The battle inside the Enterprise was less a struggle and more a one-sided massacre.
On the bridge, the moment Maine's team materialized in the transporter's glow, the slaughter began.
The klingon guards only managed to see a few blurry dark figures and the sudden flash of deadly light; their neural reaction speed, in front of highly augmented warriors, especially those with the Sandevistan System activated, was as slow as stillness.
Morris and Valerie transformed into two deathly afterimages.
Their movements exceeded the limits of the Klingons' visual perception, and the Sonic Blade and Mantis Blades, with their high-frequency humming vibrations, precisely and efficiently sliced across the enemies' necks.
There were hardly any proper screams, only the dull thud of heavy bodies falling and the sound of disruptor guns clattering uncontrollably onto the floor.
Within a few breaths, the Klingon Soldiers who had been controlling the bridge and swaggering around were all lying in pools of blood, heads separated from torsos, their faces still frozen with the fierce expressions of the previous moment.
Sulu, Chekov, and other crew members, forced to huddle in a corner of the bridge, hadn't even fully grasped what had happened; they only felt a blur before their eyes, and the oppressive threat of death vanished, leaving only several rapidly cooling klingon corpses and the heavy smell of blood permeating the air.
Maine didn't even spare a glance at the bodies on the floor, his low voice giving orders through the crew's comm channel: "Valerie, Jackie, clear the left passage. Dorio, Falco, the right side. Ensure all paths to the bridge are secure. Eliminate any armed Klingons on sight."
"Yes, Captain!" The crew quickly fanned out, like cold Scavengers, beginning to clear the remaining enemies in the areas surrounding the bridge.
Their actions were efficient and coordinated, exhibiting a nearly instinctive killing skill honed through countless street fights and gang wars, a style starkly different from the Federation crew's accustomed combat approach, which leaned more towards suppression and control.
Meanwhile, in the engineering section, the battle was also drawing to a close.
Kirk led a hastily assembled team of over a dozen men, charging out from a side passage, their phaser beams accurately striking the Klingons attempting to establish defensive positions.
Almost simultaneously, inside the engineering section, Engineer Scott's roar of "For the Enterprise!" echoed, along with more intense phaser fire.
The klingon crew, caught in the middle, were attacked from both front and back; their bravery, having lost the element of surprise and terrain advantage, quickly disintegrated under the fierce counterattack of the Federation crew, eager to save their ship.
Soon, the last stubbornly resisting Klingon Soldier was personally struck down by Kirk.
"Scott! Report!" Kirk strode quickly through the smoke-filled engineering section, asking loudly.
"Engine control systems have some minor scrapes, and the shield generators are overloaded, but the core structure is intact! Give me ten minutes, and I can make this old girl dance again!" Scott's voice carried the excitement of a narrow escape and the focused dedication typical of an engineer.
Just then, Maine's steady voice came through Kirk's communicator: "Captain, the bridge and surrounding areas have been cleared. We are advancing towards the mid-section of the ship; remaining resistance is sporadic and disorganized. Full clearance expected within three minutes."
Kirk's taut nerves finally relaxed a little.
He looked around, seeing the crew members back at their stations, beginning emergency repairs, and then looked at his communicator, as if he could see Maine's team ruthlessly eliminating threats within the ship's steel veins.
The operation to retake the Enterprise was, unexpectedly quickly, nearing its end.
---
While the battle inside the Enterprise subsided with astonishing speed, on Genesis' surface camp, Osiris was executing another part of the plan.
Using a tracking program he had subtly implanted during previous communications with the Klingons, and Genesis' energy field as a relay, he easily infiltrated the rudimentary computer networks of the two klingon cruisers in orbit.
The Klingons' proud ship systems, with their protective measures, appeared primitive and laughable before a Tech-Priest from the Dark Age of Technology, skilled in the essence of data and logical plagues.
Their firewalls were like a sheet of paper, instantly pierced and disintegrated by Osiris with overwhelming force.
Meeting almost no meaningful resistance, Osiris' will swept through every control node of the two warships.
Engine output was forcibly zeroed, weapon system energy circuits were physically severed, shield generators were overloaded and taken offline, and even emergency manual control levers and physical circuit switches were cleverly welded shut or locked by him using precise energy pulses.
The comm channels were filled with the Klingons' angry roars and desperate attempts, but all was in vain.
The two warships, which moments ago had been bristling with murderous intent, had, within mere tens of seconds, become two completely paralyzed metal coffins floating in orbit; except for the life support systems, which were deliberately preserved, they had lost all functions.
"Target units have lost combat capability; control systems are completely locked," Osiris' synthesized voice calmly reported to Kirk, who had just finished clearing the Enterprise and returned to the comm channel, as if he had merely completed a routine system debug.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the channel, clearly Kirk processing the information.
Then, Kirk's voice came through, with a hint of disbelief and relief: "Well done, Magos. Maintain status quo, we..."
"Recommend initiating their self-destruct sequence," Osiris interrupted him, his tone devoid of any fluctuation, as if proposing a perfectly reasonable technical solution, "Permanently eliminating the threat source is the most efficient. Estimated 1.2 seconds to complete command override."
"Wait! Magos Osiris!" Krol, standing nearby, quickly interjected, "Capturing these two ships and the Klingons on board holds greater value! We can gather intelligence from them, understand the purpose of their operation, and even use them as bargaining chips with the klingon Empire!
Destroying them will only escalate tensions and lead to unnecessary subsequent conflicts!"
Osiris' crimson optical lens subtly turned towards the pale-faced Krol, his internal processor rapidly weighing the pros and cons between "eliminating potential threats" and "acquiring strategic resources and avoiding uncontrollable diplomatic risks."
For a Tech-Priest accustomed to eradicating problems with absolute force, the "value" proposed by Krol required recalculation.
After a brief silence, his synthesized voice spoke again: "Logical assessment complete. Retaining targets as intelligence sources and political assets; long-term profit probability is higher than immediate destruction. Self-destruct command canceled."
He accepted Krol's suggestion, but the basis for this decision was still a cold calculation of gains and losses, not any form of humanitarianism or diplomatic consideration.
The threat in orbit was thus neutralized in such a silent, yet absolutely overwhelming manner.
The two klingon cruisers, along with their crew, became prisoners floating in orbit around Genesis, and all of this was achieved merely by a brief data intrusion by the Tech-Priest in the ground camp.