Content warning: profanity, parasites, and some violent threats/distress in this one!

----

As the reverberations of distant explosions rumbled through the corridors, the engineers mates continued trying to bypass the seals on the Armory. One of the sailors using a plasma torch paused, and looked back at the others who had ripped out the control panel for the door. "I don't think this is going to do it... at least not before we run out of time," he said dourly. "We might have to just use whatever we can grab."

The grizzled sailor did not even look at him as he continued to work on the door controls. "Those were fully equipped TAC teams with the latest kit. Without these weapons we don't stand a chance. Get back to..."

He was interrupted by the shipwide squawking to life. "ATTENTION ALL CREW: WE HAVE CONFIRMATION THAT THE CREW MEMBERS BOARDING THE BOUNTEOUS ARE FRIENDLY. I REPEAT: THE CREW MEMBERS ARE CONFIRMED GREEN! CEASE ALL HOSTILE ACTION IMMEDIATELY AND REPORT TO THE NEAREST AIRLOCK FOR A POST-ACTION DEBRIEFING FROM OUR CAPTAIN!"

The sailor manning the plasma cutter smiled and turned it off. The older sailor stopped working on the controls and looked sharply at him. "What exactly do you think you're doing, son?"

The younger sailor gestured at the speaker in the wall and said, "Wait, you heard him! It's over: They've confirmed this was all a big mistake!"

There was another distant explosion, followed by some terrified screams. The grizzled sailor sighed and turned back to his work. "That was some bullshit, son. I have no idea what the hell is going on here, but those assholes are anything but friendly."

The younger sailor hesitated for a moment, then picked up the plasma cutter and turned back toward the door. "Some bullshit, indeed," he muttered to himself.

---

Three hours earlier

When the supply ship Bounteous made its routine rendezvous with the flagship, the captain and all of her senior staff were called to the flagship's CinC for a top secret briefing. Soon afterward, the captain issued a terse order for the remaining officers to report to the flagship's sick bay.

While the order had been categorized as eyes-only, it passed quickly from nervous crew members on the bridge to the rest of the supply ship's complement. Rumors spread virally among the crew, some of whom had already noted both the odd delay of the routine cargo transfer and complete absence of deckhands or cargo handlers from the flagship hours after they had docked. As they stood idly awaiting the order to begin the cargo transfer, the more nervous and imaginative members of the crew speculated wildly about rampant disease, political crises, or even a potential mutiny in the fleet. While cooler heads dismissed these fanciful ramblings, the crew's thin veneer of calm began to crack as the supply ship's small security contingent and its senior enlisted personnel were then ordered to report to the flagship's sick bay without any further explanation.

After another hour passed, the remaining enlisted crew began to huddle. Without the calming influence of the more senior staff and NCOs, anxiety among the crew began to spiral into outright panic. Soon, what had previously been dismissed as fanciful ramblings began to be viewed as ominous prophecy, especially as more and more time passed without any of the departed crew members returning to the ship.

After increasingly fractious arguments, several of the remaining crew headed for the Bounteous' bridge, determined to contact the captain and ask her for an update on the situation. When they arrived, they found that some members of the skeleton bridge crew had already been trying to contact the captain, but had not received a response. Moreover, when they tried to contact other nearby ships in the fleet for information, their signals had failed to connect. An Electrician's Mate was just about to run a full diagnostic on the hardware when the system sprang to life.

"This is the captain speaking. All remaining crew of the Bounteous are ordered to report to the flagship's sick bay on the double," she ordered curtly.

After looking back and forth nervously, an Infosys tech hesitantly keyed the mic on the comm system and responded, "Ummm, captain. We read you and I will relay your order. We, uh... well...there are requests from many of the crew to have more information about the situation. Is there some sort of emergency?"

After a short delay, the Captain responded with evident irritation, "You have your orders, sailor! The crew will be provided with all the information they need about the situation once they report to sick bay."

The tech looked nervously around the ship's cramped bridge, uncertain of how to respond. As the assembled crew whispered to each other in hushed, uncertain tones, the Electrician's Mate suddenly stabbed the mic button and said, "Aye, Captain! We will secure our stations and report to sick bay on the double!" and released the button.

The captain made an approving noise before she cut the connection, and then infosys tech asked angrily, "What the hell was that?"

The Electrician's Mate look at the assembled faces of his fellow sailors and said, "This reeks! Until proven otherwise, we need to assume the captain has been taken prisoner by a hostile force. We can't trust anything she says. Secure the port airlocks and get everyone up here."

He looked grimly around the bridge and took a deep breath. "We've got work to do."

-------

30 minutes later, the sailors were still frantically making their modifications in the electronics bay when the infosys tech yelled out, "Dammit... She's not buying my excuses anymore, guys!" He ripped off his headset and ran towards the others. "Did the engineers get through the armory seals yet?"

"Crap!" exclaimed a tech manning the security grid. "We've got multiple marine TAC teams approaching on the airlocks! And they're carrying breaching kits!"

"It looks like welding the hatches shut isn't going to buy us much time after all," said the electrician's mate. "Are the serial amplifiers online yet?"

Another tech popped out from under an equipment rack and gave a thumbs up before scurrying back. "Well, it's now or..."

"Wait wait wait!" yelled the security tech monitoring the security cameras. As the startled sailors turned to stare, he gestured frantically at one of the monitors. "Wait, those are our guys!" he said excitedly as he stabbed at the fuzzy image on the screen. "The group heading toward the midship airlock... they're our security team! Look... Gerald, Javier, Hans, and Jim! Maybe this is all legit if our people are finally coming back!"

The assembled sailors rushed over to screen chattering with excitement; their hopeful faces beamed as the tech tried to enhance the image and zoom in on their comrades. The infosys tech linked up to the comm panel outside the airlock and yelled, "It's about time, boys! Javier, where the fuck have you and your team been? What's been happening out there with our crew?"

The sailors watched the viewscreen intently as their four shipmates stood motionless outside the airlock, as if waiting for some unheard signal. Then Javier suddenly strode forward toward the comm panel and reached out his arm.

"Finally, we'll get some answers!" the security tech muttered, only to gasp suddenly when Javier smoothly plunged his knife into the comm panel's camera, killing the image.

"Oh, FUCK THAT!" the security tech snapped, turning to his comrades.

The outburst immediately snapped the sailors out of their stunned reverie and they leapt back into action. The infosys tech triggered the shipwide and yelled, "ATTENTION: WE HAVE MULTIPLE PRESUMED HOSTILE BREACHING TEAMS IN FED-ISSUE SIG-GEAR HEADING FOR THE CARGO BAY, MID-SHIP, ENGINE ROOM, AND NAV SECTION! PREPARE TO REPEL BOARDERS! ALL PERSONNEL NOT PRESENTLY ON BOARD THIS VESSEL ARE PRESUMED HOSTILE!" He clicked off the mic and turned to a runner. "Tell the engineers that if they don't get us some weapons in the next minute or two we're boned. If they don't think they can do it we might have to try to sabotage the door controls to slow them down and improvise."

As the sailor scurried off with the message, the security tech swiveled back around to his station and began flipping through his displays. "Guys, they're killing all the cameras at the port airlocks. I'm blind until they get into Corridor A and..." the tech gave a sudden frown. "Shit, why are the starboard proximity alarms going off?"

Just then, the Electrician's Mate popped up and gave them a thumbs-up. "Try the aux channel now. You should be boosted enough for them to hear you in Cleveland!"

The infosys tech nodded and spun back around to his console and patched his mic into the boosted channel. "ATTENTION SHIPS OF THE FLEET!" he yelled hoarsely. "This is the supply ship Bounteous. The flagship..."

and was suddenly thrown off his feet as the deck lurched, followed a second later by roaring screech.

"Fuck! That was the comms array," the security tech said, pointing at his screen for a moment until it suddenly fuzzed and went offline. "They rammed it with a goddamn shuttle!"

The infosys tech looked over at the Electrician's Mate, who was staring balefully at an array of flashing red warning lights. The Electrician's Mate returned his gaze and shook his head curtly as the sound of multiple klaxons and explosions could be heard in the distance, along with the sound of crew members yelling. The infosys tech sighed and said bitterly, "Well, if we're toast, we might as well warm them up a bit, too. Spin up the main engines and prepare for flank speed!" he yelled defiantly.

As crew members scurried frantically to the power and propulsion stations, the Electrician's Mate leaned close to the comm tech and whispered, "You do know that with all holes they've punched in our airlocks, we'll all die if we power up the engines."

The infosys tech nodded as his expression darkened. "Fuck 'em all." he muttered.

The Electrician's Mate sighed and gave a resigned shrug. "They should know better than to screw around with their supply ship. I guess that's what they get for biting the hand that feeds them!" he said with a wry chuckle.

The infosys tech smiled grimly and then turned back toward the propulsion station. "So where exactly are we on lighting a fire in these..." and then he felt everything flash blindingly white before going completely black.

----------

When the infosys tech regained consciousness, he blearily opened his eyes and saw Javier standing over his prone body. He flopped his head to the right and saw some marines in spacesuits and the other members of the ship's security team moving around the bridge helping the shaky crew members to their feet. He turned back to Javier, who was extending a hand to him. He paused to take a deep breath, then grabbed Javier's hand and scrambled to his feet. "Thanks," he said sheepishly to Javier.

"You idiots gave us quite the scare," Javier exclaimed as he helped brush off some of the dust and debris. "For a while there I thought you were going to kill us all!"

The infosys tech groaned, shook his head again to clear it, then answered, "Well, for a while that was the plan! If you guys had gotten here few seconds later, we all would have gotten very, very hot... and then very, very cold!"

"Fortunately you didn't seal the airlocks on the other side of the ship! And the space marines never let a little thing like hard vacuum slow them down!" Javier said jovially as his glowing blue eyes shone with mirth. As his own eyes returned the blue flash, the infosys tech took a deep breath, calmly leaned over and again triggered the shipwide. Speaking confidently, he cheerfully announced, "ATTENTION ALL CREW: WE HAVE CONFIRMATION THAT THE CREW MEMBERS BOARDING THE BOUNTEOUS ARE FRIENDLY. I REPEAT: THE CREW MEMBERS ARE CONFIRMED GREEN! CEASE ALL HOSTILE ACTION IMMEDIATELY AND REPORT TO THE NEAREST AIRLOCK FOR A POST-ACTION DEBRIEFING FROM OUR CAPTAIN!"

Javier sighed. "Do you think they'll really buy that we're friendly after we just blew up some key parts of your ship?" The infosys tech shrugged and replied blandly, "We can try to help sell it by having some of us help draw them out, but ultimately without comms, weapons, or engine control, there's not much they can really do other than delay the inevitable. There are only so many places they can hide, even on a ship this size."

As the Electrician's Mate joined them, he turned to the security tech and said, "Well, how about we get the internal sensors back online?"

The security tech nodded and then turned his glowing eyes back toward his console. "I think the problem was just a power surge from the comms array because someone backed a shuttlecraft into it. With luck, we'll just have to reset some breakers and then we can steer your teams where they need to go. Once we have eyes again, mopping up the stragglers should be so simple even Javier and his boys can handle it," he said cheerfully.

Javier nodded and signaled for his team to assemble and grabbed a rucksack filled with the alien parasites. "Hopefully we can get everyone converted ASAP so we can patch the damage, offload your supplies, and then have you get to work supplying the rest of the fleet with everything they need!"

Then they all began working diligently to end the short-lived mutiny of the Bounteous.