Kalva looked around the Promenade from behind the bar of one of his many establishments on the station. The dimmed, flickering lights made the bustle of people attempting to flee to safety seem even more chaotic. The bulkheads groaned under the constant pressure against the station’s shields versus the Vaadwaur weapons fire.

Kalva, for his part, was shuffling his staff into the safety of the back of the bar where he had installed force field emitters and other safety devices normally reserved for the rowdiest of customers. As his staff shuffled in, he gripped his disruptor pistol tightly, almost an extra sense that danger was approaching.

In the darkness of the emergency lighting, Kalva’s eyes were blinded by the bright orange hue of Vaadwaur soldiers materializing all over the Promenade, armored with weapons raised. The Vaadwaur fanned out in tactical formation, looking for any resistance. The station’s Promenade echoed with the distant sound of shouting and screams as the civilians of the Promenade realized what was happening.

Kalva, confused by the sheer terror of the voices, considered that the Vaadwaur might be that terrifying. ‘Are the Vaadwaur really that intimidating?‘ he thought to himself.

The truth was, on the surface, much worse.

Kalva could hear most of the distant voices through his Ferengi lobes, but he could also hear what sounded like Vaadwaur screams. A physical altercation of some sort. More screams. Very little weapon fire. Three Vaadwaur were approaching Kalva with their weapons raised, ordering him to come out from behind the bar and anyone who was in the bar with him.

They didn’t see the Gorn until it was too late.

From a side corridor that ran next to the bar, a Gorn leapt in between the civilians led by Kalva and the Vaadwaur soldiers approaching. The Gorn, over seven feet of scaled muscle, used his massive, alien frame to slam into the lead Vaadwaur soldier like a battering ram. The others turned, but before they could react, a second Gorn was already there. The second Gorn let out a harsh, whistling, hissing sound as he charged through the remaining Vaadwaur soldiers.

The Vaadwaur regrouped quickly, albeit bruised and sore. They let out a panicked, unrelenting disruptor fire from their rifles and watched as it was absorbed by the Gorn’s reinforced armor plating. One of the Gorn took a blast to the shoulder and didn’t even flinch. Instead, he grabbed the rifle from his attacker’s hands and crushed it with one clawed fist as a show of strength. Before the Vaadwaur could react in anything but sheer terror, the Gorn began lifting the soldier and slammed him against the wall with bone-shattering force.

The first Gorn grabbed another Vaadwaur attacker by the neck and squeezed until the helmet cracked, then dropped the body like discarded refuse.

Kalva then recognized a familiar sound: phaser fire from Starfleet security rang out behind the Gorn. This flank helped to cut through the confusion and pinned down the remaining Vaadwaur. As Kalva stuck his head out from the bar, he realized the Gorn were crawling over the Promenade, dispatching Vaadwaur forces like broken children’s toys. The Gorn, operating with shock and awe tactics against an unsuspecting Vaadwaur, surged forward to finish the job.

A Vaadwaur officer barked orders calling for a fallback. But the Promenade had become a kill zone. The last of his squad tried to retreat, stumbling through the dimly light Promenade, stumbling over the chaos and bodies. Making their way out of the Promenade, Ambassador S’Rath emerged near where Kalva was standing. The Ferengi overheard the Gorn Ambassador as he asked the Starfleet security officers where the Vaadwaur had also beamed in. Once the locations were pinpointed, Kalva watched as the Gorn disappeared as quickly as they arrived, pressing on to force the Vaadwaur retreats elsewhere on the station.

The fight wasn’t over. But on the Promenade, for now, the Gorn had drawn the line, and the Vaadwaur had learned to fear it.