Running Down the Romulans

"We're away Captain," Shawn Hunter stated "On a direct intercept course with the Romulan convoy at warp 9.975. Time to intercept just over five hours."

"Good work Mister Hunter," Rivers replied "and we have the data from Mister Syntron?"

"Affirmative captain," Jureth replied checking the console on the XOs chair "We can transmit it to the Romulans as soon as we intercept them."

Rivers nodded and turned to her chief engineer "Mister Lire, how is our warp core holding up?"

"Hold on a second." Niomo responded as he read over the data coming in from the A/AM reaction systems. "She's running cold and strong, Captain. We can easily increase speed to 9.985 without much more stress. Any further than that, and I might have to pull out my USS Voyager Incident Logs to see what possible conundrum we might face. I recall they truned into lizards once."

Checking the engineering team status, he spun his chair around to look forward. "I've placed my people in Assault Mode locations. If we need to seperate immediately after dropping out of warp, we should be able to bleed off most of the stress put on an emergency stop and seperation."

Rivers gave a wry grin "I don't think the emergency separation will be necessary. We will try to reason with the Romulans first, and only engage them if we must." She then turned back to the helm "Mister Hunter, you heard the Commander, put the pedal to the floor."

"Aye Ma'am, Increasing speed to warp 9.985 estimated time to intercept is now four hours five minutes."

The Alsea increased her speed as she streaked toward her rondevousz with the Romulan convoy. Jureth, seated in the XO's chair looked over to tactical where his trusted right hand Cat Steele was standing.

"Cat, tactical status."

"The board is green Sir, phasers and torpedoes online and in standby. Shield generators online and in standby. We're ready to show our teeth if we have to."

Oseno nodded. He already knew that Cat would have everything ready to go, but not being in control of the ship's tactical systems was frustrating for the young Bajoran. This type of situation was what he had trained for as a tactical officer and he would much rather be in Cat's position than where he was. Still, he had a job to do and he would do it. Jureth had made that promise to the incapacitated Captain Siduri back in Starbase Ten's medical center and he intended to keep it.

Aboard a Romulan D'deridex cruiser, the Centurian at the science station said, "Commander, possible contact bearing three-one-three mark four."

"What is it?" the Commander ordered.

"It's hard to make out with all the interference from the Anomaly, but it is definitely a ship of some sort."

The Commander moved to the navigational display and said, "That heading is almost directly from Starbase 10. Tactical, raise shields and cloak. Transmit same command to all other ships... but tell our Valdores to maintain visibility. They already know we're here so let's give them something to look at."

He then added, "Helm, move off, bearing seven-one-five. Full impulse."

Captain's Log: We should be coming up on our planned intercept of the Romulan task force soon. Though I am prepared to do my duty I hope that it will not come to violence and that the Romulan commander will see reason.

As Rachele was finishing her log entry the communicator in the ready room chimed.

"Bridge to Captain Rivers," came the voice of her XO Lt. Oseno

"Go ahead Lieutenant." Rivers replied

"We're coming up on he coordinates Captain."

"I'm on my way, Rivers out."

Rachele stood up and straightened her uniform before walking out onto the bridge of the Alsea.

"Status," she demanded calmly.

"Coming up on the intercept point Captain," Oseno stated again

"Tactical?" Rivers asked Cat Steele

"Nothing yet ma'am.....wait, contacts bearing three one three Captain. Interference makes it difficult to tell how many, but I know their engine signatures are Romulan."

"Helm, take us out of warp and close on the contacts at half impulse. Yellow alert, shields up."

The Alsea dropped back to real space using normal deceleration and bore down on the Romulan vessels.

"Contacts are a little clearer now ma'am," Cat reported "Romulan Valdore class, two ships."

"Valdore.." Rivers mused

"They can't be alone," Oseno said stating what Rivers was already thinking.

"Lieutenant Steele," Rivers ordered "Use Mister Syntron's sensor modifications to find those other ships."

"Aye captain...standby.."

Cat's fingers deftly manipulated the Alsea's tactical sensor array, tying it in with the main sensor array and running Commander Syntron's modification program. Then she set the sensors to their maximum output and rescanned the area.

"Additional contacts Captain, cloaked, definitely Romulan, most likely D'derridex class. Just a guess," Cat added "There's enough interference that I can't positively identify them."

Rivers nodded "open a channel, let's give them something to think about."

Cat nodded indicating the channel was open.

"Romulan vessels, this is Captain Rachele Rivers of the Federation starship Alsea. You are in Federation space in violation of the Treaty of Algeron. Please set course and return to Romulan space immediately or we will be forced to treat your squadron's incursion as an act of war."

On the cloaked D'deridex that had previously moved out of range, the Commander listened with amusement to the testimony of the female Captain. "With pleasure, my dear," he said under his breath.

"Too late for that Alsea! We have the upper hand and war was already declared by our Empress, whether you knew it or not!" he laughed, loudly to inspire his bridge. "Come about and make haste toward the Alsea. We shall give them a nice surprise."

His mistake was not knowing their ability to at least partially detect his ship. Fortunately for him, the Azimuth Horizon made the readings spotty at best.

Meanwhile, the Valdores that weren't cloaked ignored the warning and began charging weapons, but their attack pattern was directed to the Anomaly instead.

At the tactical station Cat Steele detected the charging weapons of the Romulan vessels and immediately notified Rivers.

"Captain, they're charging weapons, but they're not targeting us. They're targeting the Azimuth Horizon. Also, the cloaked vessels are changing positon, moving to intercept us."

Rivers frowned "Romulan Commander, I know your plan, and I can see your cloaked vessels but I have data that proves the Azimuth Horizon can be contained rather than destroyed. We are transmitting on an open channel now. Please acknowledge."

She used the terminal on her command chair to initiate the data transmission containing the data they'd received from the Artemis. Rachele was determined to follow Samji's directive and not engage the Romulans unless she absolutely had to, but she was not afraid of a fight either. She was after all, a highly trained security officer at heart.

Beside Rivers Jureth was on edge. In his head he just knew the Romulans weren't going to listen to reason, and the Alsea would be forced to eliminate them. He wanted to give the order himself, but Rivers was the captain and he would follow her lead despite his own feelings.

Niomo sat with his back turned to the Captain; however, he had to give her credit. He would have already destroyed the cloaked ships and demanded the surrender of the remaining Valdores. The next few minutes would decide what happened to the Romulan ships and his. Already he was beginning restoring the power balance between all 3 warp cores in preparation for separation and a combat situation. As he was working, he thought of an idea.

“Captain,” he stated as he turned his chair, awaiting acknowledgement “It might be possible for us to bluff the Romulans. Clearly at least one of their cloaked ships does not realize we can see them. If they fire upon us, we will have to destroy them all. We might be able to release a controlled anti-proton burst from our deflector. If we burst in random directions and then multiple times directly at the cloaked vessel, hopefully they will think we can see them. Even if it’s just for show. Or they could attack us, we we wipe them out.”

The officer shrugged. He never liked diplomacy.

Rachele listened and considered the engineer's idea as he was talking. It was non lethal and might just bluff the Roumlans into turning tail and heading for the neutral zone. She nodded at Niomo.

"Do it, and do it quickly Commander, if they open fire even if its on the anomaly I won't have any more options."

"Aye, Ma'm. Miss Steele, feed the lead D'deridex's updating location into my console. Powering up the deflector array."

As he generated the particles he needed into the array, he also added in some other minor particles that would give the burst an easily visible green shine. He hoped that this would add to the act, as it is much easier to believe you have been touched if you see yourself being touched.

"Deploying burst. Random targeting Mark 12, 47 and 1. Directing burst wave towards the D'deridex...I register something as being there, but if I didn't know it was a ship, i'd just assume it was space dust. Re-targeting the D'deridex and firing again. And again. Ok Captain. If they still think they are cloaked, I'd say we have a war on our hands. And while I'm at it, I'll play Tactical officer and remind you that once they decloak we will lose the chance to take them down without shielding. Sorry if I stepped on your toes Miss Steele."

"No problem Sir," Cat said in response to the engineer's apology "It was a good idea."

Rivers watched the viewer as the lead Romulan vessel was illuminated by Commander Lire's anit-proton burst and now she had a decision to make. With no response from the Romulans regarding the data transmission Rachele was running out of options and time, she could not let them fire on the anomaly under any circumstances, but if the Alsea fired first she could engage the Federation in a war they couldn't afford.

((OOC: Note this addition from the Romulan side))

The Commander on the D'deridex that had been moving toward the Alsea smiled as the bursts surrounded his ship. He had suspected their ability to know his location, but this verified it. The officer at tactical muttered, "Sir..." nervously, but the Commander simply said, "Hold!" and waited for the expected follow up response.

"Indeed, good work Commander," Rivers said to Lire "and I understand the technology of the Romulan cloak, but thank you for the reminder. Mister Oseno, recommendations?"

Jureth contemplated Rivers for only a moment before answering "Captain, they clearly are prepared to eliminate us to carry out their plan. I recommend we engage them Ma'am, disable their weapon systems if we can."

Rivers closed her eyes in thought. Her XO made sense and the Romulans very presence in and refusal to leave the sector was already a gross violation of interstellar law.

"Red alert, engage multi-vector assault mode. Mister Oseno I'll need you to command the secondary section. Mister Lire, you are my only other officer with command experience. Can you take command of the tertiary?"

Jureth acknowledged Rivers order with a nod. "Computer, site to site transport, secondary battle bridge. Authorization Oseno thirty one bravo juliet."

The transporter acknowledged the Bajoran's command and whisked him away depositing him on the secondary battle bridge a second later. Jureth noted that thanks to his earlier order the crew for the Alsea's secondary section was already in place with Ensign Murtaugh taking replacing Cat Steele at tactical.

Niomo watched as Jureth transported away and prepared to do the same. The lights had dimmed to Red Alert status, and he could already feel the ship vibrating "I'll see you on the other side Captain. Assuming my modifications to Core3 don't light my pants on fire." He looked to the ceiling and stated "Emergency Transport, Tertiary Bridge."

He arrived on the smallest bridge moments later and nodded to the officers who were already taking their places. He sat down in the Captain's chair. A place he had never wanted to sit again. "Time to shine people. Battle Stations. Tactical; hold fire, but let's let them know we aren't amused. Target one of the cloaked Warbirds."

On the bridge Rachele Rivers still stood just forward of the command chair, but then the ship's computer intoned

"Multi-vector assault mode separation sequence initiated..separation in twenty seconds."

Rachele took her seat immediately and looked around at the bridge crew. They were all veteran officers, and they were all ready.

"Separation in ten seconds...nine..eight..seven..six..five..four..three..two..one.."

The Alsea shuddered as the mag-lock system disengaged and the mighty warship split into three powerful entities. On the main bridge Rivers opened an inter ship communications channel and began issuing orders.

"All sections, this is the Captain, our first targets are those cloaked warbirds, we will engage the closest target. The attack pattern will be largely automated."

With her orders given Rivers addressed the ship's comptuer,

"Computer, initiate attack pattern Siduri One."

"Acknowleged, specify target."

"Take coordinates from tactical console."

"Acknowledged, initiating."

The Alsea's three elements moved in coordination using the former captain's preprogrammed attack maneuver which was very similar to the legendary Kolvoord Starburst maneuver. Rachele watched their still cloaked target on the viewer. She wondered if the Romulans had any idea what was about to happen to them.

Seeing the very thing he was waiting for come to fruition, the Romulan Commander grinned again, and said, "NOW!" which also broadcasted over the open comm to two Mogai escorts that had been completely still the whole time, and therefore unable to be detected, even by the Alsea's improved sensors. All three ships decloaked at once, raised shields, and charged weapons; the Mogai targeting the secondary and tertiary hulls that had just passed them, and the D'deridex targeting the primary that had been taking the lead.

On the bridge of the Alsea' s primary section Cat Steele detected the new arrivals as they decloaked.

"Captain! Two more contacts, Mogai class, decloaking with the warbird!"

"All sections evasive maneuvers!"

The Alsea's sections broke off their preconfigured attack and swooped past the Romulan ships on their first pass with no shots fired, but Rachele Rivers was not amused.

"Lieutenant Steele, show them what we've got. Load and fire transphasic torpedoes at the lead warbird. Three round volley."

"Aye Captain, transphasic rounds loaded! Firing!"

On the secondary battle bridge Ensign Murtaugh detected the two new arrivals at the same time as Cat Steele did and Rivers order for evasive maneuvers came over the comm. The Alsea's secondary section juked as the transphasic torpedoes flew away from the torpedo launcher of the primary section.

((OOC: Inserted this))

As the transphasics hurtled toward their intended target, the Mogai began firing their disruptor cannons directly into the secondary and tertiary hulls of the Alsea, attempting to knock out their weapons while at the same time the D'deridex launched a similar attack, but with multiple disruptor beams at the primary hull. Their fire being divided, the impact on each of the three parts that would've otherwise lowered the shields completely was divided as well and no damage was incurred to the hulls.

The D'deridex was not so lucky. It maneuvered to port, away from the Anomaly, but slowly of course due to its cruiser type and massive girth, and still took seven of the nine transphasic torpedoes to its starboard broadside. Their shields blocked much of the damage that would've otherwise obliterated the ship, but being transphasics much of it got through and put puncture marks all across the Romulan vessel's hull.

The Romulans then responded by loosing three targeting heavy plasma torpedoes at each of the Alsea's parts before attempting to come about to its port.

"Stay with the primary section's target, fire phasers," Jureth ordered.

The phasers, firing through the pockmarks on the starboaord side, knocked out the D'deridex's impulse engines and weapons, leaving it to drift helplessly, only halfway through its turn. The Mogai, however, were still very much alive and punished the secondary and tertiary hulls with as much disruptor cannon fire and regular plasma torpedoes as they could muster.

Meanwhile, the Valdores, left alone to carry out their assigned task, fired a salvo of trilithium-enhanced plasma torpedoes directly at the Azimuth Horizon.

Rachele Rivers gripped the arms of the Alsea's command chair as the primary section shuddered under fire from the warbird.

"Report!" she demanded

"The warbird is heavily damaged captain," Cat Steele replied "engines and shield offline. The escorts are continuing to attack the secondary and tertiary sections, and we've taken a plasma torpedo hit. The shields are weakend but no hull breaches. Captain we have a new problem. The valdores have launched projectiles toward the Azimuth Horizon!"

"What are they?"

"They look like Romulan standard plasma torpedoes, but I can't be sure."

"Time to impact?"

"I'm uncertain Sir."

"Can we intercept them Lieutenant?"

"I don't know, the Horizon is interfering with our tactical sensors, but I could try to target them manually with our phasers."

"Mister Hunter, get us in position to intercept those projectiles!"

"Hang on," the veteran pilot said as he pushed the primary hull to her full speed moving away from the D'derridex warbird.

Rachele did not like leaving Oseno and Lire to deal with the mogai escorts, but the ship's rear torpedo launcher was mounted on Oseno's secondary section and if she could help it she was not going to allow those projectiles to reach the Horizon.

"Lieutenant Steele as soon as you have a good shot open fire!"

"Aye Captain, hold her steady Hunter."

"I"ll try but we're pretty close to the Horizon!"

Cat activated the manual controls on the tactical console and got what little amplification she could from the ship's sensors to help guide her shots. Targeting as many of the projectiles as she could as the Alsea began to shudder under influence from the unstable space near the Horizon Cat lined up her shot.

"Firing phasers!"

On the secondary section Jureth nearly fell out of the command chair as the plasma torpedo from the Warbird impacted the shields.

"Status report!"

"Shields at 80% and holding Sir," Ensign Murtaugh reported "Minor hull damage from plasma but no breaches."

"Warbird status?"

"heavily damaged Sir, she's out of the fight."

The ship shuddered again under the withering disruptor fire of the mogai escorts, and Jureth's knuckles were white from his tight grip on the chair's arms.

"Return fire, and helm show them our backside, quantum torpedoes, full spread!"

On the Tertiary Hull, Niomo was fairing as well as Jureth. Sparks flew from a near by console as their shields took another torpedo.

"Sir! Shields down to 75%. The Romulans seem to be focusing on our section sir!"

Niomo rubbed his brow. He knew that he was flying the slowest and most un-maneuverable section, but he never expected the Romulans to know that as well. Their time on the Prometheus served them well, it seemed.

As he ordered the ship to fire on the same Mogai that the Secondary hull was lining up it's torpedo launcher, a call came out.

"Commander, the Valdores have opened fire on the Horizon! The Captain and the Primary Hull are moving to intercept!"

"On Screen!" Niomo cursed as the viewscreen changed to the plasma torpedoes speeding towards the Azimuth Horizon. "Tactical, target the Valdores. Give them something to worry about. Alert the Secondary hull that they are on their own with the Mogai. Open a channel to the Primary Hull."

"Open Sir." the Ops officer reported.

"Captain, I wouldn't suggest going to deep into the Horizon without recombining. We didn't plan for any separated flights into it. I'm not sure how the Flood Gate impulse engines will fair without the rest of the ship's backup batteries and generators. I'm providing cover for you against the Valdores. The best we can do."

Rivers heard her chief engineer's warning and acknowledged it "Understood Commander, I'm just trying to give Lieutenant Steele a shot at those torpedoes."

Aboard one of the Valdores, the Tactical officer alerted his Commander. "Sir, the primary hull is charging weapons." On screen they could then see the phaser blasts streak by and flirt with the Valdore's starboard side, but none actually made impact. "No hits, Sir."

"They're not firing at us. Hard to starboard!" he shouted.

"Sir..."

"Do it!" he commanded, and the ship began to put itself between the Alsea's primary hull and the torpedoes headed for the Anomaly.

Cat Steele's toned reflexes and steady hand allowed her to shoot down 6 of the 8 torpedoes before they got near. A final well-timed shot streaked a bit through the Valdore's shields lighting them up briefly and continued on toward the 7th torpedo, which exploded near the last one and set it off. These minor explosions were right on the edge of the Horizon, but it was enough for an invisible tendril of the Anomaly to feed off of and expand outward instantly. No one would've known of its existence had the Valdore not been close enough that it began to be pulled by the massive graviton differential. The ship lurched to the side as it fought against the pull but eventually it lost the battle and with a deafening pop, it disappeared along with the tendril.

Meanwhile, the other Valdore turned to face its aggressor. The tertiary hull was peppered with disruptor fire as the Mogai continued facing down the secondary. "Load another round of plasma torpedoes, in case we get another shot," the Commander ordered. "Come about."

The Valdore continued to fire its disruptors as it tried to maneuver as close to the Anomaly as possible.

The tendril that had swallowed the other Romulan ship then continued its growth toward the Mogai and threatened to completely encircle and trap the primary hull of the Alsea.

Rachele Rivers watched in horror as the Azimuth Horizon swallowed up the Valdore, and then quickly came back to her senses as she watched the tendril continue to spread.

"Evasive maneuvers! Mister Hunter get us out of here!"

"Aye captain!"

Shawn Hunter's fingers streaked deftly over the Alsea's helm controls turning the primary hull hard away from the anomaly and pushing its engines to full power at the same time. As they tried to make their getaway the Alsea bucked hard in the unstable space, but Hunter was an expert pilot and he'd dealt with these tendrils before. He fought against the anomaly's pull on his ship. As the Alsea bucked Rachele Rivers lost her grip and was thrown from the command chair landing hard on the deck. Her head exploded and despite her strong will blackness overcame her.

"Captain!" Cat Steele yelled and much as Jureth had done when Kalten Siduri was injured Cat leapt over the tactical console to check on her commanding officer. She felt a weak pulse and realized that everyone on the bridge, except Shawn Hunter was looking at her for orders.

"Activate emergency medical hologram!" Cat yelled and the ship's doctor shimmered into view.

"What is the problem?"

"The captain is injured, she hit her head!"

"Move away please." the doctor instructed

Cat moved and then as the doctor went to work on Rivers, she bolted back up to the tactical console opening a comm channel to Oseno and Commander Lire.

"Oseno, the captain's been injured, she's out cold!"

On the bridge of the secondary section Jureth heard the distress in Cat Steele's voice as she came over the communications channel.

"Murtaugh, give me a visual on the primary section!"

The battle bridge's viewer showed the distressed primary hull of the Alsea as she moved away from the growing subspace tendril. Instantly Jureth knew that it was time to leave this party. He'd seen what those tendrils could do to a ship, and now in command he wasn't about to let them get the Alsea.

"All sections, this is Lieutenant Oseno, pull back from the anomaly now!"

The helmsman on the secondary section didn't have to be told twice, she pushed the ship's engine to full impulse and the secondary hull streaked away from the Azimuth Horizon.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Niomo shouted at Jureth, "Helm! Get us the Hell away from the Horizon. Don't even let the tendril look at us. Ops, status report."

"Shields down to 57%, but holding. Batteries at 89%. No injured. Damage control in process. I think the Primary Hull has taken damage. I can't get a good reading because of the tendrils. Secondary Hull is in the same situation as us. Both Valdores were taken by the anomaly. The D'edreix is out of commission. Only the Mogai remain."

"What are the Mogai doing?" Niomo pondered. Their mission had failed and they were no match for the Prometheus class warship.

"Once the Valdores were destroyed, they ceased their attack. They might be planning on continuing their mission, sir."

"Very well. Keep all weapons targeted on the Mogai closest to the anomaly. Don't let them fire anything else at it. If they start to cloak, open fire. Do not let them run."

Niomo heard Aye sir's from around the bridge. He sat back in the Chair and rubbed it's arm. It did feel good being a Captain again. But that wasn't why he was here. This was only part one of the operation. They still needed to seal the Azimuth Horizon away for good.

Just as they were about to deal with the Mogai, the sensors on all three pieces of the ship lit up. About a quarter of a light year away, in the area where they had parted ways with the Artemis, a massive explosion was detected which ruptured subspace, causing an alert in the sensors finely attuned to detect such subspace anomalies.

The Mogai saw it too and jumped on the chance of a distraction to try and cloak and move off back toward the Romulan-side of the Azimuth Horizon.

Aboard both the primary and secondary sections of the Alsea, Cat Steele and Alaura Murtaugh were alerted by their tactical consoles to the massive explosion and subsequent subspace rupture. The Alsea was well clear of the anomaly now and the remaining Romulan ships had ceased firing on the much more powerful Alsea.
Alaura alerted Jureth.

"Lieutenant, sensors just detected a massive explosion Sir."

"Where Ensign?" Jureth asked suddenly getting a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Near the last known position of the Artemis Sir," Alaura said softly.

A silence fell over the bridge after Alaura made her report, and Jureth closed his eyes praying to the Prophets that this wasn't what it looked like.
It was Cat Steele's voice over the comm system that broke the silence.

"Steele to Oseno, I just detected..."

"I know Cat," Jureth said evenly interrupting her "Ops, bring Commander Lire in on this call."

"Aye Sir," the ops officer replied "channel is open."

"Commander I'm sure Ensign Celes at tactical has informed you about the explosion, we need to put this ship back together. I'm going to initiate the recombination sequence."

"Sir," Alaura interrupted "the Romulans are cloaking."

"Let them go Ensign, we've foiled their plot. Send a dispatch to Starfleet Command alerting them to the position of the Warbird. She may not be here by the time that backup arrives, but we have bigger problems."

"Aye Sir."

Niomo chimed in, adding his two cents, "I'd rather see them space dust, Lieutenant... but as much as I disagree, I'll go along with your decision. Tactical, let the Romulans go. Intiating recombination sequence on my end. I'll be in main engineering if you need me."

"Computer," Jureth intoned "initiate ship recombination sequence."

"Acknowledged, recombination sequence initiated..."

Minutes later the Alsea shuddered as the interlock system brought her pieces back together again. Jureth immediately rushed to the ship's main bridge. When he entered he looked for Captain Rivers, but didn't see her and addressed Cat Steele who was in the command chair.

"Where is the captain?"

"The doc took her to sickbay."

Jureth tapped his combadge "Oseno to Sickbay, doctor how is she?"

"Unconscious," was the terse disembodied reply

"Will she recover?"

"Eventually, but not if you keep bothering me, sickbay out."

Oseno looked at the command chair for a long moment knowing that technically it was his as the acting XO, but right at this moment he would have given anything to be back behind the tactical console. The bridge crew was looking to him, and finally he walked to the command chair and sat down.

"Ops, open a channel to the Artemis,"

"Open Sir,"

"USS Artemis, this is USS Alsea, Lieutenant Oseno calling, please respond."

"No response Sir," replied the operations officer

"USS Artemis, this is USS Alsea, Lieutenant Oseno calling, please respond."

Jureth looked at the ops officer who simply shook his head.

"Keep trying to hail them, Mister Hunter lay in a course to the Artemis last known position maximum warp."

"Aye Sir."

Jureth tapped his combadge "Oseno to Lire. Commander I'm sure you're quite busy, but I need to know if we can go to maximum warp. We've lost sensor contact with the Artemis and she's not responding to our hails."

Niomo had just arrived in engineering as Jureth called. "At this point, I'd suggest 8.5 at maximum. I still have to go through the damage report from the Primary section. My teams are just returning from their posts with data."

((OOC: Note, no update was made. Just removing some text that was moved from here to "All Turned Around"))