Over the comm channels, Paul heard several of the Blues shouting out kills. Pressing the top left button on his flight stick, a T-wing appeared in his CMD. Switching his fire control over to missiles, Paul tracked the T-wing until Shade indicated with a steady tone that he had a missile lock. Paul pressed the trigger and a proton torpedo shot out from the port launcher.

The torpedo tracked its target, despite the pirate's best efforts, and slammed into the rear of the enemy fighter. The T-wing was engulfed in the explosion. When the fireball burned out, debris was all that was left.

With no more fighters in the immediate area, Paul targeted the Frigate and flew towards it. Hans and Steve joined him for the attack run. Setting his torpedoes to dual fire mode, Paul waited until he had a solid lock before firing. Between the three of them, sixteen torpedoes were sent towards the Frigate. It only had two turbo lasers for defense, so it had no chance of shooting down the incoming torpedoes.

The first set of torpedoes hit the Frigates shields and detonated. For a brief moment, the ship's shields were made visible by the explosions. When the next set of torpedoes struck the shields, the strain to the generators was too much and they overloaded, causing the Frigate's shields to drop. The last four torpedoes impacted directly on its hull, with gouts of flame erupting where they struck.

Paul had one torpedo left and he knew exactly where he was going to send it. "Shade, set the last torpedo to detonate two seconds after impact." Shade whistled once to confirm that the torpedo was ready. "Lobo, Thumper...break off." The two B-wings peeled off, leaving just Paul's Y-wing flying straight at the Frigate's bridge. Targeting the bridge, Paul waited for solid tone to indicate a lock and waited until the last moment to fire. His torpedo leapt out of the starboard launch tube as Paul yanked back on the flight stick with all his strength and shot over the bridge, just missing it.

His torpedo, however, smashed through the view screen. The air in the bridge was sucked out into the void during the two seconds it took for the torpedo to detonate. , Everything inside the bridge was consumed by the explosion, but the ships structure wasn't strong enough to contain it. The front of the Frigate was destroyed as the explosion tore through the rest of the ship.

As the Frigate was consumed by secondary explosions, a Muurian Transport shot out from its landing bay. Deanna was the closest pilot to the enemy transport and vectored her B-wing on an intercept course. Dodging the fire from the transport's turrets, Dee stayed on course and was soon within weapons range. With her weapons fire linked, both ion and laser bolts hit the transport's shields. The rate of fire coming from Dee was enough to make the transport pilot veer off his course, frustrating his efforts of escaping into hyperspace.

By this time, Wildstar had also managed to get into range and launched two torpedoes at the transport. The gunners were too busy trying to kill Dee to even notice the torpedoes tracking them until they detonated, blowing the transport to pieces.

With the destruction of their ship and base, and now their leader, the five remaining pirate fighters chose to surrender rather than carry on fighting for a lost cause.

A shuttle from the Morning Star jumped into the area. It had been near by in case any of the Blue pilots had gone EVA and needed rescuing. One by one, the pirates ejected from their fighters and were picked up by the shuttle. As the last pirate was taken into the shuttle, Paul asked the obvious question. "What do you want us to do with these fighters, Chief?"

"Destroy them." Dobber replied and lined up his B-wing to blast the fighter nearest to him. There was a short laser barrage as the rest of Blue Squadron targeted the other remaining fighters. When all the deserted fighters were destroyed, Dobber came on the comms. again. "Ok, people, let's head for home."

The Alliance fighters closed their S-foils and, with the shuttle joining their formation, made the jump back to the Morning Star. All that was left to show that there had been a battle were the charred remains of the Quasar Fire Carrier and debris that had once been fighters and people.

Chapter Two

[Morning Star hanger one hour later]

As the ground crew put the ladder against the side of Paul's Y-wing for him to exit his fighter, he took off his helmet and gloves and shoved his gloves into his helmet. Then he tossed his helmet down to one of the ground crew and eased himself out of his flight seat and down the ladder to the flight deck. Taking the helmet back from the crewman, Paul placed it under his left arm and looked around. Pointing and waving his Hydro-spanner, Pappy was issuing orders to his people. When he had finished, Paul walked over to him.

"Yes, Major, can I help you?"

"I hope so, Pappy. The energy levels in the port engine and right laser seem to be jumping."

"Aye. Were you hit by any ion bolts while you were out?"

"Possibly. I was attacked by a Starchaser while in combat, but I'm not sure if he got me or not."

"Hmm, they might have gotten scrambled by a near miss. I'll get my people to have a look at you ship as soon as possible, Major."

Paul thanked Pappy and then walked back to his ship. Shade had already been lowered from the droid slot and was waiting for him. "You good to go, little fella?" Shade whistled once to say that he was ready. The pair headed to the turbo lift that would take them up to their quarters.

Before getting showered and changed, Paul decided to write up his combat report. It took about twenty minutes to complete and, once done, he transmitted it to Dobber's data pad for review. It seemed strange sending reports to Andrew again, but since Leo had retired, and Andrew was promoted to CO once more, things were back to normal. Richard was also taking to his role of the squad's XO without too many mishaps.

People in both squads were still coming to terms with the changes. With Red Squadron, it was the loss of their CO who was listed as MIA, but most people thought the chances of Zoom still being alive were next to nothing. Blue Squadron had also lost a pilot, Lonewolf. He, too, was also listed as MIA, with no one knowing what had become of him. Again, most people assumed that he was dead as well.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Paul headed to the showers to clean up.

Feeling a hundred times better after his shower, Paul went to the Fish Tank. The place was empty. That was a surprise. Normally, after a combat mission, the place would be busy. Paul went up to the bar and sat down on one of the stools.

"Hello, Major, and how are you today?"

"I'm fine. Thanks, Dargon. Yourself?"

"Getting by. You know. Can I get you a drink?"

"Yeah, can I get an ale, please?"

"Sure thing." Dargon got a mug from under the bar and went to one of the taps. The mug was filled with a light green liquid that had a smooth head of froth on it. He placed the mug on the counter for Paul, who reached over and took a long swig from it.

"Ahhh, that's better. How come it's so quiet in here today? I thought there would be a few people in by now."

"You're the first one in, Major. I expect the rest will be in soon enough."

Sure enough, over the next ten minutes, pilots from Blue Squadron started to drift in to the Fish Tank. Paul ordered another ale and two fizzies. Dargon, with a quizzical look in his eyes, handed Paul the drinks. Paul indicated with his thumb to where Hans and Steve were sitting, "It's for the Tee-Total Twins over there!" Dargon chuckled to himself as Paul headed over to the table to join Hans and Steve.

"Here you go." Paul placed a mug in front of both of them before sitting down.

"Cheers." Hans picked up his mug and took a drink.

Steve looked at Paul. "Thanks, but what are these for?"

"Well, for helping me with the attack run against the carrier and for fragging that Starchaser that was trying to kill me. Cheers." Paul held up his mug as the three pilots all put their mugs together, then downed the contents in one drink.

Since it was a Blue Squadron mission, all of the squad was in the Fish Tank. As could be expected, there were also a few other off duty personnel and some Red Squadron pilots there. Chris and Jamie were listening to Deanna as she told them how she had set up the Murrain for Richard to kill, and how the XO hadn't even bought her a drink yet for the assisted kill!

After a couple of hours, Paul said goodnight to his group and decided to head off to his cabin to get some sleep. There was no point in over doing things. He thought he might as well have a clear head for the morning.

He headed to the galley to get himself something to eat before going to sleep. There was some Bantha meat on special, so Paul asked the chef to put it in a roll for him. Paul spotted some spicy sauce on the counter top nearby and took his sandwich to put a generous helping of the sauce onto the meat. He took a bite. The meat was nice and tender; and the sauce was fiery, a nice combination. With his snack in hand, Paul once again headed to cabin and sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, as he got dressed, hangover free, he was glad that he took it easy the previous night. Checking the time to make sure that he would be able to get breakfast before the mornings briefing, Paul pulled on his flight boots. Locking his door as he left, Paul headed to the nearest turbo lift and then to the mess hall. Getting a mug of tea and a cooked breakfast, Paul went over to an unoccupied table and sat down to eat. A few minutes later, he was joined by Andrew who sat down opposite Paul.

"Morning, Chief."

"Good morning, Major. I see we're the only ones who've made it to the mess this morning!"

"Looks that way, Chief. Mind you, there's still time for a few more to show up. So, how long did the celebrations carry on?"

Andrew took a sip from his mug before answering, "From what I hear, at least several more hours."

"Ouch! There's going to be some sore heads today then." Finishing his breakfast, Paul stood up to go.

"Be in the main briefing room in twenty minutes, Paul."

"No worries, Chief. I'll see you there." Paul pulled out his data pad from his pocket on his flight suits left leg pocket and checked the time on the display. He had enough time to head to the hanger and check the status of his Y-wing.

Paul made it to the briefing room with a few minutes to spare. Pappy was as good as his word and Paul's Y-wing was, once again, combat ready. Seeing Steve sitting on the front row, Paul sat in the chair next to him. "Any idea what the briefing is about?"

"None at all. I was just going to ask you the same thing."

The pair chatted while pilots from both squadrons entered and sat down. Hans and Deanna were the last two to arrive. Deanna looked a little pale from too much drinking the other night, on which Chris commented, drawing a laugh from the other pilots, only to be silenced from a stern look from Deanna. Hans lowered himself into a chair, while Deanna just sat on her chair with her arms wrapped around her stomach gently rocking back and forth.

Andrew and Rob walked into the briefing room together. Everyone started to rise to attention, but Rob indicated with his hand for everyone to remain seated. Andrew took a seat, while Rob moved directly behind the podium.

"Good morning, all. I'm glad to see we all made it here in one piece." Rob's gaze lingered on Deanna as he spoke. "Now, the reason we're all gathered here this morning is to let you know about an opportunity that has come about for you lucky pilots."

There were a few groans from some of the pilots, who were already dreading what command could have dreamed up.

Rob held up a hand for everyone to stop talking. "You haven't even heard what's on offer yet! Now, this offer is open to everyone except Hans."

Hans shot bolt upright so fast that he had to grab hold of the chair's armrests to steady himself. "What? Why not? "

Rob smiled slightly. "Because, you've already been automatically selected for this."

Hans looked like he was going to object again, but never got the chance as Rob carried on talking, "It's a week training program with Mr Allen's fellow Marines."

At first, Hans didn't understand. After a few seconds, a look of understanding came across his face and he relaxed back into his chair.

"Now, this course is available for everyone, but it's not compulsory. So, before I ask for volunteers, I'll let you know what you'll be getting yourself into. It will consist of hand-to-hand combat, explosives and demolitions, marksman training, survival training, escape and evasion, plus much more. So, do I have any volunteers?"

Again, there was some murmuring from the pilots as they discussed the offer between themselves. Steve was the first to put up his hand. "Put me down. You had me when you said explosives and demolition!"

Paul was putting up his hand when he heard Chris shouting from behind him. "I'm game for this...and so is Jamie." The look on Jamie's face said otherwise, but he said nothing as Rob added both of their names on his data pad.

Noticing that Paul also had his hand up, Rob asked Paul. "You want to go as well, Mr Sweet?" Paul nodded in response. Rob looked about the briefing room for any other volunteers. There were three: David, Deanna, and Chelsey. "Ok, the seven of you will leave in about four week's time on the Marine CR90a Frigate Rapier. After the Rapier departs, the Morning Star, Regis, and the newly refitted Summer will jump to outpost forty-seven at Mon Calamari for some R & R."

From behind him, Paul heard Jamie thanking Chris by punching his right arm. Andrew stood up and moved over to the podium. "Ok, for those of you not going; you're dismissed." The pilots that had chosen not to go filed out from the briefing room; most of them with smiles on their faces at the thought of the upcoming R & R.

"Right. You seven, while with the Marines, will be representing your squadrons and, not only that, you'll be representing the Morning Star. Therefore, I expect nothing but the best from all of you. I want you to show these JarHeads…no offense Hans…that Alliance pilots can also give as good as they get. Ok, speeches over. Good luck and dismissed."

The pilots left the room and went to go about their duties. Rob and Andrew remained in the briefing room. Rob looked again at the list of names on his data pad. "You know Andrew, I don't know who to feel more sorry for; that lot or their instructors."

Andrew laughed. "You've got to wonder?" Both men left the briefing room and headed off to organize the pilots' duty rosters.

Chapter Three

[Three weeks later]

Paul headed towards the turbo lift that would take him to the armoury. It was the day before the joint three-week exercise with the Marines and he was going down there to collect his assault rifle. The past few weeks had seen some serious changes aboard the Morning Star. The biggest was that Andrew was listed as MIA Most people presumed that he was dead. There had been no service for Andrew, because, as long as he was listed as MIA, there remained the smallest of hopes that he was still alive. Sometimes that was enough.

Richard was now Blue Squadron's CO with Steve being the new XO Steve had approached Paul after the announcement to see if there was any ill feeling at having been passed over for the XO position. There had been none. In fact, Paul had told Steve that he was glad to stay as the Training Officer, as he enjoyed freedom that the role gave him.

There had been changes in Red Squadron as well. Chelsey had stepped down from her role as XO stating that she no longer could give the role her full attention. Rob put forward his recommendations that Chris be promoted to take on that role.

At first, it was suggested that the joint exercise with the Marines be cancelled due to recent events, but, after asking the seven pilots if they still wished to go, all of them had said yes. So everything was still going ahead as planned. Chelsey was medically certified fit for duty and able to take part, much to her relief. Chris and Steve had also been allowed to go even though their responsibilities had now changed. Both Rob and Richard said that, while the Morning Star was at Mon Calamari and the crew on shore leave; they shouldn't pass up the opportunity to participate in the joint exercise.

Paul got in the turbo lift and headed towards the armoury. At the secure area, he was greeted by the duty Sergeant. "Good morning, sir. What can I do for you today?"

"Morning, Sarge. I'd like to check out my assault rifle and ammo clips. Also, could you tell me how many cases of ammo I have please?"

"Certainly, sir. One moment please." The man pressed some keys on his data pad and, in a moment, writing was scrolling down his screen. "According to this, you've got a total of seven cases; giving you a total of three thousand five hundred rounds of ammunition."

As he was handed the rifle and ammo clips, Paul asked, "Could you arrange for four boxes of ammo to be on a loader at docking hatch two for eight thirty tomorrow morning please, Sarge?"

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"

"No. Thanks, Sarge. Cheers." Paul headed back to his room to get ready for the following day. An hour later, he had what he thought he would need for the three weeks packed in his kit bag and was ready to go. On his bed was his rifle, eleven ammo clips, and his sleeveless combat jacket. He picked up the jacket and started slotting the full clips into the pouches.

With all the pouches full, there was one clip still left on the bed. He picked up the last clip and slotted it into the rifle. Checking that the safety was on, he extended the stock and brought the rifle up to his shoulder in the ready position. He made sure that the scope and laser marker were working properly. When he assured himself that they were, he set the rifle back onto his bed, opened two pockets on his combat jacket, and got out two items. One was the silencer; which he screwed on the barrel. The other was a small glow lamp, which attached under the barrel.

Satisfied with everything, Paul turned off the glow lamp and put it, and the silencer, back in his combat jacket. Seeing that it was still early, he decided to head to the sims and get in some practice for a few hours.

As he headed down to the sims, he passed by Chris and his new girlfriend, Sheva. The young Twi'lek woman had her arms wrapped around Chris' midsection and the pair was talking in low voices to each other. Since Chris started seeing Sheva, the pair seemed to be permanently attached to each other. He shook his head as he heard Sheva let out a yelp followed by a giggle as Chris ushered her into his cabin. Paul was still getting used to seeing Chris with a Major's rank now that he was Red Squadrons XO.

Chapter Four

[Imperial factory ship Harbinger, one day ago]

"Secure this location. Seal those doors. Nothing gets in."

The Stormtroopers fanned out with their weapons held ready, moving cautiously through the large area. Several were guarding the doorway that they had just come through. They were sweeping their weapons back and fourth across the opening nervously. As the last Stormtrooper came through the door, it was shut and locked behind him. One by one, the doors to the room were locked. When the last one was secured, Irena looked at her surroundings to see how best they could defend themselves if it came to it.

"Ok I want everyone, apart from unit six, getting to work on setting up defenses and barricades in case they manage to get in. Unit six will be on guard. Get to it." The Stormtroopers set about their tasks in silence, with an air of urgency in their work. Irena activated her comms. "Captain Arnjak, come in please." There was no reply. Irena tried again. "Captain Arnjak, do you copy? Over."

"This is Arnjak. Go ahead, Commander."

"Sir, I've managed to secure myself and several units in mess hall Bravo three. We've encountered heavy resistance in the aft sections and had to retreat to this location. I've lost over thirty people so far. Did the three units I sent to the bridge arrive yet, sir?"

"Only one unit made it through, Commander."

Irena didn't speak for a moment; she was shocked as to how quickly the situation on board the ship was getting out of control. A slow feeling of dread and fear started to claw at her gut. It threatened to consume her if she let it continue and then she'd be no use to anyone. Quickly shaking off the feeling, Irena brought her mind back to the situation at hand. "Sir, we need to link up our units with any other combat effective units onboard and see what we can do about taking control of this situation."

"I agree, Commander. Head for deck twelve and meet up at the officer's mess. Then we'll proceed to the main armoury."

"Yes, sir. I'll get my people ready to move out."

"Commander, I've also sent out a distress call, but, given our location, I'm not confident that it'll be picked up. So it looks as if we're on our own."

"Understood, sir, and good luck. Hesh out."

The link went dead. She motioned Lieutenant Teer and Sergeant Ramis over to her location and outlined what the Captain had suggested. Irena just finished speaking when they heard a scream from behind the door. Instinctively, she raised her rifle towards the closed door; as did most of the other Stormtroopers.

There was another scream, but this time it was louder and more desperate. From the other side of the door, the person started pounding on it. Several of the troopers jumped at the noise. The person could be heard pleading for the door to be opened.

Roan started to move towards the door.

"Don't open that door!" Irena ordered. "Whoever that is on the other side is already dead. There's nothing we can do."

Roan hesitated for a moment, but then went back behind the over turned table. The pounding on the door became more frantic, as did the screaming. There was a large thump against the door and then the sounds of a struggle. The pitch of the screaming had changed. It was no longer one of terror, but one of pain. Other sounds could now be heard, sounds of tearing and ripping. Irena closed her eyes, trying to block out what was happening, but it was no use. She knew what was going on behind the door.

After what seemed an eternity, the screaming from the person stopped. All that could be heard now was the shuffling of feet and moaning. Again, Irena had to force herself into action before the situation threatened to overwhelm her.

"Listen up! This is what we're going to do..." Irena detailed the plan to her troops. There was no discussion afterwards and she didn't expect any. Her troops were well trained and followed orders. They were Imperials; and that's what Imperials did best, followed orders.

An hour later, they had managed to get up to deck eighteen. They had left the mess through another door, avoiding what was behind the main one. What should have taken Irena and her troopers a few minutes to reach was taking a lot longer. Avoiding the main routes, so as not to be spotted, was taking time; but, if it meant not getting into trouble, then it was time well spent, Irena thought to herself.

The lights in the corridor ahead were out. All that was on was the emergency lighting, bathing the corridor in an eerier red light. It seemed that there had been an explosion. Perhaps someone set off a thermal detonator and the damage had blown out all the lighting. Whatever the cause, Irena just cursed to herself. Activating her helmet's night vision, she motioned for the rest of her troopers to do the same. As one, they moved as silently as they could down the corridor towards the next access hatch up to the next deck. With the red lighting making their white armour look as if they were all drenched in blood, the troopers moved through the corridor. They had been in the corridor for a few minutes when, suddenly, there was a shout and then blaster fire from the rear of the group. Next, all hell broke loose.

Chapter Five

[Marine CR90a Frigate Rapier, present time]

The noise from the canteen was loud, but that was to be expected. There were over a hundred people crammed into the place. Most people were in groups around tables, while others stood near the viewing portals.

Hans was talking to Doda Farr. Both men had been on the same Marine recruit's course and, despite spending three weeks in the same training unit, the two friends were still finding plenty to talk about. Right now, the pair was talking about previous engagements they had both been in, describing tactics and outcomes.

Chris and Jamie were listening to Deanna explain how she had gotten her black eye. Deanna recounted how she and Lohk'har, a Marine Instructor, had been sparing the other day when Deanna got a lucky punch through Lohk'har's defenses and cut open her top lip. Lohk'har responded immediately with a punch that hit Deanna on her left cheek. There was a bit of swelling on her left side and the skin was very black around her left eye.

Lohk'har was also on board the Rapier. She was transferring back to her old unit. The cut and swelling on her top lip made the Twi'lek instructor look like she had a permanent sneer on her face. Although Deanna had apologized, it seemed that Lohk'har was not the forgiving type and had not spoken to the pilot since. Deanna was not overly concerned by this. She was proudly wearing her corpsman rank on the left collar of her flight suit. While on the course, she had trained and passed the exam; a fact that she was now happily telling Chris and Jamie.

The other pilots were all talking about their own experiences over the past three weeks. Each of them learned new skills or improved existing ones. Steve had done a course in demolitions and explosives; he was now a fully qualified Explosives Ordinance Officer.

Chelsey and Jamie had both opted for the unarmed combat classes. Chelsey had improved her fighting skills to a level that she now felt confident she would be able to cope in any unarmed situation. Jamie had decided to do the course to keep his own unarmed skills up to date and fresh. He also spent some time with the Marine Recon teams and learned from them.

Chris and Paul both sported crossed rifles on their left shoulders of their flight suits. The pair had gone on the Marine Sniping course; and now both of them were qualified marksmen. It was something about which the two pilots were extremely proud.

Hans had been involved in most of these courses in some way and had enjoyed refreshing his Marine skills once again. It had been good to be back among his fellow Marines. It made him think that sometimes he would prefer to be part of a Marine ground unit instead of a flyboy.

"We did the Morning Star proud. Wouldn't you say so, Steve?"

"Yeah, I think we did Chelsey. We certainly held our own anyway."

"Those Marine pilots from the other squadrons were a bit put out when we won the Sim competition though."

Steve smiled at the thought of the competition. All the pilots had gotten medals for taking part in combat event. His medal was in his kit bag. "The XO from Centurion Squadron wasn't pleased at all. The fact that we vaped all of his squad before they could even get a shot off put him in a foul mood. When it was our turn for our attack run and we vaped his squad, in addition to all of the targets, I thought he was going to blow."

"I know what you mean. I swear that Bothan's fur seemed to almost get red the angrier he got. Funny how he didn't shake our hands or congratulate us at the end isn't it?"

"I think we must have vaped his ego as well in the Sims!"

The group continued to talk on for several more minutes until an announcement came over the ships speakers. The room fell silent so that everyone could hear the message. "Now hear this. Now hear this. Will Captain Farr please report to the bridge? Captain Farr to the bridge."

After the announcement people started talking again. It wasn't long before the noise level was back to what it had been. Doda got up from his chair. "If you'll excuse me, they seem to require my presence on the bridge." Doda made his way through the canteen towards the bridge.

After five minutes, there was another announcement. Again, everyone fell silent. "Now hear this. Now hear this. Will Majors Layne and Michadick please report to the bridge. Majors Layne and Michadick to the bridge."

Chris and Steve looked at each other. Steve shrugged his shoulders about why they would both be needed on the bridge. This time the conversation in the canteen didn't return as quickly, as most people were now wondering what was going on. The pair left the canteen the same way that Doda had gone and headed to the bridge.

The two pilots entered the bridge. They saw Doda standing next to the ship's captain at a display consolee. LaSalle looked up from the display as the two pilots approached her. "Thank you for coming. We've got a situation. We've just detected a distress signal and we're pretty certain that it's an Imperial one."

Chris and Steve must have both looked confused as to why they were being told this. Doda cleared his throat before speaking. "The reason why you're being told this is because if it was just Marines on this ship we'd be going in now to find the source of the signal, but we've got seven guests onboard so we need to make sure with you first."

"Well you can count the pilots from Red squadron in. What about your lot, Steve?"

"We're in. What's the plan Ma'am?"

"Ok. From what we've been able to gather from the distress signal, it's coming from inside that Nebula." The Captain pointed to the console screen, which showed the nebula at the top left of the screen. "The signal itself is very weak. In fact, if we hadn't been between jump points, we would never have picked it up. It looks like the Nebula acts as a natural dampening field, hence the weak signal. The plan is this: we go in to the Nebula, try to locate the source of the signal, then we'll see what options are open to us. Not much of a plan, I know; but we'll be sending out a message pod just in case it's a trap."

The comm officer prepared the message pod for launch. When it was ready, he signaled the Captain who ordered it launched. "Pod away, Ma'am."

"Ok, sound general quarters. Everyone to battle stations."

The comms officer touched a button on his console and spoke into his headset. His voice came over the ships speakers. "Now hear this. Now hear this. General quarters…all hands to battle stations. I repeat, general quarters…all hands to battle stations. This is not a drill."

An alarm klaxon sounded throughout the ship. The lights went from normal illumination to combat red throughout the ship. Around them, the bridge crew readied themselves and reported in combat ready sections.

"Shields are up and fully charged."

"All weapon stations are manned and ready, Ma'am."

"Very well. Set a course for the Nebula. Combat speed."

"Aye, Ma'am. Time to intercept is five minutes."

"Excuse me, Captain Larringer. If you don't mind, I'll go and let our group know what's going on?"

"Of course, Major."

Steve gave a quick salute, then headed out of the bridge and back to the canteen to let the his pilots know what was happening. When he got there, he quickly told them what was going on. Telling them that, as soon as he had any more details, he'd let them know. Then Steve headed back to the bridge. When he got there, the Rapier was nearing the edge of the Nebula.

The helmsman was counting down to when they would enter the Nebula. "Nebula interception in five, four, three, two, one, contact."

As the Rapier entered the Nebula, the ship shuddered. Steve reached out and took hold of a console to steady him.

"Sensors are down by fifty percent, Captain."

"Targeting scanners are offline. All gunners switch to manual."

Several minutes later, the helmsman spoke up. "Distance to signal is now twenty klicks and closing. Distance from point of entry is thirty klicks."

The minutes ticked by as the Rapier headed towards the distress call. The tension on the bridge also started to build up, with the crew not knowing what they would find once they got to the source of the signal.

The silence was broken by the helmsman. "What the hell is that?"

Captain Larringer got up from her seat and went over to the helmsman. "What is it, Marine?"

"Three o'clock high, Ma'am."

LaSalle looked up. Standing out against the blue and red of the Nebula was a large black ship. In some respects, it looked like an exotic dagger. There were four attachments sticking out from the main body, two on either side. "Full stop. Hold position here."

"Aye, Ma'am. Full stop and holding position."

Steve walked over to the Captain and looked out of the Rapier's main window. "Would you look at the size of that thing?" he said, then looked down at the display on the console. "Scans have that thing at six and half kay in length!"

An almost cylindrical section came down from the main body of the ship. Steve pointed to it on the console. "That section alone must be at least three kay long."

Captain Larringer was looking at the display on the console as well. "I.F.F. indicates that it's called the Harbinger."

One of the bridge crew was busy trying to identify exactly what type of ship the Harbinger was. He was scrolling through the displays on his console when he suddenly shouted out. "I got it."

Captain Larringer walked over to the Marine's station, followed by Chris, Doda, and Steve. "What is it?"

"It's an Imperial factory ship. That much, I can tell you. Not much else is known about them. There's only ever been one other recorded encounter with a ship like that, the Arc Hammer. A man named Kyle Katarn reportedly entered and destroyed it to stop the Empire from starting mass production of Dark Troopers. That's all the information there is, Captain."

"Nothing about defenses, or if there are fighters?"

"Sorry, Ma'am." Then he continued, "Ma'am, the Harbinger appears to be offline. In fact, I'm picking up debris coming from the lower section." He zoomed in on the area about which he was talking. The display showed that there had been some sort of explosion and that there was a hole in the Harbinger's structure. "Judging by the size of the opening, you're looking at ten, maybe twelve, decks open to space."

LaSalle went back to her command chair and sat down, looking at the Harbinger through the view screen and weighing up her options. "Ok, listen up. This is what we're going to do. We'll take the Rapier, do a fly by of the Harbinger, and asses what state it's in. If nothing happens, and the ship is truly dead, we're going to board her. They've obviously suffered some sort of emergency and I'm not going to pass by an opportunity like this to see what the Imps are up to with that ship. Helm, set a course. I want to do a tour of that ship, stem to stern, but be ready to get us out of here at the first sign of trouble. Understood?"

"Aye aye, Captain."

Steve went back over to the crewmember that had given them the information on the factory ship. "Any mention on crew size in the data base?"

"No, sir. I guess Katarn never included that information in his report."

"Typical!"

Chris and Doda came over to Steve. "Well, if this Katarn person managed to get in by himself and destroy one, just imagine what a hundred plus Marines can do. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?" Doda said.

Chapter Six

The fly-by of the Harbinger had gone smoothly. The giant factory ship did indeed seem to be dead. Captain LaSalle decided that the Marine's were going to board and, if possible, seize the ship. A docking bay under the main forward section of the ship, which could have fit at least three ships the size of the Rapier, was chosen in which to land.

Chris, Doda, and Steve had all headed back to the canteen. Doda was issuing orders to the Marines who were going to attempt to secure the Imperial ship. They were all gearing up into their combat gear and checking their weapons.

The seven pilots were also getting ready to go aboard. Paul slipped on his combat jacket and zipped it up. All ten pouches had clips of ammo in them and his rifle had a full magazine. Pulling back the cocking leaver, he made sure that a round was chambered and the rifle was ready to fire. He selected the triple fire and made sure the saftey was on. Using his shoulder strap, he slung the rifle onto his shoulder while he checked his DL-44. The power level was full. Picking up a satchel, Paul stuffed in some spare power packs for the DL-44 and some more clips of ammo for his rifle. Finally, he put four thermal detonators in the bag before slipping the strap over his head and letting the satchel rest on his left side.

Doda walked over to the small group. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Chris spoke up. "We didn't go on that three week course with you guys just to make our bio's look nice and pretty."

Paul looked at the other pilots. Chris and Hans were smiling, while the others all had determined looks on their faces. Then he looked back to Doda. "We're good to go."

"Ok, you guys will be going in with the second group. As soon as the Rapier touches down and the ramp drops, my group will go first. Then you guys with the second group. The third group will bring up the rear. Any questions?"

There were none. Doda wished them all good luck, then moved off to get his group ready. The pilots checked their equipment one last time before moving over to where the second group of Marines were waiting.

Steve came over to Paul and spoke to him in a low voice. "Paul I need to ask you something."

"Sure, go for it."

"I know that you've got more ground combat experience than me, so, if we get into a fire fight and it looks like I'm struggling or going to make a bad choice, take over. I've only been the XO for a short while now and I'm still finding my feet with this leadership role."

"Steve, first things first. This is the Jarheads' show. We're just guest along for the ride. So, most of the combat choices will be on them. Secondly, you'll be fine. Don't doubt yourself. You're the right choice for the XO job. And, finally, if it does come down to it, we look after each other out there; just like we do when we're in our fighters. So, no worries, mate. I got your back."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"Hey, I'd expect nothing less from you if the roles were reversed. Now, are you good to go?"

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Steve replied as he flicked off the safety on his E-11 Carbine.

Passing through the mag con force field, the Rapier entered the hanger. The gunners scanned the hanger looking for Imperials and detected none. As far as they could tell the hanger was deserted. The pilot of the Rapier started the landing sequence, slowly moving the ship to the right to set it down. Six lights on his console went from red to green, indicating all of the landing gear was correctly deployed and the ship was ready to land. A shock ran through the ship as the Rapier settled down on to the landing deck of the Harbinger. "Sensors indicate that there is a breathable atmosphere aboard the ship and radiation levels are well within the norm," reported a crewmember at the console.

Doda was at the front of his group at the top of the ramp when he felt the Rapier touch down. "Get ready!" he shouted to his group.

The ramp was at the front of the ship. When it lowered, Doda and his group charged down it onto the Harbingers deck. They went a good fifty meters before getting into a defensive pattern. Marines were either lying down flat on their stomachs or taking a kneeling position, sweeping the area. Doda looked over the hanger area. The hanger seemed well and truly deserted. He touched his headset. "Second group, move out."

The Marines and pilots from the second group stormed down the ramp into the enemy hanger. Once everyone was down, they also took up a defensive position, covering the first group as they advanced forward. The first group took their time moving up in groups of threes and fours. Once the first group had moved up to a set distance, Lieutenant Lohk'har used her headset. "Third group, go."

The last group of Marines ran down the ramp and took over the defensive position of the second group. Lieutenant Lohk'har, of the second group, led her group over to Captain Farr. Doda used his headset to talk to Captain Larringer. "There's no one here, Captain. The hanger is deserted; but, judging by the lighting levels, the ship is set to alert level." Doda listened to the Captain as she asked him some questions. "I'm going to take mine and Lieutenant Lohk'har's group to investigate the ship. Third group will be staying behind to keep this area secure in case we have to come back here in a hurry." Again, Doda listened to Captain Larringer before replying. "Thank you, Ma'am. Doda out."

Doda motioned Sergeant Ruhr over. "Sergeant, your group will be staying here to provide cover for us if we have to get back under fire. Set up a perimeter and some E-webs just in case."

"Aye aye, sir." Sergeant Ruhr saluted and went back to his group to issue the orders to his Marines.

While all this was going on, Jamie was speaking to Deanna. "Man, this is kind of spooky. A big ship like this…deserted. I wonder what happened to the crew?"

"What, you think we're on some kind of ghost ship?" Deanna switched on her glow lamp, put it under her chin, and started making spooky noises.

"Don't be daft. I'm just saying it's eerie and it creeps me out a little."

Steve noticed the pair. "Knock it off you two. Keep focussed. You'll have plenty of time to goof off when we get back to the Star."

Doda ordered the groups to continue moving up the hanger towards the main corridor. The corridor could be seen in the distance. By the looks of it you could get two AT-ST's side by side in it with room to spare. It took almost ten minutes to get to the other side of the hangar.

At the entrance to the corridor, one of the Marines was checking around the side of some storage crates. As he rounded the corner, he noticed a boot lying on the floor. He held up his left hand and clenched his fist. At the signal, everyone dropped down to a kneeling position with their weapons ready. With three other Marines, he slowly crept forward; his rifle ready, as he advanced forward. He could see that the boot was attached to a leg and the leg was attached to a body.

There were five bodies lying on the floor. Judging by the burn marks on their uniforms, all of them had been shot several times. Also, all of them had been shot in the head at least once. As the Marine continued forward, he noticed a body propped up against one of the storage crates. It was an Imperial Officer. The Officers uniform was covered in blood from a wound from the right side of his neck. A blaster was lying next to the Officers left hand. The young Marine moved towards the officer, using his right foot kicking the blaster back and away from the Imperial. The man looked dead, but the Marine still leaned in to check for a pulse on the left side of the Imperials neck. With two fingers pressed on the neck, the Marine confirmed his suspicions. The man was indeed dead.

He turned around to tell his three colleagues. As the Marine was looking the other, he missed the Imperials eyes opening. The Officer lunged forward snarling and bit deep into the Marines throat. The Marine started screaming while the Officer once again bit into his throat. The other Marines rushed forward to help their friend. One grabbed the Imperial and pulled him off the injured Marine. The Imperial Officer turned his attention to him and bit his arm. As the other Marine joined the fray, he received a large scratch from the officer on his face as the Imperial lashed out. The fourth Marine aimed his rifle at the Officers chest and fired twice. The Imperial was slammed back into the storage crates and slid down to the ground leaving a bloody smear down the crate. The Marine that had done the shooting started to relax his aim when the Imperial started to move again, starting to get up. The Marine aimed for the Officers head and squeezed the trigger. The laser bolt hit the Imperial right between the eyes and burned right through his skull. This time, the Officer stayed down.

The Marine that had been bitten on the throat was coughing up blood. Drake, the Marine who had his face scratched was now frantically trying to apply a dressing to the wound to stop the bleeding. "I need a medic over here, NOW!"

A medic ran forward along with Doda. As the medic got to work on the injured Marine, Doda asked what happened.

"Vann was checking that Imps pulse, the guy looked dead, but when Vann looked away he attacked him. Took a chunk right out of his neck, he bit Moyer and scratched Drake before I blasted him. I put two bolts into him, centre mass but the bastard started to get back up so I head shot him."

The medic called Doda over. "Sir we need to get this man back to the ship I can't help him here."

"Do it, take these three back with you, and get them treated as well."

"Aye aye sir." The medic took off his backpack and took out a folded up stretcher, with the help of the other Marines the stretcher was made ready and Vann was loaded on to it. As soon as Vann was secure they set off back to the Rapier as fast as they could.

Doda was taking the scene before him in when Hans came over to him. "What happened?"

Doda explained what had just happened with the Marines and the Imperial. "As far as I can make out with this lot however; the Imp Officer was the one that shot those five after they attacked him, the same way that Vann was attacked, bitten."

"Bitten?"

"Yeah, I'm still trying to get my head around it as well." Doda signalled for the two groups to move out once more; Hans went back to the group of pilots and in a low voice told them what had happened. The groups reached the corridor with no further incidents. Moving cautiously down the corridor and well spaced out in case of an ambush they got to the end of the corridor in a few minutes. The corridor end at a T-junction, Doda called up Lieutenant Lohk'har. "Ok two corridors, two groups; you know where I'm going with this, which one do you want?"

"I'll stick with the tried and tested sir, left hand rule."

Doda nodded. "Ok group one, we're going down the right hand corridor, group two you're going left, good luck. Lieutenant, report in every fifteen minutes."

"Aye aye sir." Lohk'har saluted, and then waved her group to start moving down the left corridor.

Returning the salute Doda and his group proceeded down the right corridor. As Hans and the other pilots walked by Doda, spoke to him. "Stay safe and watch your back ship mate."

"You to, see you on the flip side buddy."

Chapter Seven

[Medical bay onboard the Rapier]

"Damn it, why won't he stabilize?" The medic who had brought Vann and his fellow Marines back to the Rapier was working frantically on the injured Marine. Vann was still bleeding heavily from his neck wound and thrashing around on the exam table. "Hold him down damn it." Drake and Walker held down their injured friend while the medic applied a new bacta dressing to Vann's throat. Moyer dropped the dressing he was applying to his arm and went over to help; he grabbed hold of Vann's legs and tried to keep them steady.

The medic carried on trying to stabilize Vann for several more minutes. "It's no good, I'm going to loose him. All I can do now is make him as comfortable as possible." The pain and anger in the medic's voice was obvious to the other Marines. As the medic injected Vann with the pain meds, the wounded Marine seemed to relax, soon the medic signalled the others that they could let go of him.

Leaving Vann to die in peace, the medic went over to the comm panel at the wall; pressing it, he called the Captain. "Ma'am, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do for Vann, I've made him as comfortable as possible, but it's just a matter of time now."

"You did the best you could Doc, I'll let Captain Farr know. Bridge out."

The medic walked away from the comm panel and picked up a spray from the table, he beckoned Drake over to him. When Drake came over to him, the medic sprayed his scratches. "This will seal the wound and stop infection. Moyer, as soon as I've dressed that wound for you, the three of you can go out and join third group with defending the Rapier. I'll stay with Vann until he's gone."

A few minutes later, the three Marines had left the sick bay leaving the medic with Vann. Vann's breathing was now becoming very shallow; the medic had to look very hard to see the rise and fall of Vann's chest. "Won't be long now, it'll soon be over."

The machine that was monitoring Vann's heart started to sound an alarm. The medic reached over and turned it off, Vann was dead. Taking a sheet from an overhead locker, the medic covered Vann's body. Then he made a note of the time of death on a data pad, which he flung on to a table when he was done. The medic looked down at his hands, they were covered in Vann's blood, sighing he walked over to the sink. He let the warm water run over his hands for a while before starting to clean them. It was while the water was running that he missed the sound of the blanket sliding off Vann's body and falling to the floor. It wasn't a sound that alerted the medic that something was wrong; it was a feeling that he was no longer alone in the med bay. He turned around and there stood before him was Vann. "What the fu….."

Drake, Moyer and Walker stood away from most of the other Marines in group three. They had been talking about the events that had gotten their friend killed. It had been a good thirty minutes since they left the med bay and joined group three. During that time Walker had noticed that Moyer had started to look off colour, at first Moyer had put it down to the shock of what had happened earlier and that he was fine. Walker looked at his friend, Moyer wasn't getting any better, in fact, he was getting worse, and his skin was almost taking on a greyish shade. "Moyer, you need to go back to the med bay, you look terrible."

"I think you're right, I don't feel too good, I'll go see if Doc can fix me up with something."

Drake rubbed at his face where he had been scratched. "I'll come with you; this scratch doesn't feel any better either."

"Ok, I'll see you guys soon." Walker watched the pair walk back to the ship and up the boarding ramp.

Drake and Moyer went down the corridor that would take them to the med bay, Moyer was looking really sick under the ships bright white lights. "Almost there, Doc will soon have you feeling right again." Moyer gave him a weak smile. They reached the med bay, pressing the door open button the door slid open and the pair both went in. It was only as the door closed behind them that Drake noticed the blood on the floor near the sink. Looking about the place, he didn't see the medic anywhere. He couldn't see Vann's body on the exam table either. "Wait here." Drake left Moyer near the door and followed the blood trail. It led round a corner.

As Drake went looking for the medic, Moyer leaned back against the wall and lowered himself to the floor, as he was really feeling bad now. He lost sight of Drake as he went down to the floor.

Drake went round the corner, stood looking at the wall was the medic, but he wasn't alone there was someone else with him. Drake couldn't be sure but from the back, it looked like Vann. "Doc? Vann?"

The two figures turned towards the source of the noise. Drake recognised them both straight away, one was Vann the other the medic. However, it was the medic that Drake couldn't take his eyes off. It looked like half of the left side of his face had been ripped off. Before Drake could even react, he was being attacked. Drake was knocked to the floor by both of them. He smacked his head off the floor, knocking him out.

Over where Moyer lay against the wall, he heard sounds of snarling and tearing. In a weak voice, he called out. "Drake, you ok? Have you found Doc?" There was no reply. Moyer called out again, this time as loud as he could. The noises stopped for a moment, and then Moyer heard shuffling. The noise was coming towards him. Moyer looked up, Vann was walking towards him, and his face was covered in blood, which dripped from his chin. Moyer started reaching for his blaster. Vann dived at Moyer and grabbed hold of him. The last thing Moyer felt before he lost consciousness was Vann's teeth tearing into his flesh.

Walker was getting anxious; Drake and Moyer had been gone a long time now. He went over to see Sergeant Ruhr. "Excuse me Sergeant, I'd like to go back onboard and check on how my friends are doing, they went to the med bay some time ago."

"Sure thing, there's nothing happening here anyway, so take your time, but be ready to get back out here in a hurry though just in case."

Walker saluted then turned and headed to the Rapier's boarding ramp. Captain Larringer was heading down the ramp to go and speak with Sergeant Ruhr, Walker stood to attention and saluted her as she went by, LaSalle returned the salute and carried on down to speak to Ruhr. Making his way to medical he passed two of the ships crew going the opposite way, they nodded towards him and Walker replied with a nod of his own. He got to the med bay and pressed the button to open the door. The door slid open and Walker was slammed into the wall. Walker managed to shout out for help. The two crewmembers that had passed him by came running back to help, trying to drag off the person that had attacked Walker. As the two crewmembers struggled to help Walker, they were also attacked. Walker never managed to get his attacker off him and died without ever knowing whom or what had attacked him.

Captain Larringer had been talking to Sergeant Ruhr for a while when one of her crew came running down the ramp. The crewmember was bleeding from several places, but the worst was her left hand, which was missing, the wound was pumping out blood. The injured woman ran towards her Captain but collapsed half way there. LaSalle, Ruhr, and several Marines ran over to the injured woman. LaSalle knelt down and cradled the woman in her arms. "What happened?"

The injured crewmember tried to focus on her Captain. "T-t-they've gone mad. A-a-a-attacking anyone, everyone."

LaSalle heard Ruhr shouting for a medic. "Who's gone mad, who's attacking everyone?"

"C-c-crew is."

The medic came rushing over, pushed LaSalle out of the way, and got to work on the injured woman. LaSalle stood up, her uniform was soaked in her crewmembers' blood, and she could feel the warm and sticky liquid soaking through onto her skin. "I want a ten man team to come in with me and to find out what the hell is going on."

Ruhr un-slung his blaster rifle from his shoulder. "You Marines to me." A group of Marines came running over to Ruhr. "Captain, I'll lead the team aboard, you need to stay here." LaSalle started to object but Ruhr didn't give her a chance to say much. "Ma'am you're needed here, that's all there is to it." Ruhr turned to his team. "Let's go." The Marines went up the boarding ramp with their weapons held ready.

LaSalle was watching the team proceed up the ramp; Ruhr had reached the top of the ramp when something out of sight of LaSalle caught his attention. Ruhr quickly turned and fired at the unseen attacker before moving out of LaSalle's sight. The other Marines followed Ruhr into the ship; again, there was more blaster fire. LaSalle looked on as the last Marine went into her ship and disappeared from sight. Beside her LaSalle was aware of the medic treating her injured crew member, it wasn't looking good as the woman had appeared to lost a lot of blood already and her skin was already taking on a pale greyish tinge. LaSalle was brought back to events when her comm unit beeped; she picked it up and thumbed it on. "Report."

"We've made it to the bridge." It was Sergeant Ruhr. "The crew is attacking everyone in sight; they've gone mad I've lost four men already getting here." The report was interrupted by blaster fire; LaSalle could see the flashes through the main bridge window. "It's no good there's too many of them and they won't stay down."

"Sergeant, say again. You're not making sense."

There was no reply; LaSalle looked up to the window again, there were more flashes, this time for longer.

"Get out of here Captain, before it's ..."

LaSalle couldn't make out anymore of the report, all that was coming across the airwaves now was snarling. She tried to reach Sergeant Ruhr again. As she was shouting into the comm unit, the bridge was engulfed in a huge explosion. The main bridge window shattered then blew out letting a fireball escape from the bridge.

Un-noticed by the medic that was treating her, the crewmember that had escaped the Rapier took one final strained breath, and then died.

LaSalle and the remainder of group three looked up as flames licked out of the window and black smoke rose into the hanger. The medic that had been treating the injured crewmember screamed out in pain. LaSalle spun round to see the wounded woman biting the arm of the medic. The medic using his other arm smashed his fist into the side of the woman's face making her let go. Holding his injured arm the medic backed away from his attacker. The woman, snarling and lashing out, jumped up and ran at the medic. A laser bolt hit her in the mid section and sent her sprawling to the floor. Captain Larringer kept her laser pistol aimed towards the woman she had just shot who was still thrashing about on the floor. The crewmember got to her feet this time looking straight at Captain Larringer, her lips peeled back as a feral snarl sounded from her. LaSalle squeezed the trigger and the laser bolt hit the woman in the head, snapping it backwards and sending her once more to the floor. She didn't move again. Before LaSalle had a chance to speak, crew that were behaving like the woman she had just shot came running down the ramp. One of the attacking crew had most of his stomach ripped open, another the left side of his face had been torn off, a Marine who's right arm was totally engulfed in flames was also charging towards her with others following. It was an image that LaSalle would take to her grave. She raised her laser towards the closest target and squeezed the trigger; as the laser bolt hit; LaSalle shouted as loud as she could. "OPEN FIRE!"

Chapter Eight

[Group two]

The Marines and pilots had proceeded down the left corridor for some time. So far, they hadn't encountered anything out of the ordinary. The few rooms they had gone by had been searched and secured but nothing of any importance had been found. The lighting in the corridor was dim and it was hard to see what lay ahead. Steve held his E-11 blaster carbine in his right hand and scratched at the stubble on his chin with his other hand. Looking over his shoulder, he looked back down the corridor they had come, the end no longer visible due to the low lighting of the corridor. He turned to Paul who was slightly ahead of him and spoke in a quiet voice to him. "This doesn't feel right, where is everyone?"

Before Paul could answer a Marine that was on point signalled for the rest of the group to stop. Everyone went down onto one knee and held their weapon ready. Lieutenant Lohk'har moved silently up to the Marines position to speak with him. After a brief conversation, she signalled for the Marine and his group to move out. Signalling for another group to come forward to her position Paul watched as the next team received a quick briefing from the Lieutenant and then moved out. Another room had been discovered and the team of eight Marines were preparing to enter it. The Marine closest to the door panel pressed the door opening button, the door slid open and the light from the room illuminated that section of the corridor. The Marines quietly went into the room and a minute later one came out to signal the room was clear. Lohk'har went into the room while the rest of the group stood up from their kneeling position. Paul walked over to the doorway and looked in, it was similar to the other rooms that they had passed but Lohk'har was busy typing at a consolee, so far all the other consolees had been offline this one however still appeared to be working. Paul entered the room and went over to Lieutenant. "Find anything useful?"

"I've managed to download the ships schematics to my data pad and now know our location, but apart from that there's nothing here to tell us what's gone on onboard. Excuse me a minute, I'm going to send the schematic to Captain Farr." Lohk'har touched her head set. "Captain Farr, this Lohk'har, over."

"Go ahead Lieutenant."

"Sir I've managed to get a copy of the Harbingers schematics, I thought that you could do with a set for your group."

"Nice going Lohk'har send it over."

"Aye sir, sending now." Lohk'har keyed in some instructions to her data pad. She watched the meter on the display indicating transfer progress, several seconds later the transfer was complete. "That's all of it sir. Nothing much to report from this end. Looking at my map, I've got a set of sealed blast doors up ahead; I'll try to get through them. I'll contact you once we're through, Lohk'har out." Lohk'har tapped her headset once and the connection was broke.

Paul went over to the consolee; he scanned through some of the menus that were accessible, all of them were the standard ones that anybody could use, everything else was secure. Paul headed back to the door; he spotted Steve and waved him over. "Steve, I remember you once saying that you had some basic slicing skills, could you have a go at getting into that consolee there and see if you can find out anything for us?"

"I'll give it a shot, but no promises I'll have any luck." Steve un-slung his backpack and took out a data pad. Using a data link cable he plugged his data pad into the terminal. He typed in a few commands into his data pad and then watched the information that scrolled down his screen. "Ok link established; I'll need a few minutes to see what I'm up against."

Paul nodded and moved over to where Lieutenant Lohk'har was standing. "I've asked Major Michadick to see if he can slice into the consolee and get any info for us."

"I didn't know he was a slicer."

"He's not, well not really, he's got some skills so I thought I might as well ask him if he could have a go at it, you never know, we may get lucky."

Lohk'har smiled. "You never know, he may indeed." Lohk'har held up her data pad so that Paul could see it, it showed the groups current location. "Ok, I'm going to take most of the team with me to see if we can get these blast doors open while Major Michadick tries to access the system. I'll leave you pilots and four Marines here and you can catch up when you're done. Any trouble, give me a shout and we'll be right back, ok?"

"No worries."

Lohk'har signalled the rest of the pilots to go into the room along with four Marines. Lohk'har and the rest of the Marines then all headed off towards the blast doors.

The Marines took up a defensive position just inside the door while the other pilots spread out in the room itself. Hans came over to where Paul and Steve were. "Any luck?"

Steve answered without looking away from his data pads screen. "Nothing yet, but I'm not beat just yet."

Paul spoke to Hans. "So is it good being back with a Marine unit and being deployed as well?"

"Yes sir it is. It's almost as good as being out there in my B-wing, almost. But being a zoomie does have its advantages." Zoomies was the name that the Marines gave to pilots. As they said, they zoom in and zoom out, leaving all the hard work to the ground troops.

"Hey I've found something." Steve was scrolling through information on his data pad. "Most of it is pretty basic stuff, but you might find this interesting, all of the Harbingers escape capsules are in place, not a single one had been used. Check this out, the Captain has initiated a ship wide lockdown. I've queried as to why and all I got back was one word, Genesis."

"Genesis, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hans responded to Paul's question. "From what I know it can mean a few things, but what I know it to mean to me is Creation, Evolution and the origin of Evil."

"Same here." Steve replied.

"Did you get anything else Steve like crew size, how many Storm troopers are onboard that sort of thing?"

"Hold on." Steve pressed some more keys and a few seconds later, he looked up. "You're not going to like this but the crew compliment is just over forty thousand personnel. It doesn't say how many of those are Stormtroopers though."

Jamie whistled softly. "Damn that's a lot of Imps."

"Ok I'll pass it on to Lohk'har. Everyone get ready to move out and rejoin the main group." Steve touched his head set and passed on the details to the Lieutenant. After he had finished his report he touched the head set again to break contact. "Ok Lohk'har and the group are at the blast doors, they should have them open by the time we get there. Let's go."

The pilots and Marines moved out of the room and headed down the corridor towards the blast doors. The small group soon rejoined the main group. A Marine had the door control panel off and was fiddling with the door circuitry.

The Marine looked back to Lohk'har. "You ready Lieutenant?"

"Do it."

The Marine removed a chip from the panel and slotted it into an empty slot. Gears and mechanisms could be heard moving, the door was opening. The corridor was wide enough to give everyone a decent field of fire. The Marines and pilots held their weapons ready. The doors opened revealing another corridor; this one however was completely dark. Paul removed the small glow lamp from his combat jacket and attached it to his rifle. Turning the lamp on, he swept the beam of light down the dark corridor. Several other lamps were also turned on and shone into the corridor.

"Looks like we've found the main access to the ship, I'll tell Captain Farr." Lohk'har made the report of the new findings to Doda. His group had also managed to get the blast doors open that they had come across and were now proceeding into the ship.

The group headed down the corridor for several minutes before it opened up into a large area. Here there was some light so everyone turned off their glow lamps. It was in the light that they spotted the bodies. There was dozens of them, some of them in bits of Stormtrooper armour others just in normal uniform. Most of the bodies had signs of close quarters combat there was blood all over the place. On closer inspection, it became apparent that all of the dead Imperials had been shot, most more than once. As far as Paul could see all of the dead Imperials had head shot wounds, his mind flashed back to the incident in the main hanger, Hans had told them about the dead Imperials how all but the Officer had been shot in the head. Paul's attention was drawn to a technicians body; the man had only a slight wound on his left leg but it looked as if the man had committed suicide, the E-11 was still in his hand and there was an exit wound at the back of the mans head.

Lieutenant Lohk'har reported to Captain Farr on the grisly discovery and requested instructions on how to proceed. While Lohk'har was talking, Chris and Jamie found some more bodies leading down a sub corridor. It seemed that what ever happened had gone down this corridor. Part of the corridor was damaged; it looked like an explosion had destroyed a section leaving a hole in the floor. Chris leaned over and looked into the hole; sure enough, it dropped down to the level below.

"Just what the hell is going on here?" Chelsey seemed to have voiced what most of the group was thinking.

Steve looked around the area again taking in everything. "It's a shame these Imps can't tell us anything."

Paul pointed the technician's body. "This one's is telling me plenty. He's saying that he's terrified of something and would rather kill himself than face whatever it was that happened here."

Lohk'har finished speaking to Doda and spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone. "Captain Farr is asking us to proceed and see if we can learn anything as to what happened here. Major Layne, did you notice if we could still get across that damaged section?"

"If we're careful and go one at a time on the right hand side I think we'll be able to manage it."

"Ok, that's what we're going to do and see where it takes us, let's go."

The group made there way across the damaged section of flooring to the other side. They followed the corridor to its end. It lead into a large room, it looked like a briefing room back on the Morning Star but about five times bigger. There were bodies in this room as well, all seemed to be heading for a door in the top right hand corner of the room. The green light on the panel indicated that the door wasn't locked and still working. There also seemed to be another door at the bottom right of the room, but as there were no bodies in that direction, the group headed towards the top one. A Marine went over to the panel and after getting the signal to proceed pressed the door open button. The doors slid open and things that had once been human beings burst into the room.

Chapter Nine

The Marine that had opened the door went down straight away underneath a wave of snarling and bloody Imperials; he never even got a chance to fight back before he was completely overwhelmed. More Imperials were surging into the room, their attention on the Marines and pilots. Without even waiting for the order to fire, Paul raised his rifle and fired at the first Imperial on which he cantered his sights. The triple burst hit the Imperial high in his chest one of the bullets hitting the rank markings. The man was knocked off his feet into the Imperial directly behind him. Paul switched his aim to another Imperial and fired.

The Marines and pilots reacted to the weapons fire and soon everyone was shooting the Imperials. The first lot that had burst through the door were quickly cut down but more and more Imperials came through the door trampling over the bodies of the ones that had just been shot.

Paul shot another Imperial sending this one sprawling to the floor, switching to his next target he was surprised to see that it was the first Imperial he had shot was now up and coming at him again. The three bullet holes in the chest and the one in the rank markings confirmed it was him. Paul squeezed the trigger again sending another burst into the Imperial; again hitting him dead centre and once more sending the man crashing down to the floor, but the Imperial wasn't staying down and already getting back up.

There was a scream from a Marine as she was overpowered by her attackers; Hans blasted two of the Imperials that were attacking her allowing her to fight off the others and pick up her blaster and get back into the fight.

There didn't seem to be an end to the Imperials pouring in through the door. Ever so slowly, the Marines and pilots were being forced back.

Shooting another attacker Paul was once more under attack from the Imperial he had shot on two occasions. Paul muttered to himself. "Son of a bitch doesn't know when he's supposed to stay down!" It was as he was taking aim again that he remembered the dead Imperials from before and switched his aim to the Imperials head. The bullets blew the back of Imperials head off, spraying grey matter over the others behind him. "Now stay down!" The Imperial didn't move again. Paul shot several others too make sure that he was right in his assumption. He was, these ones stayed down as well. Paul shouted as loud as he could to be heard over the weapons fire. "HEADSHOTS! YOU HAVE TO SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD TO KILL THEM!" To put his point across Paul shot an Imperial in the head and then another.

The rest of the group got the message and soon everyone was going for headshots. This seemed to help the group's situation as the number of attackers in the room was steadily reduced; however, there still seemed an endless supply of Imperials coming through the door.

Steve was close to Paul's position and had just blasted another Imperial, he noticed that Paul seemed to be saying something as he was shooting but couldn't hear him because of all the weapons fire. A snarling Imperial that was lunging at him drew his attention back to the battle; Steve swung his E-11 towards the Imperial and let loose a stream of blaster bolts hitting his attacker in the head.

Paul ejected the spent ammo clip from the rifle and reached into his satchel to get a fresh clip. His hand touched one of the four thermal detonators that were also in there, he scooped that out instead. Priming the grenade, he hefted back his arm and threw it into the corridor where all the Imperials were coming from. "GRENADE!" The grenade sailed past the heads of the Imperials and into the corridor. The grenade hit an Imperial on his head and bounced down to the floor. The man it had hit didn't even stop to see what had hit him and carried on surging forward trying to get into the room with the Marines and pilots. The explosion of the grenade seemed more powerful than normal; this was due to it going off in an enclosed space. The Imperials in the immediate vicinity of the grenade were more or less disintegrated by the explosion. Those just beyond received massive shrapnel wounds and had limbs blown off a few were even set on fire. Before the explosion had even passed, Paul had inserted a fresh mag and chambered a round. Shouting to be heard above the noise Paul issued an order. "SEAL THE DOORS!"

A Marine ran forward and hit the button to close the doors. Almost tripping on the bodies as he went, he reached the door panel and pressed the button. The doors started to close straight away.

Jamie got several shots off down the corridor at the Imperials that had picked themselves up and were once again coming to attack.

The doors shut with a reassuring clang. "Lock it, I don't want those things getting in" Lohk'har ordered.

Before she could say anything else, Chris swore. "Oh shit! Contact rear!" Chris pointed to the door where the group had entered the room and down the corridor, there were more Imperials coming at them. He raised his rifle and started shooting down the corridor.

"SECURE THAT DOOR." Lohk'har shouted.

Deanna ran over to the panel while the others laid down covering fire. She hit the button to close the door, nothing happened. She hit it again, this time, harder. Again, nothing happened. This time she pounded on the button but it was to no avail the door remained open. "The door's fragged!"

"Over ride it."

"I can't, I don't know how."

"I'm on it." Hans ran forward to Deanna's position. When he got there, he used the butt of his E-11 to smash the panel cover off. "Cover me."

"Copy." Deanna took up position by the door and started firing.

Ripping out wires from the panel Hans picked the two that he needed, he got the exposed ends together and wrapped them around each other. There was a shower of sparks and smoke from the panel. The doors started to close. Deanna and Hans backed away from the door while the others covered them.

The sound that the door made when it finally closed was the best sound she had heard all day, Chelsey thought.

From the doors that they had just closed, came the sound of moaning and groaning and every now and then, something would pound on the doors, this was also the case at the top doors as well. Jamie pointed his rifle towards the door at the bottom; it was still closed and silent. He ejected the power clip from his E-11 and put a fresh one in. Most people in the room were also doing the same thing.

"Anyone want to tell me what the hell just happened and what's going on here?" Chris asked.

Nobody said anything; they didn't get a chance to. The Marine that had been attacked and killed at the door when he opened it got up off the floor. His uniform was torn, ripped, and covered in blood. It looked like part of his chest had been ripped open and his insides torn out; his right eye was missing, all that was there was a bloody empty socket. Lohk'har's face seemed to drain of colour. "Kline?"

Kline's one eye focussed in on Lohk'har. He let loose a snarl, like the Imperials had done when they attacked, and ran at Lohk'har. He took several steps before the bullets from Paul's rifle struck. The bullets went straight through his head and hit the wall on the other side. The Marine collapsed to the floor and blood started to pool around his head.

The room was silent again. Paul lowered his rifle and looked at everyone; everybody seemed to be trying to make sense of the situation. Taking a swig of water from his canteen Paul cleared his throat. "I've got an idea of what's going on here, but you're not going to like it!"

There was a loud bang on the doors as something tried to get in to the room.

Lohk'har turned away from Kline's body and looked over to where Paul was standing. "Major if you think you can explain this!" She swept her hand over to where all the bodies were piled near the doors.

"Ok here's what I think we're dealing with. Un-dead or for a better word, Zombies."

Steve was the first person to speak. "That's not possible is it?"

Lohk'har snorted. "Major that's Bantha dung."

"Really, then you want to explain to me how Kline was able to get up and go after you after he was dead? Or how about how someone can take over half a dozen shots the chest and still get up like nothing has happened?"

"I can't. But it doesn't make them zombies either."

"Maybe not but I sure as hell can't think of a better word to describe what's going on here, I said you wouldn't like what I had to say but that's my best guess. How all this happened I've no idea but it has and now we're caught up in it."

Lohk'har seemed as if she was going to object again but instead placed her right hand up to her head set and pressed it against her ear so that she could hear.

"You're serious aren't you?" Chelsey asked.

"I wish I wasn't but it's all starting to make sense with what we've seen so far. Those Imps we shot, they've been dead for a while, days even; not when blasted them."

The pounding on the doors seemed to grow louder as did the moaning. Paul tightened the grip on his rifle.

Chapter Ten

The bridge of the Rapier was burning fiercely now as the fire started to spread through the rest of the ship. LaSalle and the remains of third group didn't have time to notice any of this though as they were still under attack by the crewmembers. LaSalle ejected the spent energy clip from here laser and slapped in a fresh one, she shot an attacking crewmember in the chest and the man went down hard onto the ground. The man scrambled back onto his feet and began running at LaSalle once more. LaSalle used both hands to steady her aim as the man charged at her, the shot hit just under his left eye leaving a scorch mark where the laser bolt had burned through his face. The crewmember went face first into the metal deck and stopped moving.

A Marine on an E-Web was pouring fire up the boarding ramp blasting the attacking crewmembers still trying to get off the ship. The ones that had gotten off were being dealt with by Captain Larringer and the Marines. LaSalle had realised that the only way to kill the attacking crew was by shots to the head; once she had passed on this information to the Marines, they made short work of the crew. Several minutes later it was all over, all that could be heard was the crackling of the fire as the Rapier burned. Getting the comm unit from here pocket, LaSalle spoke into it. "Larringer to Captain Farr and Lieutenant Lohk'har, respond over."

"Farr here Captain, go ahead."

"Lieutenant Lohk'har, respond immediately. Over." There was no reply from Lohk'har.

"Captain, I spoke to the Lieutenant about ten minutes ago. Her group managed to gain access to the main ship area and was searching. Is everything alright?"

"Negative Captain, everything is far from alright, we've been attacked and the Rapier has been destroyed." LaSalle gave a brief run down to Doda of what had happened. After several minutes, LaSalle had finished her report to Doda.

"Captain I'm having trouble accepting what you've just told me."

"You're not the only one trust me."

Before either Doda or LaSalle could continue, talking both of their comm units beeped indicating that someone else had joined the channel. "I repeat; this is Lieutenant Lohk'har to Captains Larringer and Farr, please come in."

LaSalle spoke first. "Lohk'har where the hell have you been, why didn't you respond?"

"We were attacked, we've got one Marine KIA and a few others wounded." Lohk'har gave a brief account of what had just happened to her group. "Major Sweet also has a theory, it's not one that I share but so far I've got nothing else to go on."

Paul came on to the channel and told them his theory. Doda was as sceptical as Lohk'har was, but Captain Larringer accepted what Paul told her.

"Well major you certainly right about one thing anyway; head shots are the only way to stop them. Captain Farr, myself and group three will come to your location. When we join up we'll then see what we can do about getting group two to us and getting the hell off this ship."

It was as LaSalle was stating her intentions that Paul suddenly remembered that the blast doors they had opened to gain access to this part of the ship were still open. "Hell's teeth, Captain you got a problem. The blast doors we came through are still open and those things could be heading in your direction!"

"Roger that, we're moving out now." LaSalle motioned for the group to form up and set off at a fast jog towards large corridor.

Doda got back in on the conversation. "Captain, half my group and I will meet you at the T-junction and escort you back to our current location, I'll get the rest of the group to set up defensive positions."

"Copy that Captain, see you there."

As LaSalle and her group moved out there was an explosion from the Rapier, the fire had reached something critical. LaSalle took one last look at her stricken ship as it was consumed by the fire. She prayed that there was no one still left alive onboard. There was nothing that could be done to help them now. LaSalle picked up the pace, the sooner she was away from the Rapier, the better.

Chapter Eleven

Deanna had just finished dressing the wounds on the four Marines that had been injured during the attack. The worst had been to Vicki, apart from numerous scratches one of her attackers had managed to take a chunk of flesh from her left wrist. Deanna had to use several dressings to stop the bleeding before bandaging the wound.

Lohk'har had ordered several Marines to search the bodies of the dead Imperials to see if anything important could be found. During the search, an Imperial started to move again, but the Marines quickly dealt with him. Nothing of importance was located during the search apart from a few energy packs for E-11 blaster rifles so these were taken. Klein's equipment was also taken and distributed amongst the group; his body was now covered with his Ghillie Poncho and his rifle lying on top of him. His corpse had been moved away from the main group of bodies.

"We need to get out of here and meet up with Captains Larringer and Farr." Lohk'har was speaking to Chelsey and Paul. "Looking at the schematics we can make our way back to where Captain Farr has set up his defensive positions." Lohk'har used her finger to indicate the route she wanted to take.

Chelsey looked at the route that Lohk'har had suggested. "We've got no idea if that corridor is clear, there could be more Zomb… I mean Imperials down it for all we know."

Paul un-slung his rifle from his shoulder and flicked off the safety. "Well I guess we'll know when we take a look at what's behind door number three then."

Everyone got ready in defensive firing position, ready for when the door was opened. The Marine by the door panel had been told to be ready to shut the doors straight away if there was anything waiting on the other side for them. He got a nod from Lohk'har and pressed the button to open the doors, his hand quickly darting down to the door close button. The doors slid apart revealing an empty corridor. Steve let out a slight breath of relief.

Using hand signals to keep everything as quiet as possible Lohk'har motioned for everyone to move out. The first few Marines through the door had the weapons held ready and were sweeping their weapons up and down and across the corridor ready for any attack.

The group moved silently down the corridor and hopefully away from their attackers. Paul felt sweat prickling on his brow and trickling down his back, looking around he saw those around him were also in a similar state as he was. He noticed that Vicki seemed to be sweating more than most but put this down to the injury she had received.

The corridor led to a junction, Lohk'har looked at her data pad and motioned for everyone to carry on into the room directly ahead. Once through the doorway, the room opened up into a viewing room, which looked out onto a large factory workstation. The factory workstation was twenty meters below the viewing room; it looked like whoever was in charge of workstation managed from up here. The workstation itself was huge stretching out for at least two hundred and fifty meters. It wasn't this that made everyone stop and look. It was the fact that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Zombies in the factory area.

The Zombies seemed focused on two large doors; dozens of them were pounding on the doors trying to get through them. One of the Zombies stood out from the rest; this was because it was a large Trandoshan in the remains of an orange jumpsuit. The Trandoshan was clawing away at the door seemingly just as determined to get through as the others.

Chris looked over to Lohk'har. "Please tell me we don't have to go through them, because if we do we're well and truly screwed!"

"No, we keep on going this way towards Captain Farr's group." Lohk'har signalled everyone to get ready to move out again.

"Hang fire a moment." Paul was still looking out on to the factory floor at the Zombies pounding on the doors. "There are people down there, behind those doors."

"So what?"

"So by the way those Zombies are behaving the people in that other room could still be alive."

"Again, so what? Major I don't give a damn if Ice Heart herself is behind those doors, we're going on."

"Lieutenant, in case you may have forgot; we haven't got a ship to get off Harbinger anymore and if there is someone alive down there, they might be able to help us get the hell off this ship!"

"I am not willing to risk any of my Marines to rescue Imperials."

"You won't have to, I'm volunteering to go. What I need you to do is have a look on the schematics if there's any other way into that room."

Lohk'har looked to Steve for support. "Major Michadick, he's your man, you tell him."

"Sorry Lieutenant, but I think he's right, any help, even Imperial help to get us off this ship and we should take it."

"Fine!" Lohk'har pressed some keys on her data pad and enlarged the section to which Paul referred. "It's a sealed room, only those doors can get you into the place."

Paul was looking over Lohk'har's shoulder at her data pad and room in question. The schematics said the room was a testing room, for what though it didn't say. "Look there's my way in, there's an air conduit that runs above the ceiling, and it says there's a ventilation shaft in the room. See if you find a way into the shaft for me."

Lohk'har scanned the schematic until she found what Paul was looking for. "You can gain access to the system from this room here." Lohk'har pointed with her finger to a room not far away from their current location. "Just to make myself clear on this point major I'm not happy at all with your decision."

"So noted Lieutenant. If we make it out of here, you can make a formal complaint. However in the mean time I suggest you wait for me there." Paul pointed to a room that was next to the one he would be using to get into the air conduit. "I need two volunteers to go with me to guard the room while I'm in the vent."

Hans came over to Paul and said he would be prepared to go with him; Steve also volunteered to go as well. As the trio set off, Paul noticed a length on knotted rope across a Marine. "Excuse me corporal, I'm taking your rope." The Marine gave Paul the rope after Lohk'har signalled him to give it to the pilot. "Thanks." Paul slung the rope over his shoulder and headed out of the viewing room.

The three pilots headed silently towards the room that would allow Paul access to the air conduit while Lohk'har and the others would set off in a few minutes.

Hans pressed the button to open the door. The door slid open revealing a storage room. In the top right of the room was a panel covering the air conduit. Once all three men were inside Hans closed the door and locked it. "Ready."

Standing on storage crates Paul and Steve got to work with their vibro knives on the securing pins of the panel. Slicing the last pin, Steve caught the panel as it fell away. Paul hoisted himself up into the vent. Steve passed him his rifle. "Thanks."

"I hope you know what you're doing Paul."

"Me too Steve."

"Good luck."

Paul nodded and then started crawling towards the air vent in the testing room. As he went further into the Paul turned on the small glow lamp that was attached to his rifle. As he neared the air vent to the testing room, Paul started to hear noises. He stopped moving and listened to see if he could tell what it was. At first he couldn't make out what it was so as quietly as he could moved forward some more. The closer he got to the vent the clearer the noise was to make out, it was people talking. Reaching the air vent Paul peered into the room below him. Through the vents slats he counted twenty-three people, seventeen were Stormtroopers, the other six looked like none military personnel. Keying his headset to report what he found Paul spoke quietly so as not give away his position. "I've located Imperial survivors, twenty three in total, seventeen are troopers the other six look like civvies, Sweet out." Paul turned off the glow lamp on his rifle, it looked to him that four of the Stormtroopers were guarding the door while the others were resting. The four that Paul assumed were on guard were the only ones in full armour while the rest had removed theirs. The civvies had grouped together and didn't seem to be mixing with the troopers, Paul noted. He was now figuring out the best way to make contact with the group without being blasted by some trigger-happy Imperial. Figuring that anything to covertly would probably be answered with blaster fire Paul decided on the direct approach and called out. "Hello down there."

The room went silent straight away. The four Stormtroopers spun round and looked straight up at the air vent, the others were reaching for their weapons. One of the four Stormtroopers stepped forward while the other three aimed their weapons at the vent. "Who's there? Identify yourself."

Realising that if he told them who he was straight away he would probably be shot. "I'm here to rescue your sorry arses. I'm going to lower a rope and then come down to you, ok?"

The Stormtrooper that had spoken didn't answer straight away. "Ok lower your rope and then come down."

Using his vibro knife, Paul hacked away at the securing pins, when the last one was severed the air vent fell down to the floor below clattering off a large worktable. He used his vibro knife again to slice to holes in the top of the air conduit so he could secure the rope. He gave the rope a hard pull to make sure it was secure; satisfied it was he threw the rope out of the opening and down to the floor. Paul slung his rifle over his shoulder, taking hold of the rope he eased himself out of the vent and slid down to the floor.

As Paul stepped away from the rope, one of the Stormtroopers noticed Paul's squadron patch. "He's a Rebel!"

Knowing that this was probably going to happen, Paul dove behind the large worktable and un-slung his rifle as a blaster bolt slammed into the table.

The Stormtrooper that had spoken barked out an order. "Hold your fire." No more blaster shots rang out.

Paul slowly raised his head above the table to take a look his rifle was held ready. All the Stormtroopers except the one that had spoken had their weapons aimed towards his position. "You sure have a nice way of saying thanks to people trying to rescue you!"

"We're fussy about who's doing the rescuing. Throw down your weapons and step out."

"Not going to happen, sorry."

"I hardly see how you're in a position to barging, last time I checked I had the high ground."

"Afraid not. You see if I don't make contact in another thirty seconds to the rest of my team, not only will they detonate the bomb that I set on top of the rope leaving you without an escape route, but they'll also roll in a couple of thermal detonators for good measure." There was no response from the Imperials. All Paul could hear was a few of the un-armoured troopers whispering to each other. "Times almost up, what's it going to be?"

"Lower your weapons, the Rebel is not to be harmed." The Stormtroopers lowered their weapons.

Paul stood up. He touched his headset and opened the channel. "Steve, stand by. I've made contact with the locals. They're restless, but are behaving themselves so far."

In the storage room, where Steve and Hans were waiting for Paul, the message made no sense to either of the pilots. "Err...Rogue, you ok?"

"I'm fine, hold off on the rope bomb and the thermals for now, I'll be in touch." Paul closed the link on his headset.

In the storage room, Steve looked at Hans. "Rope bomb?"

Hans shrugged his shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine sir."

Chapter Twelve

Captain Larringer could see Captain Farr and his group waiting for her and the remainder of group three at the T-junction. A wave of relief washed over her as the distance closed on the two groups, they'd made it. LaSalle's relief was short lived. A Marine suddenly dropped into a firing position and started shooting down the left corridor. Almost immediately, all of Captain Farr's group were shooting into the corridor as Doda was waving LaSalle and her group to hurry. Braking into a run LaSalle called out to her group. "Haul ass people, we got company coming." As the group finally reached Captain Farr's position, she could hear snarling of the attackers over the blaster fire.

Doda was shooting into the attacking group of Zombies when Captain LaSalle pulled up next to him. "Glad you could drop by Captain."

"Spare me the pleasantries Doda; we've got to get out of here, now."

"Already in hand Ma'am." Doda pointed to a Marine who was planting a trip mine on the side of the wall. "Ok people fall back, we are leaving." As the last man passed the Marine with the trip mine, the Marine armed the mine and then sprinted away after the group. Five seconds later a red laser beam shone out from the centre of the mine leaving a small red dot of light on the opposite wall. The Marines were still firing as they retreated down the corridor, most of the shots that hit weren't killing shots but a few laser bolts found their mark. There was an explosion as a group of Zombies reached the mines position and broke the laser trip wire. The Zombies were blown to pieces and others behind them received terrible injuries, this however didn't slow the main group down at all who simply carried on running towards the retreating Marines even the ones that were on fire didn't seem to slow down.

As the group ran to where the rest of group one was dug in Doda shouted over to LaSalle. "I've had two more mines placed down the corridor; they just need to be activated as we go past."

"Smart thinking, let's hope those things take the hint and back off."

The group approached the next mine, Doda ran up to it and as soon as the last person had gone by armed the mine. The corridor soon turned left, up ahead was the blast doors and just beyond was the rest of group one. Doda stopped at the final mine and repeated the same process as before, just as he had finished arming the mine another explosion rang out as Zombies triggered the second mine.

"Damn they're getting closer!" One of the Marines shouted out

"We're almost at the blast doors; once we're through them we seal them." Doda shouted.

The group sprinted through the blast doors; Doda hit the door close panel but nothing happened. "What? What's wrong with the doors?"

A Zombie that was almost totally engulfed in flames staggered round the corner. It took several steps before collapsing onto the floor; it managed to drag itself forward a few feet before it stopped moving.

"We've got about sixty seconds before those things get to us." LaSalle gasped as she tried to get her breath back.

"Shafer, get over here and close these doors." Doda ordered.

The young Marine ran to the panel, and quickly removed the panel cover. Using an adaptor, he plugged his data pad into the door controls. A diagnostic scrolled across his screen. Ten seconds later, the writing stopped and was replaced with a diagram of the panel's circuitry. "Ok I need to replace the master chip, it's burnt out. I'll need to get one from another door panel, buy me some time." Shafer ran off to the nearest door away from the Zombies.

"Form a line and stand ready." Doda ordered. Everybody took up a firing position ready for the Zombies to appear, they didn't have to wait long. The Zombies piled around the corner all of them running flat out towards the Marines. "OPEN FIRE." Doda yelled as loud as he could.

The front row was cut down straight away by the hail of blaster fire. Still the Zombies surged forward. It wasn't long before one triggered the final trip mine.

LaSalle felt the heat from the explosion wash over her; there was no sign of Shafer yet.

The mine had bought the defending Marines some precious time, but not much, as some Zombies were already coming through the blast area. These were cut down, but more and more were still coming.

"MAKE ROOM, COMING THROUGH!" Shafer shouted as he barged through the group to get to the control panel. He ripped out the old master chip and threw it over his shoulder. Pulling another chip from tunic pocket, he slotted it into place. Shafer's data pad beeped to indicate that the circuit was now complete and working. He hit the close button and the doors began to close.

The Zombies were almost on top of the group when the doors finally shut, one had managed to get his arm through the gap and was slashing away wildly until the doors came together and severed the arm off just below the shoulder. The arm made a wet sound as it hit the floor leaving a trail of smeared blood going down the door to the ground.

LaSalle leaned against the corridor wall and slowly slid down to the floor; she leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "Damn, isn't this a fine situation we've gotten into!" The sounds of thumping on the door followed by moaning could be heard coming from the other side.

"Could be worse though Ma'am."

LaSalle opened her eyes and looked to were Captain Farr was stood. "How could it be possibly worse than this Doda?"

"We could be on that side of the door Ma'am!"

LaSalle laughed once. "You're right, it could be worse."

The medic that had been bitten earlier put out his un-injured arm and propped himself up against the wall, he had started to feel quite sick and dizzy; his arm was really starting to throb where he had been bitten.

"You ok Lien?" One of the medic's friends had noticed him leaning on the wall and had gone over to him.

"Yeah guess I'm not as fit as I thought I was. I feel pretty lousy after that little jog. I must be getting old." Lien pushed himself off the wall; he and his friend rejoined the main group.

Doda spoke up so that everyone could here him. "Ok Marines we're heading back to where the rest of first group has dug themselves in, once we're there we'll contact Lieutenant Lohk'har and see about joining up with second group and then getting out of here. Let's go."

The group moved off down the corridor away from the Zombies that were pounding their fists off the blast doors.

Chapter Thirteen

The Stormtrooper that seemed to be in charge walked away from the other three armoured troopers. The trooper raised both hands and removed their helmet. Paul had been expecting a man to be under the armour but was surprised to see a woman looking back at him; he managed to cover his surprise as best he could. Her hair was a dirty blond colour and it was done up in a tight bun, she had piercing blue eyes which seemed to bore straight into Paul's. Looking at her Paul guessed that the woman was in her mid thirties, it also didn't escape his attention how attractive she was.

The woman placed the helmet on top of the workstation. "Commander Irena Hesh, in charge of ships security."

"Major Paul Sweet, pilot in Blue Squadron."

"So what can I do for you Major?"

"Shouldn't it be me asking you that question commander? Your predicament seems to be a less than favourable one."

"You've noticed have you!" A wry smile spread to Irena's lips.

"A ship full of Zombies running about the place tends to get your attention. Not your every day event."

One of the civilians got up from their small group and came marching over. "For the love of sith! Are the pair of you going to stand there all day swapping pleasantries or are you actually going to do something?"

Irena looked at the woman who had interrupted her conversation. "Doctor Jahi, if you don't get the hell out of my face and back to your people, I will open the doors and personally throw you to the crowd on the other side, is that clear?"

The other woman sniffed once then turned on her heel and quickly marched away back to her group, her white lab coat making a swishing noise as she walked away. Upon reaching her group the woman sat down, she gave Irena a hard look before talking to her colleagues in a hushed voice.

"That damn woman has been a pain since we rescued her group the other day! Ok Major it looks like if we want out of here my group is going to have to work along with you and your people, what are your terms?"

Paul was again surprised by Irena's direct approach; there was no posturing or false bravado. "Your immediate surrender and co-operation, those terms are none negotiable, one of you breaks them and the whole lot of you will be left here to rot."

"Agreed." Irena turned to her troops. "Listen up. I've surrendered to the Rebel, he has guaranteed us safe conduct as long as we ALL cooperate, if anyone and I do mean anyone deviates from this then we will all be left here, is that understood?

Every Stormtrooper stood at attention and all of them responded in unison. "Yes Ma'am."

Paul touched his headset and opened a channel to Lohk'har. "Lieutenant Lohk'har, I've located Imperial survivors, they have surrendered to me. I've guaranteed them safe conduct in return for their full co-operation. They're going to be making their way up and out of the room to your location, over."

Lohk'har had trouble in accepting what she had just heard. "Major I hope you know what you're doing, out."

"Hans, Steve, you two ready to direct our guests?"

Steve replied. "We're ready, send them through."

"Copy that." Paul touched his headset and killed the link. "Okay, Commander, just to let you know, as well as myself and fellow pilots there's also a company of Marines on board. You and your troopers will go up one at a time, as soon as one reaches the Lieutenant, the next one heads up it's just in case anybody forgets our little deal. Your troopers get to keep their weapons though as I've got a feeling that we're going to need all the firepower we can lay our hands on to get off this ship."

"Understood Major, I've given you my word and I always keep to it." Irena pointed to one of the armoured troopers. "Roan you're first up, see if you can fit through in your armour."

The young Stormtrooper snapped to attention. "Right away Ma'am." Roan walked over to the rope and took hold of it in both hands, he heaved on the line with all his weight. Satisfied that the rope would take his weight he began to haul himself up the rope. Soon he was at the top and hauling himself into the air vent, he didn't get very far. "It's no good Commander; it's too tight with armour on."

"Very well, come back down and loose the top half of your armour."

Roan came out of the vent and slid down the rope. Once at the bottom he removed his helmet and top half of his armour. Once he had done that, he climbed back up the rope and disappeared up into the air conduit.

Paul touched his headset and opened a link to Steve. "First package is on the way, should be at your location in a minute."

"Understood."

Irena started to remove the top part of her armour in preparation for when it was her turn. Seeing their Commander do this the two remaining fully armoured Storm troopers did the same.

Lohk'har came onto the channel. "First package has arrived and we're ready for the next one."

Paul signalled to Irena for the next person to go up.

"Lieutenant Teer, you're next."

As the Lieutenant started to climb up Paul slung his rifle onto his shoulder. He looked at Irena. "I won't need this in here now will I?"

"No."

One by one, the Imperials headed up the rope and into room with Lohk'har and the Marines. As good as Irena's word, they weren't causing Lohk'har or the Marines any concerns. This didn't mean that Lohk'har trusted them. She carefully placed Marines about the room to cover the Imperials in case they decided to ignore their Commander's orders.

While all this was happening Paul heard that Captain LaSalle and Captain Farr had reached the rest of group one at the fortified location. Lohk'har was giving a brief report on her group's current location and situation.

"I think the scientists are going to need help getting up the rope." Irena pointed out to Paul.

Paul looked over to the small group. They were still sat away from everyone else. He pointed to the woman that had come across earlier. "You! Doctor Jahi, come here."

Lilith got up and came over to where Paul and Irena were stood. "Yes?"

"Here it is, if you and your people want out, you have to climb up that rope, if you can't then you stay, it's that simple."

Lilith's face started to go red with anger. "How dare you, I demand that not only do you get us out of this room but also safely off this ship!"

This was the Imperial behaviour Paul had been expecting. "Is that right?"

Lilith placed both her hands firmly on her hips. "Yes, that's right."

Paul leaned in towards Lilith and spoke in a low voice so that only Irena and Lilith could hear him. "Listen up and listen good Doctor Jahi. To get off this floating Necropolis we are going to need people that can look after themselves not ones that need looking after. So, if you and the rest your snivelling and whinny group can't get their arses up that bloody rope, then you stay. Understood?"

Lilith simply nodded; she called the rest of her group over and told them what they had to do. A few started to complain, but were quickly stopped by Lilith when she pointed out that the Rebel scum wasn't up for negotiating. The Scientists reluctantly agreed to go up the rope, with Lilith being the first to go. She complained all the way to the top and when she got in the air vent Paul could still hear her complaining as she crawled along the air conduit.

"I doubt that she has ever been spoken to like that before." Irena pointed out to Paul.

"My heart bleeds for her, she'll get over it." Soon there was only Irena and Paul left in the room. "Okay, Commander, up you go."

Irena took hold of the rope and quickly went up the rope hand over hand without using her feet. When she was in the vent, Paul made his own way up. After a quick crawl through the vent, he emerged into the room where Hans, Steve and Irena were waiting.

"Welcome back." Steve greeted Paul as he jumped down to the ground from the vent.

"Cheers, let's go and join the Lieutenant."

The four of them left the room and headed down the corridor a short distance, the room that Lohk'har was in was obvious as two Marines were outside it. There also seemed to be a lot of noise coming from inside the room. As Paul and the others entered the room, they were confronted with Lohk'har and Doctor Jahi having a full-blown argument. Lilith kept on pointing over to Vicki, the Marine that had been wounded in the last confrontation with the Zombies. Vicki wasn't looking any better Paul noticed in fact she was looking worse. Steve and Paul went over to where the two women were arguing while Irena went over to her troops.

"What's going on Lieutenant?" Steve asked.

Lohk'har seemed to notice the two Officers for the first time since they had come back into the room. "This Imp witch says that Vicki is a danger to everyone and we have to leave her behind!"

Paul looked at Lilith. "This true Doctor Jahi? Why is Vicki a danger to us?"

"Isn't it obvious? She can hardly stand let alone fight; and you yourself said you can't have anyone that needs looking after."

Paul sighed. "That was said to make your people get up and out of their Doctor Jahi, I had to say that to give you the motivation to get up the rope."

"I'm not interested, she's a liability."

Paul was about to come back with a retort when he noticed that the other scientists were all keeping well away from Vicki, in fact some of them look terrified of the young woman. Paul looked back towards Lilith, his eyes narrowed down to slits. "Doctor Jahi, what's the real reason you don't want Vicki with us?"

"I've already told you, she's dangerous, a liability."

"Doctor Jahi, I'm only going to ask you one more time, what's the real reason?"

"That is my reason." Lilith turned to walk away.

Paul grabbed Lilith with his left arm and using his forearm slammed her against the wall and pinned her there, the woman's long black hair settled over her face. With his right hand, he drew his DL-44 blaster from his holster and pressed the muzzle into Lilith's temple. The other Imperials in the room started to react, some reaching for their own weapons. "Steve! Lieutenant!"

Lohk'har and Steve had their rifles in their hands and aiming at the Imperials. "Don't move!" Lohk'har ordered. The rest of the Marines aimed their weapons at the Imperials. The Imperials stopped moving.

"Paul what do think you're doing?" Steve asked Paul as he covered a Stormtrooper with his rifle.

"Just trust me on this one Steve."

Irena had both of her hands raised and open and walked slowly towards Paul. Hans covered her with his blaster. "What are you doing Major, I thought we had an agreement?"

"We do, Commander, but this woman is lying, she knows something and isn't playing straight with us. Doctor Jahi, I believe you have something to tell me?"

Lilith spat out some hair that had gone into her mouth. "I've a-a-already told y-y-you why."

Using his thumb, Paul cocked back the firing hammer on his blaster. The click it made as it locked back was heard by everyone in the room. "Doctor Jahi if you don't tell me the truth right now, I can guarantee you that when I blow your brains all over this wall, one of you fellow scientists will tell me what I need to know. Trust me I'm serious on this and I'm not just giving you a motivational speech!"

A tear trickled out of her right eye and down her cheek. In a trembling voice, Lilith answered Paul. "S-s-she's going to c-c-c-change. She's in-infected"

Paul knew what Lilith meant but he still had to hear it. "What do you mean infected?"

"She's going to become one of t-t-them, a Zombie. She was bitten. A-anyone bitten or scratched by one of them will die and become one!"

Paul took his left arm off Lilith. The scientist crashed down to the floor and started to weep. The blaster in his hand started to feel heavy so Paul put it back in his holster. "You seem to know a lot about these Zombies Doctor Jahi, is there a cure?"

Lilith just lay on the floor weeping and didn't reply.

"IS THERE A SITHING CURE!" Paul shouted at the top of lungs. Several people in the room jumped, startled by the shouting.

"No." Lilith simply replied.

Chapter Fourteen

Captain LaSalle was speaking to Lohk'har while Captain Farr listened in. "Let me get this straight Lieutenant, you're saying that if you're bitten or scratched by one of these things you become one?"

"As soon as you die Captain, yes."

"Do you believe this Doctor Jahi?"

"Yes Ma'am I do, Major Sweet made it quite clear to her what would happen if she didn't talk."

"Ok, what about the Stormtroopers, have they given you any trouble?"

"No Ma'am, Commander Hesh is as good as her word; she also states that her and her troopers knew nothing about what was going on onboard the ship, in fact she's severely pissed at Dr Jahi. She's lost most of her command to these things, so there's no love lost between her and the Doctor."

"Well going off what you've told me, we've got one infected person here with us, I'll be speaking to him as soon as I've finished talking to you. Have you decided what you are going to do with the four people that you have and are infected?"

"Not yet Captain, I'll speak to them as soon as we're done, probably start with Vicki as she's in pretty bad condition."

"I'll back your decision whatever you choose Lieutenant, Larringer out." LaSalle closed down her comm unit and put it back in her pocket.

Doda killed the link on his headset. "So what are we going to do about Lien?"

"I'll go speak to him now." LaSalle walked over to where Lien was sat. His skin had gone from a healthy colour to a sick greyish colour; he was also sweating a lot. "Lien, mind if I join you?"

"Not at all Ma'am."

LaSalle sat down next Lien. "I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

"Let me guess, I'm not well and there's nothing that you can do for me, fact is when I die I'm going to become one of those things aren't I?"

"How did you know?"

Lien gave a weak smile. "I'm a medic Captain, normally it's me that gives the bad news or has to tell the lies to the casualties." Lien coughed. "I can feel it, killing me from the inside out. I tell you something though Captain, I'm not turning into one of those things."

LaSalle didn't say anything. There was nothing that she could say that wouldn't be hollow or false.

"Do me a favour please Captain?"

"If I'm able you know I will."

Lien reached under his T-shirt, yanked off his tags, and dropped them into the Captain's open hand. "Tell my folks that I died in battle please. They don't need to know how I bought it; can you do that please Captain?"

LaSalle was choked up but she managed to reply. "Of course I will, you have my word Lien."

"Thanks, I just need one more favour from you Captain."

"What's that?"

"I need a grenade and a room and then I need to be left alone." Lien slipped out of his medical backpack and dumped his blaster and spare power packs on the floor. "I won't be needing these."

LaSalle waved over Doda. "Give Lien a grenade."

Doda took one look at LaSalle and Lien's face and thought it better he didn't argue. He reached back into his backpack, removed a grenade, and handed it to Lien.

"Thanks Captain. You to Ma'am." Lien struggled to get himself up. Doda and LaSalle helped the Marine to his feet. Lien headed off to a room, when he reached the doorway he turned and looked back towards Doda and LaSalle. "Once I'm inside I'll give you two minutes to get clear; then I'm pulling the pin." Lien saluted Doda and LaSalle, who both returned the salute. He then went in the room, closed the door, and sealed it from the inside.

Doda turned and faced his group. "Ok people saddle up, we're moving out."

One of the Marines spoke up. "What about Lien?"

"He's staying, there's nothing that we can do, if you need a power pack then take one of Lien's." The Marines started to move but it wasn't fast enough for Doda. "Hustle Marines, we're leaving, now!"

LaSalle scooped up Lien's medical backpack and slung it on her back. The group moved out from the barricaded area and away from Lien. They had gone fifty meters down the corridor when there was an explosion. The door to the room was blown apart and large fragments from it embedded themselves in the wall, flames and smoke started to pulse out from the doorway.

The group stopped and looked back to where their friend had been; Doda spoke up so that everyone could hear him. "Lien's done his duty now it's time for us to do ours. Let's link up Lieutenant Lohk'har's group." The group turned away from the room as the flames and smoke grew larger.

Chapter Fifteen

Vicki sat on the floor with her back leaning against the wall. In her hand, she had a thermal detonator. It was all that remained from her kit as she had divided her gear before Lohk'har and the others had moved out. There were three other Marines in the room with her. They had also been injured in the earlier attack. Lohk'har had said that she would take all of them with her and the group right until the end but each one of the infected Marines had decided to stay behind.

Kern came over to Vicki and knelt down next to her. "Guess this is it shipmate. I'll say goodbye now, I'm going back to the observation lounge and I'm going to take out as many of those bastards before I go."

"Frag a few for me Kern."

"Count on it." The big Marine leaned in and kissed Vicki on the cheek, he shook the hands of the other two Marines then left the room and headed back to the observation lounge.

Novak and Rom had made an agreement to end each other's lives. They came over to Vicki and said their good byes before they headed out of the room to find somewhere to end t