Eventually, all the various forces from the ragtag fleet that had found itself most definitely out of place, if not out of time, converged outside the most heavily fortified position on the ship, the turbo lifts to the bridge. Down the hall was a less heavily fortified position that lead to the starfighter tower, which a group of Spartan Company was already grenading into submission. Jerus stood in cover as the clones from Charlie and Delta fire teams laid down suppressive fire with a Z-8 Rotary cannon toting heavy trooper, an upgraded version of the blue bolt spitting Z-6 that was returning fire alongside proper gun turret emplacements. He had no doubts that he could use the Force to blast the barricade apart, it wasn't exactly super sturdy, but there were still several dozen clones on the other side, and that would take more than just him deflecting the blue bolts for them to push.

"I can get that barricade down, but advancing the Clones up will take some effort since I can only reach so far with my lightsaber to deflect the bolts. What have we got?"

---

Jason sighed. "And yet, you're magically behind enemy lines, in a room that should be full of fighter pilots all preparing for a last stand and having an Imperial droid download information that everyone will need. Of course, the tactical data for ship movements and positions will be worthless in a matter of hours, but I doubt that's what you're after." One of the ARC Troopers, his twin pistols pointed at a pair of marines, laughs when he realizes that two of them are carrying the outdated DC-15es.

"Boys, if you wanted to study our weapons, you just had to ask. Those things are running on a twenty plus year old design." Jason shot the ARC Trooper a look from beneath his helmet to quiet him.

"Eighty, let's not antagonize our allies." The ARC Trooper simply nodded before lowering his weapons as the rest of the Scorch Guard and Jason did as well. "In any case, there's barricaded junctions and rooms between this room and the hangar, so you didn't fight your way up here."

---

Eri had been correct that they were nearing the bridge, though that also meant that their enemy had the chance to establish a more substantial defense, especially with a more favorable position than fighting in hallways. Eri had entered the room alongside the blade-wielding Human, so she moved into the same cover as him. The rest of her team were quick to take positions as well, but the emplacements ahead of them kept them mostly pinned.

Eri had seen enough to believe that the Human could destroy the barricades, though it seemed he was finally admitting to having some limitations to these abilities. They would need the firepower to be able to follow through quickly and efficiently with that opening, else they might take unnecessary casualties. Fortunately, Eri knew just who to call to their position.

Just as the Jerus finished asking his question, he would hear light footsteps behind him. Looking down, he could see one of the members of Eri's team: an Unggoy. He carried the heaviest of her team's high-explosive ordinance, and a quantity of plasma grenades that some of the Sangheili found somewhat unsettling. He had his fuel rod cannon shouldered, and though Jerus would likely not be able to read any part of the being's expression, the way he was practically jumping in place made him seem positively excited. Not to mention the quick noises he was making under his breath that almost seemed like a laugh.

Eri glanced briefly down to the Unggoy, then back up to Jerus. She answered him simply, and confidently. "Him."

Taking her plasma rifle in hand, Eri gave a nod to Jerus. "Just take down that barricade, and give him some protection."

AR-1 // IMPERIAL VENATOR // UNKNOWN SPACE

The Marine looked over his shoulder at the blaster rifle and shrugged. Before focusing his attention towards the door again.

Sheppard just shrugged at Erthos. "Maybe we're just that good." He turned as McKay spoke up.

"We got it!" Sheppard grimaced. Now they had the choice to either fight it out, break away from Erthos and then beam away in private or hitch a ride back. Maybe they could head towards the hangar, in the guise of going to some ship. Then either steal a ship claiming theirs was destroyed or again sneak away and beam.

Sheppard turned to Erthos. "Look, I don't think you'd believe us if we told you, and right now I don't have the permission to tell you so-" He shrugged again. "-it'll stay a secret from now." He tapped his earpiece. "Daedalus this is Sheppard. We've got what we need but we're going to stay and support Commander Erthos in defending this tower."

There was a sigh on the other end as Caldwell seemed to get the meaning behind his choice of words. "Roger that Sheppard. Keep us apprised."

"Will do, Sheppard out." He tapped his earpiece again turning off the radio. "Okay, so whats the gameplan here Commander?"

They were making good progress through the ship, but the more they pushed on the thicker the barriers, and the better trained the enemy was to hold their ground. The fighting became more brutal, and the probability of casualties increased. The other team leaders appeared to be talking about some kind of plan, and Sarah forced herself to join in. "We can throw a barrier on you, and your uhhh... Little guy." She said nodding at the jedi, and the unggoy standing around. "That should allow you to take enough hits to get close enough to break their position, or one of us can tail you with a biotic dome. Could probably fit a few guys in there if we squeeze in together." She continued, occasionally accentuating her words with a burst of rifle fire down the hallway.

Both suggestions seemed viable, well, except that they wouldn't need the barriers right away. "Hold those thoughts. Little guy, when the two blades of my lightsaber ignite, we'll lead the push." Falling silent, the young man closes his eyes and begins to focus. He reaches out a hand towards where the barricade is and it begins to shake, causing the Clones using it for cover to panic.

"It's that Jedi traitor! He's gonna rip the barricade apart!"

"Someone find him and put a damn blaster bolt in his chest, now!"

"Does anyone have visu-AHHHH!" With a pull of his hand, the barricade ripped open, leaving a gaping hole that the allied forces could get through, but first they'd have to reach it, and already Imperial Clones were filling the gap with their blaster rifles and firing. Stepping out into the line of fire, Jerus ignites his twin blades once more, the silver and orange blade calling all attention to him as he deflected the blue bolts with practiced ease while the little alien who'd come with the one with the large energy shield of some kind followed, firing off his weapon at regular intervals.

---

Jason took up a position near the doorway, looking out and listening to the sounds of Imperial Clones setting up barricades and defenses leading to the room the two groups were in as his Scorch Guard joined him. "Well, originally we were going to push out into the rear of the enemy fortifications, but holding this room becomes a lot more viable with you all in here. However, if they rush us and get in, don't underestimate their hand-to-hand fighting capabilities. They were trained by Mandalorians, and in our universe, you don't find finer warriors than them."

---

Eri followed through with the opening that the Human gave them, revealing herself just after he ripped away the barricade. She raised her hardlight shield and, this time with her plasma rifle, lifted up her arm to fire over the top of the shield. Her HUD provided a targeting reticle to assist with aiming, though she was still firing more for suppression than accuracy.

However, the greatest form of both damage and suppression came from the Unggoy. The explosive output of the fuel rod gun's shots were like rockets, but all five shots in the magazine could be fired in rapid succession. Two were bound for opposite sides of the breach, while the other three focused on mounted weapon emplacements and other Imperials that were still firing on them from other parts of the barricade.

The Imperials could not have expected the kind of weapons they were encountering. Each of the fuel rod blasts hit one after another, blasting wide areas with superheated radioisotopes and explosive force, melting and blasting apart soldiers and fortifications alike. Regardless of how many of the remaining defenders were able to avoid the blasts, it certainly managed to diminish the amount of accurate return fire from the Imperials as they advanced. Given that the Unggoy did not have time to reload, he instead moved the fuel rod gun to his back and started throwing plasma grenades. "Grenade out, grenade out, grenade out!" He shouted with each throw, becoming that much more enthusiastic every time. Wisely, he aimed the grenades for deeper into the sides of the Imperials' position, rather than throwing grenades directly into the breach his commander was currently running at.

While the Unggoy did fall behind in the advance, the rest of the Sangheili in Eri's troupe took advantage of the disruption he had provided and sprinted up to the barricades while the defenders were mostly disoriented. Some took cover on their side of the enemy's barricades, while others followed Jerus and Eri through the breach.

Eri holstered her near-overheated plasma rifle as she was passing through the breach, but just as she had put the weapon away, she had to swat away the blaster of an Imperial clone nearby, immediately to the right of the breach. While he did get off a shot, the blast went up towards the ceiling. Rather than draw a weapon, Eri simply grabbed a hold of the Imperial's helmet and, with just one hand, smashed his head up against the barricade with almost certainly lethal force. Aside from demonstrating the strength in a Sangheili's arm, Eri had, perhaps curiously to Jerus, reacted to the presence of the Imperial just before she could have seen or heard him, which was why she was able to push away his weapon to begin with.

---

---

---

---

As Samus quickly eliminated one guard after another, the bewildered admiral began to go into a panicked frenzy as he tried to assume control of the situation.

"Don't just stand there, men!" the admiral barked out annoyedly as he backed towards cover, "Find and blast that intruding scum!"

The bounty hunter's dark silhouette would occasionally become barely visible, enough so that the clones would open fire on the enemy's position. However, she would vanish as soon as she appeared, disappearing into the smoke. Suddenly a clone would find himself blasted straight in the back, while another nearby trooper would be kicked straight off his feet and have his helmet caved in by the incoming arm cannon slamming into his face.

One trooper took the opportunity to shoot Samus, however with varied results. Two of his shots were able to hit the heavily-armored bounty hunter - one hitting off her shoulder pads and thus reflected upwards, while the second was successful in hitting her mid-rim. Samus flinched as she could feel a light burning feel in her abdomen before turning around and blasting the culprit.

Eventually, all the guards would've been compromised by the bounty hunter's hand, with only very minor damages and injuries. As the smoke began to clear, Samus searched around for the admiral using her thermal vision. And there, hiding in the control center below to main deck, she could find the admiral attempting to hide from the ensued chaos. He would suddenly turn around and attempt to shoot Samus with his blaster pistol, missing twice but hitting her left shoulder-piece once. The bounty hunter retaliated and blasted the gun out of his hands, completely wrecking it. Now backed into the corner, the admiral would have had no choice but to surrender.

"Don't move." Samus boomed towards his defeated opponent, "And retaliate one more time and I will break both of your arms and legs."

Now all she had to do was wait for the others to get to her position and extract the admiral.

DAEDALUS BRIDGE // UNKNOWN SPACE

Alarms started to blare on the bridge as ten ships de-cloaked and started targetting various vessels among the fleet. The front portion would open up revealing the main cannon, none of them any bigger than a LAAT. "Marks, what am I looking at?"

"Unknown sir. They appear to be quite small but are amassing a large amount of energy." The one closest to the Daedalus fired, a beam coming out of the main cannon before tearing through space and colliding with the shields of the Daedalus. Caldwell grabbed onto his armrests as the entire ship shook with the force of the impact. "Shields down to 75% sir, scans indicate they seem to be targetting other vessels among the fleet." Caldwell grimaced. He just had to hope that while their shielding systems appeared to be different, at least by their scans, that they could hold up to the assault.

He watched in horror as three of the ships entered a formation, firing a sustained beam that intersected with eachothers assault. The beams seemed to combine and then lance out, tearing through the leviathan. Caldwell grimaced, this is the exact situation he didn't want to get into when everyone else decided to start this assault. There had been no proof that this Empire was hostile, though now it certainly was. "Open fire, all batteries. Non-nuclear ordinance only."

Missiles launched out from the Daedalus as it pulled away from the nearest vessel, arching through space before colliding with the vessel. Shields intercepted the missiles as they did virtually no damage to the vessel. "Confirmed the enemy vessels are shielded." Another beam launched towards the Daedalus, narrowly avoiding contacting it. At least they had manoeuvrability on their side.

He tapped his comm system to the engineering deck.



"Engineering this is Caldwell, are you seeing this?"

Novak was already pushing people out of the way as she tapped furiously at a terminal, reading through data as it streamed through her console. "Yes Sir. The energy readings they're giving off are something akin to the Satellite Weapon that destroyed the Prometheus. I Recommend avoiding being hit."

"I already figured that out Doctor, what else do you have for me?"

The little grey alien behind his console spoke next. "Colonel. My scans indicate that the vessels' shields weaken when the beam is fired. I believe at this point we should be able to beam an explosive device past their shields."

There was a pause before Caldwell spoke again. "Do it."



"Sir!" The voice of his XO sounded rather more panicked than usual.

"What is it Marks?"

"One of the vessels is targetting the Imperial Vessel the boarding parties are on, prediction algorithm indicates the beam will destroy the 'starfighter' bridge."

"I want a transport lock on every individual in that bridge, Cooper. Lower shields on my mark."

"Sir, we're also being targetted."

Nothing could ever be that easy. "Raise shields as soon as they're on board." He turned his chair to face Marks. "Beam everyone directly onto the bridge." There was a shimmering light as a large clump of people were brought aboard the bridge, just as the starfighter tower was torn apart by an energy beam, the entire ship shook as it was grazed by another beam just after the shield was restored.

"Shields down to 65%, but the weapon is away." On his screen, there was a blip as the ordnance detonated. "We have a kill."

"Nine more to go."

Caldwell stood looked up to address their guests. "Welcome aboard the Daedalus Commander. Sheppard."

Sheppard looked at Erthos with a coy smirk before looking at Caldwell with a confused look. "Sir?"

"We're in the middle of a battle here, the commander can remain but please clear the bridge."

"Yes Sir." He turned to the group of boarders from the Resurgence. "If you would come with me folks."

---

---

---

---

Location: Blathriin-Va - Bridge.

A warning siren let out a low drone, similar to that of a whales call, that echoed throughout the ships interior, alerting the entire crew of the new ships that had just appeared out of nowhere right in front of them. Yiithren, thinking quickly, gave orders for evasive maneuvers and had Kurqruik send word to the gunners to begin engaging the ships closest to them.

"Shields at 90% sir." Kurqruik called out, briefly taking her attention off of the interior communications console.

"Continue evading and get me Strevrols." Yiithren said, watching bright flashes illuminate the darkness around them before dying out.

"Yes sir." His first mate replied, turning back to the console. "Strevrols? The captain wishes to speak to you."

"I'm a bit busy making sure our engines keep running here." He said, almost sounding annoyed. "But I suppose I can spare a few moments for idle chit-chat."

Kurqruik nodded, turning round to face Yiithren. "Sir?"

Yiithren turns to face her, nodding slightly as he shuffles over to the console. "Thank you, I'll take it from here."

"Strevrols?" He asks, leaning in somewhat. "I need you to do something for me."

"What exactly?" Strevrols asked.

"Do you think you could engage a jump?" The captain of the Va asked, casting a glance over to the ships viewport as another blast was deflected by its shields.

"A jump? Why? And where? If you hadn't noticed we're in the middle of a combat zone right now. There isn't exactly time for me to set up the proper coordinates if escape is the goal..."

"Don't worry, we're not going far. Just to the interior of that ships shields we punched a hole through. We can use what's left of it's hull and shields as a temporary barrier so long as we stay in its blind spots. Our guns never completely annihilated it remember?" Yiithren explained as the craft lurched slightly, its artificial gravity generator quickly compensating for the sudden movement.

"Ah, clever. Very clever. Alright, I'll get the drive ready and the coordinates primed. Just make sure our pilots keep us in one piece long enough for me get it done." Strevrols replied, cutting communications a few seconds later. Yiithren turned and moved back to the viewport, giving orders for the ships pilots to continue evading enemy fire as the Psi Jump Drive was primed for use. Resuming his place at the front of the craft.

"This might just be the craziest thing you've done." Kurqruik remarked.

Yiithren didn't respond. He simply clasped his tentacles behind his back and stared out into the warzone beyond their small craft, waiting for jump confirmation. It took a few minutes, but Strevrols voice eventually came through the bridges interior com system.

"All systems green. Jump drive is ready for use."

Yiithrne made a small burbling sound, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Good." He said, his voice echoing throughout the room. "Engage jump drive in three... two... one... mark."

A low hum spread throughout the Va as it was enveloped in an aura of violet tinged lightning, before it suddenly jumped, appearing as though it had always been in its current location. That being beneath what remained of the Venetor they had assaulted earlier. Finding a moment to breath, Yiithren and crew took this rare moment of peace to plan out their next angle of attack.

---

While the Immaculate Aegis' sensors had detected the strange energy readings that preceded it, the rest of its scans had revealed nothing before the group of small ships revealed themselves. Falul did respond appropriately to their arrival, using sensor scans to track and mark targets, as well as rotating the ship to bring the majority of their point-defense pulse lasers to bear on the targets. However, it did not take long for the threat to show itself to be much greater than Falul initially expected.

The Aegis' shields flared brightly upon the first beam weapon striking against them. Falul saw on the status readouts of his ship that even one shot had drained far more of their shields than any ship of that size should have been able to. Were that not enough of a concern on its own, the first of their fleet's ships to receive their opponent's focus was the massive organic vessel. Three of these, presumably, Imperial strikecraft combined the power of their primary weapons into a single, devastatingly powerful beam that ripped through the Zerg ship in a single, lethal attack. Regardless of any distrust that Falul felt towards the swarm of beings, to see it destroyed so quickly was cause for immense concern.

"Launch strikecraft, and concentrate weapon batteries on any hostile ships flying in clustered formations!" Falul shouted, his orders being acted upon immediately by his officers.

As seraph and banshee wings emerged from the ship's hangar, Falul had only a short time to analyze the information he had available to him. The Imperial craft had already proven they had the firepower to threaten large ships, so the priority was to prevent them from combining the effects of their weapons. The most obvious pattern that Falul could see in their movements, however, was the fact that they became stationary just before firing. They had done so when they combined their fire on the leviathan, and he could see them stationary before firing on the Daedalus. He did not know if they had any other weapons, nor the strength of their shields, but he did have this piece of information.

Being that the Aegis was now the largest ship present, it now had the focus of several of the hostile craft. In fact, the three that had destroyed the leviathan were now on course for the Aegis. Based on the range at which they had fired on the leviathan, he could make a rough guess about where they would need to stop to fire on his vessel.

"Target all available pulse lasers with line-of-sight onto...this region." Falul ordered, designating the area on his map. "Prioritize these three ships."

While Falul's prediction might not have been exactly accurate, the three Imperial ships still stopped close enough to the target area that the point-defense lasers only required minor adjustments to bring themselves on-target. As the small ships charged their weapons once more, every single pulse laser that had the ability to target the ships, with the exception of those directly in front of the Imperial ships' weapons, fired on the trio. Well over a hundred pulse lasers converged upon the ships within seconds of one another. As well, since the ships were now stationary, the lasers could target much more accurately. It would not have taken long for the Imperial ships to charge their weapons, but neither did it take long for such a heavy concentration of firepower to overwhelm them. They had powerful weapons and were more resilient than most strikecraft, but they had no support from other Imperial ships, and there were relatively few of them. There was nothing to pull the Aegis' weapons away from focusing on them. Two of the ships were destroyed before they could combine their weapons, and the third only fired a partial beam before being finished off.

Despite these Imperial ships' destruction of the leviathan, Falul wondered why they continued to remain in a fight that would certainly guarantee their deaths. Even if they could destroy another ship, they could not hope to survive on their own. They were not invincible.

As they disembarked, they were quickly surrounded and held at gunpoint. The 3 put their hands up, Oglivie looked at Sonia, who hadn't lost her cool. As she was passed the communicator, she looked around at the soldiers. "And here i thought we were here for diplomatic negotiations." She sighed, before pressing fiddling with the frequency to patch through to Egg Carrier. "Egg-Carrier, this is Sonia." She said.

"How's the talks goin' Princess?" Asked Thunderbolt's voice coming through the communicator.

"Not great..." She replied looking back at the soldiers. "Stand down, we're going to allow our new... Friends... To inspect the ship." she said, staring Tarkin directly in the eyes as she said it. She was going to make it abundantly clear to him that she wasn't going to back down. Oglivie stared around at them, he could easily run rings around them, have them out-cold before they even knew what hit them, but they had come all of this way to get aboard, and then needed to wait for Jack to finish so that they could give him a ride off. For the moment, he was willing to follow her lead.

As soldiers boarded the simple ship, they would see an Egg-Pawn at the controls, who turned around, saluted them, then turned back to the controls in a very robotic fashion.

As the EggRobo walked along the hull of the ship, it looked around, before spotting a strange robot scooting about on the hull. It waved before walking over to it. Robo waved to its face, it looked back and flashed a few colours of light, before moving back to a small hatch on the hull. Robo followed it, standing with it on the hatch, before it brought the 2 down and inside. As the air-lock re-pressurized, Robo looked at the smaller robot and spoke to it in Binery. The Astromech twittered back at him. Robo petted it on the head before walking with it down a set path and to a maintainance bay. A studious looking black robot looked EggRobo over.

"Excuse me, sir, but i do not recognize you. Please state your designation and clearance code." The Astromech stared back at the studious droid before twittering to it. "R6-T33, i did not ask you, but i have been looking for you. You have missed your last 4 mandatory memory wipes. Please roll into the maintenance bay." R6 squeeked and blarped back at it. "This is preposterous, i have received no such orders. You WILL roll into the maintenance bay." It said. R6 looked at EggRobo who looked at the Studious droid. Robo then raised its gun and shot it, sending it smashing against the wall and falling down. The other droids didn't seem to notice, but R6 simply let out an electronic giggle. The two exchanged a few squeeks and blarps of binary. R6 charged out into the hallway, squeeking and blarping, before rushing down the hall. EggRobo waved to it as he proceeded to walk the other way, floating now in order to make as little noise as possible as it sneaked around.

Koffal and Eggman were in his lab. Koffal looked over the strange Robotic arms He had been given, along with a strange device floating behind him. "Alright, that little pack will give you the extra lift that will not interfere with your ability to fly, thanks to that extra weight that the arms give you." Eggman said. "Now, those should increase your physical strength considerably, but don't try ot lift anything big. Your arms are strong, but the rest of your skeleton is another matter. But it should allow you to tear through a bulkhead. Also, inbuilt flame-throwers, machine guns and rocket-launchers, should pack the punch you need in a fight." He smiled.

"Feel... Strange..." Koffal hissed.

"Yeah, well that's what happens when i give you an upgrade." He groaned.

"BOSS!" Came Thunderbolt over the loudspeaker. "WE GOT COMPANY!!!"

"Oh great, what now?" He asked.

"OVERLANDERS ARE COMING!!!" She screamed. Eggman got straight to his feet.

"Assemble the Egg-Pawns, lock down every sensitive area." He then pointed to Koffal "Get somewhere hidden with your egg." He ordered. Koffal nodded, before picking up his sword, shield and egg, before walking out and floating down the corridor, testing his new equipment. Eggman wiped his brow. "well, we're in the thick of it now. Let's hope we can survive this..." He groaned. He had been Manic's prisoner for quite some time. He had no wish to go back to that position.

Both Jason and the members of the Scorch guard looked about confused. One moment, they were in the starfighter tower, preparing an ambush for the enemy clones, the next they were aboard the bridge of what appeared to be the Daedalus, though the exact means of how was lost on them. When the Colonel asked for the bridge to be cleared, Jason nodded to the Scorch Guard, who followed Sheppard while he turned to the Colonel. "I know I might not get the most satisfactory answer here, but...what just happened?"

---

Meanwhile, the Resurgence had already begun it's own evasive maneuvers as V-Wings and ARC-170s shift targets to engage the new arrivals. XO Kol'Zife was issuing orders as fast as he could, the point defense turrets strafing the strange craft that got too close. They had come in with hyperdrive signatures, but no one had really thought about it, ghost signatures happened on occasion. And that mistake had seen one of their new allies slaughter, the large biological ship eviscerated in a powerful beam of energy. A pair of missiles from a V-Wing clipped the stabilizer of one of the strange ships, but it lined up it's shot anyways and fired, the laser barely missing the Resurgence, though shields depleted by fifteen percent. Getting on the COMS, he practically yells into them. {All boarding units, fall back to the Resurgence! I repeat, fall back!} Jerus frowned as the message came through and looked to the others, who were all gathering around the turbo lift. After a moment's debate, he nods to himself and boards a turbolift.

"I'm going on to finish this mission. All 302nd units are to fall back and see if you can secure a few Y-Wing hyperdrives along the way, but the rest of you can decide for yourselves if you want to come. I won't force you. Sounds like we're under attack out there."

---

Eri started to snarl, though directed at no one in particular. Much like Jerus, she too had received her warnings from the Immaculate Aegis. New hostile ships had arrived, and they were targeting the ship they were boarding. Even without that warning, the shaking they had all felt earlier made that obvious enough.

After just a moment of thought, Eri opened a channel back to the other team waiting in the hangar. "Board the phantoms and get them out of this ship. We are evacuating the ship. Cloak the phantoms and bring them around just outside this ship's bridge atop one of the two largest towers."

With her orders having been given, Eri stepped into the lift alongside Jerus, followed by the rest of her team. She grumbled under her breath for a moment as she looked down at him, paying particular attention to his armor. "Can that suit be sealed to a vacuum, Human?"

Eri intended to stay in this ship no longer than absolutely necessary.

The new ships arrived out of nowhere, and attacked the Daedalus. The Glasgow had to be quick to react, if they lost The Daedalus they lost their ticket out of the system. They'd be sitting ducks without them, and dying in an unknown universe didn't exactly seem pleasant to him, and probably not to his crew either. "Calculate shots, and use the GARDIAN lasers. Move in closer to our friendly." He ordered, his crew members jumping to follow his orders, to the captain of The Glasgow things just got very interesting.

---

The group had managed to push onto the bridge, but then the ship shook. Radio messages from The Glasgow began to relay into their feed that new contacts had entered the system. With things going to hell in a hand basket, Sarah just sighed relaying orders through her helmet feed to any personnel still on board. "Anyone able to make it back to the shuttle, get back there now all, those who can't report to the bridge we're hitching a ride. Objectives are to be considered fulfilled until proven otherwise. Stay alive, Wilkes out." She turned to her gathered allies. "Mind if we hitch a ride, don't know if our shuttles can get here fast enough to get us off the bridge." She asked the assembled races.

Once everyone had made their choices, the turbo-lift closed and accelerated upwards. "The bridge was one of two major fallback positions, the other was the starfighter tower. The strongest resistance will be found here, so let's hit hard, move fast, get the admiral and get out." As Jerus finished speaking, the lift could be felt decreasing in speed and the unofficial Jedi started counting down. "Three," the momentum practically arrested as the lift stopped. "Two," The lift came to a complete stop and the sound of the door beginning to open can be heard. "One," and as the door opened, once more the silver and orange lightsaber came to life, deflecting a hail of blue bolts as he leapt out of the turbo-lift, the blades humming through a pair of troopers while he uses the Force to pull another to himself and round house kicks him, his augmented strength snapping the clone's neck in his armor.

The allied forces that had ridden the lift up joined him and in moments, the area outside the bridge was secured. Waiting just long enough for everyone to form up, Jerus palms open the door his blades at the ready...

Only to find the admiral subdued and all the clone marines deal with, along with the bridge crew. The one responsible, the orange armored mercenary from before, looked like she'd been waiting a while. "Well, that explains where you went."

---

---

---

---

As the lift doors suddenly opened, Jerus and the rest of the allied crew would stop to see a volley of dead clone marines lying everywhere on the bridge. Many were laying on the bridge walkway or near the windows of the ship, with some having fallen into the sunken pits, all either suffering from plasma beam wounds or broken bones. And there, standing in the middle of the walkway with her arm cannon pointed directly at the fallen admiral, was Samus Aran.

Once she noticed the doors open in the back, her gaze would pay attention to the new arrivals who entered the bridge.

"Well, that explains where you went."

The bounty hunter straightened her posture as she lowered her weapon and faced Jerus, who was now wielding an orange beam of plasma energy. It was a... unique choice of weaponry, especially for someone of his stature as a bounty hunter coming out of retirement. However, this wasn't much for her to be concerned about compared to the announcement she received on her comms some time ago.

"I suppose you have an escape plan ready?" Samus asked curiously, "It appears that your ship had demanded for us to return back. Unless your plan is to take the long way down by backtracking our way to the hangar, I'm afraid we might not make it in time. And I'm not carrying your precious admiral back down all by myself."

---

After going through the fight to take the lift to begin with, the ambush at the top did not feel as difficult. Even though the Imperials had superior positions for cover, they also seemed to have quite a few options to defend themselves. The Human from the Resurgence, by some means, could deflect incoming fire with his version of an energy sword, Eri had her hardlight shield, and the majority of her team had personal energy shielding. As well, the other Humans from the other ship had individuals that could put up strange violet energy barriers to protect them. Altogether, they had the capacity to push forward far more aggressively than any defense could have planned for.

Pushing into the bridge itself, they had been expecting even more of a fight, but found only a sea of corpses. Save for two. Eri recognized this one, however briefly, from the fighting near the hanger. This was the bounty hunter, who had apparently dealt with the entire bridge crew and captured the admiral.

Lowering her hardlight shield, Eri stepped out towards the bounty hunter and grunted as she glanced over the bodies. "Hmph, and here I thought you had ran away." She remarked. Frankly, though, part of her wondered how a single mercenary could have handled all of these foes alone. That would be a challenge even to Vael...

Regardless, there was no time for pointless discussion or speculation. The bounty hunter had asked how they intended to escape, and Eri was quick to answer. Quickly, she contacted her phantom. "Move to the front of the bridge, disengage active camouflage, and open the gravity lift. Hold at a safe distance until the breach is opened."

Now standing over the admiral alongside Samus, Eri looked towards the window at the end of the walkway. "We can blast a hole in that window and make the jump to the gravity lift of our phantom. It is the column of energy you see beneath the dropship; it will pull you up into the phantom. Assuming that suit of yours is sealed, we are all equipped for a vacuum. Except for him..." Eri explained, turning her gaze down towards the admiral and giving a low growl. "Hmm, but he'll live. Just make sure he does not try to hold his breath before he is exposed to the vacuum."

"Not quite that simple." Jerus walks over and hauls the admiral to his feet as he's looking at the orange armored mercenary disapprovingly. "That's not glass, that's transparisteel, combat grade. You'll have to blast it open with some high grade explosives. Hope you brought some."

---

At almost the very instant that Jerus finished his sentence, an excited voice sounded out behind him. "Oh, me, me! I do! I DO!"

The Unggoy with the fuel rod gun on his back eagerly ran forward, pushing his way around the legs of the other Sangheili in his team to reach the middle of the room with Eri, Jerus, and Samus. With a simple nod from Eri, the Unggoy practically ran down the bridge's center walkway, and up to the window closest to the phantom. He pulled a fairly small device, about the size of one of the fuel rods his weapon used for ammunition, and attached it to the window. After a few button presses on the holographic controls, he just as excitedly ran back to the others.

Hearing the tone of the charge's timer, Eri gave a quick snarl as she looked down at the Unggoy. "Jarraj, what timer did you set on that charge?"

"Oh, ummm, ten seconds!" He answered.

---

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Eri was the first to suggest a way out from the bridge, noting specifically how their ships would blow the front bridge and pick them up from here. If Samus' gunship was operational, then it was a plan she too had in mind. She was about to respond when Jerus spoke up, while looking disapprovingly at the armored bounty hunter.

""Not quite that simple. That's not glass, that's transparisteel, combat grade. You'll have to blast it open with some high grade explosives. Hope you brought some."

Samus considered utilizing her super missiles as potential candidates - considering they were stronger then her regular missiles - however she was considering on saving them up for later. But before she could mention this, one of Eri's troops - being a tiny armored alien - volunteered to do the job instead. He ran over to the edge and planted what should be an explosive device of some kind. She could hear the timer start to slowly tick down; with three seconds having passed before the alien warrior had to ask the obvious.

"Jarraj, what timer did you set on that charge?"

Six seconds.

"Oh, ummm, ten seconds!"

Eight.

Without a word, Samus suddenly cocked towards her allies and proceeded to tackle them - Jerus, Eri, and the Admiral - towards the back of the ship as fast as she could.

"GET DOWN~!"