S6 - E3 - Tripwire

[Cerna Nox]

[Main Engineering - USS Challenger]

Nox swore something in Trill under her breath as the Captain called for the away team to leave. It meant she didn't finish her modifications in time. She should have been faster, but no use in worrying about that now.

Eventually her modification to the Phaser Rifle had been tried and tested, a simple modification to the housing around the discharge crystal and the beam control assembly would disable the emission of nadions and enable the emission of rapid vibrations, fast enough to focus phonons - quantum vibration wavelengths - instead of nadions.

If the Kinshaya were truly as weak to sonic emissions as the Science team had led them to believe, then this would put them in a world of hurt.

Nox taps her combadge. "Nox to Sunik, I've completed plans for a sonic modification to a phaser rifle."

"A quicker response time may be more prudent in the future, Ensign. Sunik to Mrekrerhas, I'm transmitting you and the away team a set of schematics for a minor phaser modification. It should prove most effective against the Kinshaya."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck One - Jeffries tube behind the viewscreen]

The usually talkative Andorian was silent as he focused on this task.  To him, it seemed like his hands were a blur as he worked at removing all the isolinear chips. Because time was of the essence, Lahr wouldn't bother checking each individually to see which was damaged, and causing the overheat.  Nope he was switching them all out and could sort through the pulled chips later to find the problem ones.

Replacing the chips wasn't as speedy as the removal, as there was a certain pattern to the placement that Lahr had to follow.  But long weeks of having had to replace every isolinear chip on the ship meant that Lahr (and every other Ops and Engineer officer tasked with those jobs) was well-practiced at doing the replacement.

As he pulled the last chip, Lahr glanced to the board schematic, and located the appropriate color-coded pattern he needed to follow.  Without hesitation, his hands delved into his engineer's kit to begin retrieving the appropriate colored isolinear chips in the order he needed them.  After weeks of this sort of work, Lahr had his kit set up with the chips organized already by color and his muscle memory meant he could retrieve the appropriate color without even having to look away from the schematic.  His hands moved non-stop, each one independent until the last chip was set.

"Done. Lahr called out - the protocol ingrained in him after hundreds of times doing it. "Powering up the panel.."

On the Bridge, the main viewscreen lit up and the Helm and Navigation consoles came to life.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

Sixty-four security officers in full battle armor arrived and began laying down a heavy covering fire. The Kinshaya, if surprised by the arrival of Federation reinforcements, they didn't show it. They simply shifted fire from the few tattered remnants of the Rainier's crew to the new comers without pause and both sides began to take casualties.

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Deck 2 corridor, USS Ranier]

Kyan heard the unmistakable whine of phaser fire and a cacophony of voices even before all of his molecules had finished being reassembled by the transporter. What was a three or four second process seemed to take an eternity  as the sounds, then the sights, and finally the familiar smells of combat assaulted his senses.

When he was whole again, the Onlie turned to Ensign Lorin, the security officer who'd been standing beside him on the transporter padd. "Arright Mister Lo....." He turned his head just in time to see an angry yellowish beam hit the Bolian full in the face, dropping him to the deck. He instinctively went with the Bolian. Checking for a pulse and finding none he made the invoking sign for the Powers and grabbed Lorin's rifle and spare charger cells as the yellow beams lit up the air above him. He gave the dead man a pat on the chest. "Thanks mate. Have fun in the Summerlands... or wherever Bolians go."

Still lying on his stomach, Kyan tried to get a look at where the Kinshaya were shooting from but the lighting was too dim to see much. When they fired he could make out their massive silhouettes in the smoke from burnt out components and scorched bulkheads. His own crewmates had blended with the Ranier's battered crew behind makeshift firing positions in the intersection of a T junction and down the dead-end corridor where a single medic was overwhelmed with wounded people in an improvised casualty collection point. Human looking through the dim light, he looked young, and frazzled.

Seeing their new Andorian doctor, who'd also managed to not be shot on arrival, Kyan crawled over to where she was crouched. After getting her attention he motioned toward the corridor and the other medic. "Help him, an dinnae get shot, cause if I get shot I dinna want no nervous baby grup ta be fixing me so. I'll cover ya."

[Ian Galloway]

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Deck 2 corridor, USS Ranier]

Kyan heard the unmistakable whine of phaser fire and a cacophony of voices even before all of his molecules had finished being reassembled by the transporter. What was a three or four second process seemed to take an eternity  as the sounds, then the sights, and finally the familiar smells of combat assaulted his senses.

When he was whole again, the Onlie turned to Ensign Lorin, the security officer who'd been standing beside him on the transporter padd. "Arright Mister Lo....." He turned his head just in time to see an angry yellowish beam hit the Bolian full in the face, dropping him to the deck. He instinctively went with the Bolian. Checking for a pulse and finding none he made the invoking sign for the Powers and grabbed Lorin's rifle and spare charger cells as the yellow beams lit up the air above him. He gave the dead man a pat on the chest. "Thanks mate. Have fun in the Summerlands... or wherever Bolians go."

Still lying on his stomach, Kyan tried to get a look at where the Kinshaya were shooting from but the lighting was too dim to see much. When they fired he could make out their massive silhouettes in the smoke from burnt out components and scorched bulkheads. His own crewmates had blended with the Ranier's battered crew behind makeshift firing positions in the intersection of a T junction and down the dead-end corridor where a single medic was overwhelmed with wounded people in an improvised casualty collection point. Human looking through the dim light, he looked young, and frazzled.

Seeing their new Andorian doctor, who'd also managed to not be shot on arrival, Kyan crawled over to where she was crouched. After getting her attention he motioned toward the corridor and the other medic. "Help him, an dinnae get shot, cause if I get shot I dinna want no nervous baby grup ta be fixing me so. I'll cover ya."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The second the viewscreen came online, Ian sighed with relief. The Challenger was at that moment in a steep vertical dive 60,000 kilometers below the galactic plane. There was only one Kinshaya globe following them, the rest had been too stunned by the unorthodox maneuver to pursue. The Point of Impact shielding was specifically designed for one on one ship battles, thus the globe's fire was completely ineffectual against the Challenger. However, this was not true of the Challenger's weapons which were steadily blowing pieces of the Kinshaya ship.

When the Challenger leveled out and came about to present a full Alpha Strike on the damaged globe, the Kinshaya ship attempted to break off, but it was too late and it disappeared in a searing blast as matter met anti-matter in an uncontrolled fashion. Currently free of attackers, Ian ordered Ardy to climb back level with the galactic plane to reengage with the Kinshaya.

[Corridor Outside Bridge on the USS Rainier]

Unfortunately for the away team attempting to reach the bridge, they were caught in a sort of 'fatal funnel' with very limited cover. So far, nine Starfleet personnel, all security, had paid the ultimate price to hold the Kinshaya at bay. When word of the sonic modification to their phasers came in, there was simply no time to make the adjustment, the landing zone was simply too hot.

The group assigned to defend engineering found things a little easier as there was better cover and it seemed like the crew of the Rainier had chosen engineering for their last stand, so the away team wasn't as outnumbered here. They might not have secured engineering, but they were holding their own.

The roving squad, led by Senior Chief Blackfeather had used their knowledge of the Steamrunner, which they had studied extensively in the Challenger's holodeck, were deep in the Jeffries tubes and working their way into a position to help Kyan's group. All the Onlie had to do was hold on just a little longer.

In that group, Zemi and the three medics were swamped trying to save who they could, but having to dodge stray blaster bolts was not helping. Neva and the engineers were pinned down and unable to move due to heavy Kinshaya fire and going by the sound, it was clear they were planning on closing to hand to hand range, which was something no one on the away team wanted to imagine given the sheer size of a Kinshaya warrior.

[Neva Cordon]

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Deck 2 corridor, USS Ranier]

Kyan heard the unmistakable whine of phaser fire and a cacophony of voices even before all of his molecules had finished being reassembled by the transporter. What was a three or four second process seemed to take an eternity  as the sounds, then the sights, and finally the familiar smells of combat assaulted his senses.

When he was whole again, the Onlie turned to Ensign Lorin, the security officer who'd been standing beside him on the transporter padd. "Arright Mister Lo....." He turned his head just in time to see an angry yellowish beam hit the Bolian full in the face, dropping him to the deck. He instinctively went with the Bolian. Checking for a pulse and finding none he made the invoking sign for the Powers and grabbed Lorin's rifle and spare charger cells as the yellow beams lit up the air above him. He gave the dead man a pat on the chest. "Thanks mate. Have fun in the Summerlands... or wherever Bolians go."

Still lying on his stomach, Kyan tried to get a look at where the Kinshaya were shooting from but the lighting was too dim to see much. When they fired he could make out their massive silhouettes in the smoke from burnt out components and scorched bulkheads. His own crewmates had blended with the Ranier's battered crew behind makeshift firing positions in the intersection of a T junction and down the dead-end corridor where a single medic was overwhelmed with wounded people in an improvised casualty collection point. Human looking through the dim light, he looked young, and frazzled.

Seeing their new Andorian doctor, who'd also managed to not be shot on arrival, Kyan crawled over to where she was crouched. After getting her attention he motioned toward the corridor and the other medic. "Help him, an dinnae get shot, cause if I get shot I dinna want no nervous baby grup ta be fixing me so. I'll cover ya."

[ACEO Neva Cordon | Deck 2 corridor, USS Ranier][/b]

Neva growled and ducked at the laser fire when she felt the warmth near her head. Materializing in a fire-fight wasn't her idea of fun, but this mission didn't promise safety.

Neva saw Ensign Lorin go down, she bit back a shriek of fear. She'd barely met him and now he was...gone. Her heart lurched and she fired with a yell of anger.

Rolling to a kneeling position near a blown out door, Neva took a shot at the bozo who shot at Kyan. Didn't matter to her that he was XO, he was a friend, so...Kyan. With a grunt of satisfaction, she watched as the shooter fell. She shot a few more rounds with the rifle, taking out a couple more.

[USS Ranier|Engineering]
Neva's stomach lurched as she pushed another body away from a console seat. She tried to use the controls, but it just fizzled. Cursing, she kicked the panel underneath in frustration. Suddenly, the panel lit up, and the screen came to life. Neva chuckled.
"Guess a swift kick in the right place does work!" Neva mused aloud with a smirk.

She kept on going, working to repair what she could. She did her best to keep an ear out for any intruders, but she admitted she had to rely on the proximity alarms on all the entrances she could find. In the meantime, she had to get the ship underway.

[Aarwendil Cheizex]

[Ensign Tora Zalos|Science Lab|USS Challenger]

It broke Tora's heart to see the young Bajoran cadet standing in the middle of the lab, unsure of what to do and presumably scared, too. That young girl probably hadn't asked to sign up with Starfleet, just to encounter a situation like this where she might just join the Prophets in their wormhole before she'd gotten the chance to actually earn her first pip.

That meant she had a duty to make the time she spent here meaningful - as meaningful as possible barring the unpleasant, of course.

"The help is appreciated, cadet. Join me over here please?" Tora smiled warmly and let the cadet approach her on her own. She didn't know how she felt about her people - there were some new Bajorans born after the Occupation, after all -but it was always respectful to let people approach and cross (or not) those boundaries on their own. "There's not a lot in here, really. The Klingons' old encounters with the Kinshaya are mostly in combat. What we know so far is that the Kinshaya think of them as demons - and that they're highly, highly religious." It was then she realized that, maybe, just maybe, they were cutting it a bit too close to what'd just happened between their peoples only so long ago. "I'll pass you the datafiles-"

"I have something." Tora's eyes turned to the Gorn ensign that stomped out of one of the other labs and through the door - she held a PADD in her hands while glancing around the room with mournful yellow eyes. "Go on, Ss'tiva, what've you got?" Tora asked. "Sorry for the intrusion. We've found a plant compound that soaks into the skin and targets the muscles directly, resulting in spasms and loss of motor function for up to seventy-two hours..." A long, hissing sigh escaped her jaws. "We aren't going to need something of this scale until push comes to shove, right?" The Gorn added mournfully.

[Bridge]

[As Oyari Sedaya]

[Science labs]

The cadet nodded to Aarwendil as she began to look through the notes they had made concerning the Kinshaya's biology. A very strong-seeming species, who definitely looked like they were rather tough beings

Seeing the Cardassian woman, she froze and stiffened, just a little bit, before taking the documents provided and smiled in return, cautiously. She had heard  horror stories from her parents, but the scientist didn't seem to be too hostile. Actually,  the opposite. And right now, she knew that there was a lot more at stake than to let old enemies flare up. Something to deal with later, for sure. She nodded and got respectfully closer.  not too close, but enough to discuss with the others

"Thank you; I appreciate it." said the young cadet, taking the PADD. given what limited autopsy data they had, these beings vere very tough.

Then the Gorn science lady spoke. This plant toxin could be rather potent to the Kinshaya? That was news!

"That's great! Do you think it can be aerosolized?  if it's diluted enough,  they might breathe it in and get put out of commission and  that could be a really efficient way to capture them.  Just in case they might come on here?", she asked , before the ship jolted roughly, sending the science panels flickering.

Oyari, we need you down here in medbay."

She had to go.

"On it. Just  finishing working with the science labs on something and I'll be down as soon as I can "

[ Science Labs | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Aarwendil smiled at the Ensign and went back to his work. He would discover the frequency that would affect the Kinshaya and sent the data to the others. Hopefully Engineering would be able to discover a way of using that as a weapon to defend them against this mysterious species.

While he worked, Aarwendil felt the strong change of feelings that came out of Oyari as she heard Tora talk with her. Given their species, he could understand why it happened and had a similar experience. Some Betazoids still hated anything related to the Dominion after they had occupied Betazed during the war.

These wounds take a long time to heal.

He couldn't think about it much longer, because another weakness was discovered. This time it was a toxin. Aarwendil wasn't sure about the ethics of using this one, but with the battle that the Challenger got involved in, he hoped that the Captain and the command would think quickly in their next steps.

[Zemi zhCharion]

Seeing their new Andorian doctor, who'd also managed to not be shot on arrival, Kyan crawled over to where she was crouched. After getting her attention he motioned toward the corridor and the other medic. "Help him, an dinnae get shot, cause if I get shot I dinna want no nervous baby grup ta be fixing me so. I'll cover ya."

If it weren't for the whine of energy weapons, stressed bulkheads and pained cries, Zee might just have been able to understand him.

"What!?"

Fortunately, the furious pointing did most of the talking for for the Commander.

"Oh yeah, right, my job." She sighed. Zee had spent her residency aboard the USS Hope, a hospital ship that spent most of its time as first-responders to crises. However, it was rare that she'd left Hope in her time aboard. Her experience was in a flooded emergency room, or a desperate surgical suite. It wasn't her first combat, but it sure felt like it right now.

Sheltering through cover, Zee pushed forward to the beleaguered Rainier medic. He was a non-comm, and had only just barely set up a triage point at the end of a hallway. It was textbook... a little too by-the-book, as if it were all he knew. The firefight was mercifully happening at the far end of the corridor, but the threat of it pushing up this far felt a little too high.

"Crewman," Zee grabbed the man's shoulder, perhaps a little too firmly. "It's alright, I'm a Doctor, not a giant moth man. What's the situation?" Now that her eyes had finished adjusting to the dim corridors and flashing phaser fire, she picked out his uniform colour - ops gold.

The crewman nodded, indicating the surrounding chaos as he described it. "Five wounded, energy weapons mostly, one head trauma from being thrown into a bulkhead. I followed standard triage procedure---"

"And you've done it well." Zee looked him in the eye, trying to keep his spirits up. "When this is all over, consider a transfer, but whatever - do you know how to prioritise the wounded?" The crewman shook his head. "That's fine, you did well enough to get them away from the fight. Here," Zee handed him her backup tricorder, hoping and praying the battery holds out. "For the energy weapon wounds, look for their t-cell count - you're an engineer, have you got like a pen or something? If their t-cell count is below seventy five kilophloxes, or above one-twenty-five, mark them with a '2' on their forehead. Everyone in between gets a '1'. Got it?"

The crewman frowned. "More t-cells are good, right? Why not prioritise those higher th---?"

Zee cut him off. "Because the healthy don't need your help, and the dead won't benefit from it. First-line medical support has one function, and one function only - discharge the healthy, identify the already-dead, and stabilise the ones in between. Now lemme see head-trauma-guy."

[Ardyn Jaeger - Wu]

[Bridge]

It was an odd feeling, being left without control of the ship at her station after being so far in the zone in terms of flying.  Out of all the people on here, Alex was probably the best guy to fly the ship, at least through this maneuver.  She'd have to be ready for when things did get started again, however.

[medbay]

[As Oyari Sedaya]

Sedaya was learning a lot of things today; About surgery, about  herself, and how to deal with a true emergency. And then the call came out; They needed people to help on the away team. Unfortunately, that left her to take care of the remaining triaged patients mostly on her own. Looking at the unfortunate ensign who was still intubated, she noticed a sharp spike in his vitals.  She turned to one of the remaining doctors on duty. "He seems to be in cardiopulmonary distress. What now?" With as few doctors as they had right now, they needed backup. Can we get some more people to help us here? she asked out to the ship at large. She was running on fumes at this point, but she couldn't stop now.

[Deck 2 - Rainier]

[as Security crewman Kenny Mackit." ]

"Mackit! You're up!'

Crewman Mackit rushed the corridor along Lt. Saye, phaser in hand, He could do this. He had to.  Nodding to Bill as he got closer, he ducked behind a doorframe,  making whatever potshots he could. The Kinshaya were pretty tough. it took a couple good phaser shots to take one down.

"Should we hold the corridor?" asked Kenny to the Boss in charge, scrambling to reload his phaser.

[Alexander Wu]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

When Galloway gave his permission, Alex already had the template ready to go and with a few quick swipes, his live map of the battlespace was replaced by a facsimile of Ardyn's console. The sudden influx of navigation data was startling and it took a moment for him to comprehend the information before everything fell into place. "It's like being back in IFR training." Alex muttered to himself, the numbers transforming into a mental image of how Challenger was currently oriented, perhaps a bit slower than he would've liked to admit. It had been some time since he'd last sat at a helm, even longer since he'd actually flown something as big as a starship. Still, the maneuver ordered was simple enough to execute, and he even managed to momentarily increase power to the inertial dampeners during the half flip.

The Kinshaya's fire intensified for a few seconds as they realized one of the caught 'fish' were about to escape their rapidly closing net, but Alex managed to squeeze them through a hole, rotating Challenger's dorsal hull on it's x-axis around a Kinshaya globe, the only one that was brave enough to reverse course and follow them, albeit until it's destruction shortly after.

"Back to you, Ardyn." Alex transferred controls back to the helm as soon as they had a brief respite after the viewscreen flickered back to life.  Leaving the gauntlet surrounding Rainer had given them a brief respite, and he used that time to quickly run through the ship's status board. "We took damage to practically every system during that intervention, Captain." Alex warned, prioritizing several repairs for the damage control teams. "I'm reading power fluctuations throughout the primary EPS, number 2 impulse engine is not responding to restart commands, and multiple shield emitters are offline. Structural integrity field is at 86% with emergency power and holding."

A priority signal flashed red across his primary screen, pulling his eyes away from the status board. Though still calm, Alex's next report was tinged with noticeable distress. "Emergency message from Tarhe, imminent warp core breach, launching escape pods. Hungary is holding abeam to support, but they're too close-"

The automatic holofilters were microseconds too slow in dampening a sudden flash of light that temporarily whited out their viewscreen, though they did manage to somewhat dull a second miniature supernova which rapidly followed the first. And just like that, only a slowly spreading field of debris remained in the space where two starships filled with their colleagues and peers had occupied moments prior.

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[Bridge]

They were going to have to fly blind. The absolute worst situation a ship could be in for  during a highly mobile battle like this one. Ardy swore, probably not the most Officerlike, but she didn't care at the moment.  She could fly without the helm controls or even without the sensors, but not being able to see at all? That was bad.  Really bad. She wasn't sure how long the repairs would take, But she had to account for that. She might have to be flying blind for minutes, next to an eternity in the scope of a battle.   "Hey Alex, could you get the scanner readings up on the science console?"

The ship groaned as the barrel roll inversion righted itself as fast as it did. That didn't sound good
"Standing by for the shutdown."

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Bridge, USS Challenger]

Kyan was about to reply to Zhuk's proposal about him taking over tactical and allowing the Caitian to lead the pending away team mission to the Ranier when Ardy inidiated the barrel roll maneuver. So instead he had to focus on not being tosses out of his chair. When his stomach decided that everything was ok again, Ian had already begun talking about it.

There was no way he was about to sit on the bridge, at the tactical console or otherwise, while Zhuk got to go off and fight against the Kinshaya. That was a non-starter. While shooting ships was fun and all, Kyan liked the up close and personal combat better. And he knew Zhuk did too. He also knew that the Kinshaya were huge and liable to stomp him like a bug. But they were big enough to stomp any of them like bugs so that was irrelevant. Besides if Kyan Mackenzie were the type to avoid a confrontation just because the other guy was bigger and stronger than he was... he'd never get to fight at all. Which is why he didn't hesitate in his decision.

"Oh I'm after going and no mistake." He replied after a moment's thought. "But Zhuk oughtta go too. We can split up inta three teams. One team fer securing the bridge, one fer engineering, an one fer deck sweepin." Kyan hopped off his chair. "And since they dinna wanna talk, and they're huge an monstrous creatures who are after killin folks, I'm after telling everyone ta set their phasers ta kill, the which is prolly not what the Ranier folks was doin."

He considered Galloway, who he reckoned was probably grappling with the whole stun vs. kill setting dilemma himself, being a Starfleet captain and all. But having been around him for more than a year now, he was pretty confident that they had the same idea on the subject. It wasn't that he was eager to kill, moreso that he was eager not to be killed because he had to play by a different set of rules than the Kinshaya. They would most assuredly not have their weapons on the stun setting, if they even had such a setting to begin with.

In Kyan's experience, Starfleet had lost a lot of people in conflicts with the Cardassians, Klingons, Tzenkethi, and especially the Doninion because they always wanted to be the "good guys". But there were no good guys in a war. There was only alive guys and dead guys. And no one ever got to keep being an alive guy with their phaser on the stun setting when the enemy didn't even have one.

"So that's me choice." He nodded. "Let's be about it!"

[Lieutenant Commander Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Bridge --> Transporter Room Three | Deck One --> Deck Four | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A | Klingon/Kinshaya Border]

Zhukdra'shar gritted his teeth at the sudden - and unwelcome - maneuver engaged by Ardy. Of course, he understood that the situation required it, but he still felt some nausea once they found themselves with the 'saucer' section directly above the Rainier's. At least, he still had the Tactical console and its sensor array to guide the counterattack, doing his best to shoot down the Kinshaya's own torpedoes. Of course, it was a difficult affair, and the ship shook each time it received a hit. The shields at least were resisting.

His ear pivoted towards Kyan's direction, as he mentioned that he would come along, and lead a team into the vowels of the Rainier. He took a deep breath, and offered a nod, "With pleasure, Commander Mackenzie. Cadet Morgan, thou shalt take over mine duties on the Tactical Console."

The Cadet, a little uncertain, nonetheless silently agreed and made his way as quickly as he could towards the screen, doing his best to repel and counterattack the Kinshaya. The Caitian took this as his cue to head off, and so, sprinted towards the Armory.

"Security, assemble upon the Transporter Rooms at Deck Four. Acquire phaser rifles from the Armory and bring them there. We are to deploy alongside a small team to assist the crew of the USS Rainier. Do not be tardy."

Fortunately, the drills had been quite effective, and though he certainly could see fear in some of their faces, they proceeded to excellently follow his instructions. Zala offered him a Type-III phaser rifle, as she stepped towards the transporter pad, trembling slightly. Zhuk followed shortly after, and placed a hand on her shoulder,

"Do not fret, Crewman Zala. We shalt return from this ordeal in one piece."

He spoke, with certainty and confidence. Only an empath would have been able to dispel his stoic expression as nothing more than a front. This was certainly not a mission he was looking forward to. But he was the leader of these men and women. He had to show bravery, even in the face of doom. And if that meant going down by Kinshaya rifles, then that would be his destiny.

He just wondered when he had begun to fear for his life. A few months ago, he wouldn't have hesitated to explode himself if he was ordered to. Yet now... he did not want all that he had worked for to fade away. His friends, his new office. He wondered what it was to die. Would his consciousness simply vanish? Or would he have time to reflect on his personal history as his brain shut-off? Was there something beyond his mortal existence? The questions plagued him, momentarily distracting him from the task at hand. Finally, though, as the last member of his team walked into the platform, he tapped on his comm badge.

"Lieutenant Commander Mrekrerhas and his team are ready to be beamed aboard the Rainier." 

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Of course, Kyan had chosen to lead the away team. Ian was not surprised by that, what he didn't understand was why, someone who was functionally immortal was in such a hurry to get themselves killed. Leading the away team was his right and was what the regulations stated was the right thing to do, but nothing seemed to phase the Onlie. His last mission had left him critically injured. Regardless of that, here he was hell bent to come to grips with a Kinshaya, a species that invoked fear in Klingons. Ian figured he'd never understand.

As the Challenger rolled into position inverted, Ian gave the order to drop the shield between them and the Rainier. As the shield dropped, Ian ordered Davenport to fire photons in proximity within a 1,000 kilometers of the ship to scramble Kinshaya targeting sensors. Regardless of this added bit of protection, one of the Kinshaya globes had a clear shot through the down shield and the Challenger staggered from several beam hits. The ship's armor and the structural integrity field prevented any of these shots from penetrating the hull, but the spot overloads and circuitry failures lit up the pool table in Engineering.

During the time the shield was down, the 12 transporters on the Challenger hummed with life and 72 lifeforms were transferred from the Challenger to the Rainier. Sixty-four security officers in full battle armor arrived and began laying down a heavy covering fire. The Kinshaya, if surprised by the arrival of Federation reinforcements, they didn't show it. They simply shifted fire from the few tattered remnants of the Rainier's crew to the new comers without pause and both sides began to take casualties.

As the fighting on the Rainier raged, Ian was doing his own raging as the main viewscreen along with the Nav and Helm stations went dark. Fortunately, Tactical was unaffected and was able to keep firing. As Ian seethed, all he could do was hope whoever was working on the viewscreen issue knew what he was doing.

"Away team away Captain."

"Shields up! Thank you Lieutenant Davenport, now all we can do is hope the Maker is on our side and there will be someone to bring back."

When Lieutenant Wu made his report, Ian sighed as he replied.

"The away team knew goin' in it was goin' ta be a rough go. With as many targets as we have in bound, we'd never survive droppin' the shields ta recover them. Kyan is used ta operatin' on his own. You could drop him on the north pole of Earth and a week later he'd show up in New York City with a pocket full of pesos, a Maori tattoo, and an infuriatin' smug smile because you'd have no idea how he did it.

"Since helm is still out, you'll get us out of this via a direction they won't be expectin'. We're already inverted Lieutenant, fire the aft dorsal and bow ventral thrusters and take us straight down. Tactical, fire all photons in proximity, give us a smoke screen. If'n anyone follows us below the galactic plane, we'll light them up with every phaser we have."

[Main Engineering - USS Challenger]

Nox swore something in Trill under her breath as the Captain called for the away team to leave. It meant she didn't finish her modifications in time. She should have been faster, but no use in worrying about that now.

Eventually her modification to the Phaser Rifle had been tried and tested, a simple modification to the housing around the discharge crystal and the beam control assembly would disable the emission of nadions and enable the emission of rapid vibrations, fast enough to focus phonons - quantum vibration wavelengths - instead of nadions.

If the Kinshaya were truly as weak to sonic emissions as the Science team had led them to believe, then this would put them in a world of hurt.

Nox taps her combadge. "Nox to Sunik, I've completed plans for a sonic modification to a phaser rifle."

"A quicker response time may be more prudent in the future, Ensign. Sunik to Mrekrerhas, I'm transmitting you and the away team a set of schematics for a minor phaser modification. It should prove most effective against the Kinshaya."

He braced for transportation. The feeling of having his molecules de-materialize before he became whole once again usually left him with an abnormal sensation. Suddenly, though, his ears twitched as a call was patched through his comm badge, coming from Lieutenant Sunik. He was quite surprised to be informed about being sent a slight adjustment to his phaser rifles so that they would be more effective against the Kinshaya.

"Acknowledged, Lieutenant Sunik. Much appreciated-" 

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The second the viewscreen came online, Ian sighed with relief. The Challenger was at that moment in a steep vertical dive 60,000 kilometers below the galactic plane. There was only one Kinshaya globe following them, the rest had been too stunned by the unorthodox maneuver to pursue. The Point of Impact shielding was specifically designed for one on one ship battles, thus the globe's fire was completely ineffectual against the Challenger. However, this was not true of the Challenger's weapons which were steadily blowing pieces of the Kinshaya ship.

When the Challenger leveled out and came about to present a full Alpha Strike on the damaged globe, the Kinshaya ship attempted to break off, but it was too late and it disappeared in a searing blast as matter met anti-matter in an uncontrolled fashion. Currently free of attackers, Ian ordered Ardy to climb back level with the galactic plane to reengage with the Kinshaya.

[Corridor Outside Bridge on the USS Rainier]

Unfortunately for the away team attempting to reach the bridge, they were caught in a sort of 'fatal funnel' with very limited cover. So far, nine Starfleet personnel, all security, had paid the ultimate price to hold the Kinshaya at bay. When word of the sonic modification to their phasers came in, there was simply no time to make the adjustment, the landing zone was simply too hot.

The group assigned to defend engineering found things a little easier as there was better cover and it seemed like the crew of the Rainier had chosen engineering for their last stand, so the away team wasn't as outnumbered here. They might not have secured engineering, but they were holding their own.

The roving squad, led by Senior Chief Blackfeather had used their knowledge of the Steamrunner, which they had studied extensively in the Challenger's holodeck, were deep in the Jeffries tubes and working their way into a position to help Kyan's group. All the Onlie had to do was hold on just a little longer.

In that group, Zemi and the three medics were swamped trying to save who they could, but having to dodge stray blaster bolts was not helping. Neva and the engineers were pinned down and unable to move due to heavy Kinshaya fire and going by the sound, it was clear they were planning on closing to hand to hand range, which was something no one on the away team wanted to imagine given the sheer size of a Kinshaya warrior.

There was no opportunity to say more, as his body began to shimmer, and soon, he found himself within Engineering. A ceiling panel exploded just above him, and he instinctively ducked, both reflexes and shorter height sparing him from gaining an injury. He was not out of the frying pan yet, however, as his Security team and he scrambled for cover as a trio of beams targeted them. There were plenty of places to hide behind, however, as the Rainier's crew had set up barricades with crates, metal sheets, and whatever was at hand. It was haphazard, but it effectively stopped the Kinshaya from rushing their position.

Crouching, Zhuk found himself next to a human Ensign, which had received a sear on his shoulder and burns marred his face. She was trembling, though she still managed to hold her phaser pistol with both hands. Zhuk offered a reassuring nod, before retrieving his P.A.D.D. and setting it on the ground, beginning to make the adjustments offered by Sunik.

"A-Ah... thank goodness you c-came... u-uh... things a-are bad here!"

"Do not worry, we are about to engage within aggressive negotiations with the interlopers," He instinctively lowered his head as a couple of shots proceeded to land nearby, "Mind if I proceed?"

"A-Ah? N-Negotiations? N-No... no... I-I mean... I a-am not a good n-negotiator, b-but w-we probably should... ah... go ahead, Lieutenant Commander," She stammered, as she seemingly looked for someone in the back. Zhuk could not verify who, however, as he spoke up,

"Team Beta, cover me!"

He detected a thumbs up from a trembling Zala on his right out of the corner of his eye, which let him know all that he needed to when he finally peeked out of cover. The phaser streaks of light impacted the nearest Kinshaya, which took several hits before Zhuk delivered the killing blow with his newly modified rifle. The creature slumped into the corridor before a volley of retaliation was sent towards them. Zhuk once more avoided the impacts, but he managed to hear a horrid scream to his left that made him wince.

"A-Ah... w-who t-taught you to negotiate, s-sir?"

Zhuk offered her the faintest smirk, before shouting out loud, "Astounding job! Keep at it! We cannot allow the invaders to push into our position! Take a moment to modify thy rifles as per Lieutenant Sunik's instruction. Revise thy P.A.D.D.s!"

He immediately proceeded to retrieve his device and then shot twice at a Kinshaya who attempted to cross through one of the entrances to Engineering. As he retreated, he managed to perceive that the intrusion had activated an alarm, which was quite useful in their current situation.

"Very well! Engineering Team, assist the Rainer's crew. Let us ascertain that their ship is operational once more. We shalt provide cover fire!"

Zhuk could see the light returning to the Ensign's eyes when he turned once more to face her. Hope was a wonderful thing. Time would tell if it would be maintained, however, as when his eyes wandered once more, he found himself gazing at the terrified face of Crewman Makris.  A Science officer from the Rainier tended to him dutifully. Yet, even though the Caitian could not see the injury, by the pale expression, Zhuk feared the worst would come to pass sooner than later...

[Novi]

[Lt. JG Novi - Main Sickbay USS Challenger]

Novi was always busy as the medical crew began their preparations for battle. For Novi, it wasn't her first but as the first shots from the fleets began to be exchanged she felt all the planning and preparations go out the window. Crewman immediately had to leave to begin triage and transporting wounded to Sickbay. The CMO was away on the bridge to help better facilitate everything and so Novi was busy shuffling around workers and makings sure that the medical officers managed to stay rested and continued to manage her work.

-----

Novi was in main sickbay a panel overloaded and thankfully, as a medical engineer, Novi hands were quickly in a wall panel to reconnect power and get things going again. She was almost done when another shot rocked the ship and Novi accidentally hit her head on the panel.

"ah!" she quickly. felt her head and felt a little blood from a small cut. It wasn't enough to even make her want to clean it but suddenly, as she saw the little amount of blood on her hands she felt short of breathe. She looked up and saw her vision blur and she was short of breathe she looked back at her hand with the blood why was she suddenly so lost? She did an emergency surgery not even 15 minutes ago.

----

Hearing the CMO on Novi's intercom needing officers for an away team and watching a few of the doctors run off Novi tapped her badge, "y-yes sir! We have a f-few officers making their way to the transports now." the distraction helped Novi clear her head and she quickly wiped her hand before finishing her repairs to the wall panel. Yet when she finished, despite the work she's done over the battle she needed a moment to quickly catch her breathe. Taking a step into the medical office she heard the sounds of battle quiet to a small hum. The ship shook a little as it took a few more hits but by closing her eyes and simply taking a few deep breathes. She forced herself to get through these final moments.

[medbay]

[As Oyari Sedaya]

Sedaya was learning a lot of things today; About surgery, about  herself, and how to deal with a true emergency. And then the call came out; They needed people to help on the away team. Unfortunately, that left her to take care of the remaining triaged patients mostly on her own. Looking at the unfortunate ensign who was still intubated, she noticed a sharp spike in his vitals.  She turned to one of the remaining doctors on duty. "He seems to be in cardiopulmonary distress. What now?" With as few doctors as they had right now, they needed backup. Can we get some more people to help us here? she asked out to the ship at large. She was running on fumes at this point, but she couldn't stop now.

----

Novi quickly stepped out, refreshed she pulled up her sleeves right as she heard a Medical cadet ask for help and the alerts of a cardiac arrest. Quickly turning to the bed she nodded to the cadet, Sedaya was fresh, like of the officers they picked up at station but like all Starfleet officers she was very strong.

"Don't worry I just need you keep watching his vitals." she found the irony a little humourous as she found herself more comfortable looking at the screens and vitals and data but it wasn't relevant now. She quickly attached corticol stimulants and prepped the resuscitator.

She turned to Sedaya, "okay. Beginning resucitaiton. Cadet Sedaya let's start with a low shock." Hopefully with the corticol stimulants a small shock could get his start starting again.

When the shock happened she watched the officer's vital briefly go up but it wasn't enough.

"one more." she asked again.

WHen the second shock came she sighed in relief as his heart restarted. Supported by the cortical stimulants his heart was beating again and brain activity was stable.

Novi, after every literal life or death moment she goes through on the ship couldn't help but give an awkward smile and laugh as she looked at Cadet Sedaya. "Never a dull moment." her poor attempt at emulating Challenger crew humour, "Let's get him on a bed and connected to an IV. We still have lots of work to do Cadet." she still felt a little distracted from her previous moment with her head, but she forced herself to push forward, for her crew.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

The roving squad, led by Senior Chief Blackfeather had used their knowledge of the Steamrunner, which they had studied extensively in the Challenger's holodeck, were deep in the Jeffries tubes and working their way into a position to help Kyan's group. All the Onlie had to do was hold on just a little longer.

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Deck 2, USS Rainier]

"Warning: Power Cell at five percent."

The phaser rifle seemed pretty non-chalant about the fact that it's very life force was ebbing away. This was in stark contrast to the folks to Kyan's right, who were much less laissez-faire about their own similar problems. In the first few minutes after beaming in they'd taken heavy casualties, but the Kinshaya hadn't gained much ground. They were getting closer though. And Kyan knew that if the Starfleeters didn't do something about that soon that they'd all be in the same predicament as his phaser rifle. He fired several more times before the Kinshaya at which he was aiming dropped with a satisfying thud. That satisfaction was short lived.

"Warning: Power Cell at three percent."

"Yah Yah. Haud yer wesht ye arse faced gun. An keep shootin!" he admonished the rifle as he ducked behind a crate that was almost completely scorched on the side facing the enemy. As he sat down, he brushed his wet hair aside. In addition to the inconvenience of possibly getting splattered by a shot from one of the moth men slash mutated Gryphon looking Kinshaya, the sheer volume of energy weapon use had made the corridor a lot warmer than it would have been otherwise. Kyan wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket as he worked on getting a fresh power cell into his rifle.

"W...Which ship are you from?" came an almost too soft to hear whisper from someone in a gold uniform.

Startled, Kyan nearly dropped the power cell he was fiddling with. "Shite." He swore. "I thought ye was dead so I did. Are ye hurt?" He didn't see any injuries or burned uniform that would indicate that he'd been hit, but it was pretty dark.

"No.. I'm just... "

He didn't need to say more. Kyan knew. The headshrinker grups had all sorts of names for it. Combat Fatigue, Traumatic Stress, or whatever they called it. It was all the same thing. The guy was scared. But everyone was scared. Kyan knew that. He was too, even if he wouldn't admit it out loud. Fear was as much a part of combat as weapons and tactics for many reasons. Fear kept you from making stupid decisions that could get you killed. But it could also paralyze a person and make them useless, like it was with the guy laying on the deck beside him.

"...Scared." Kyan finished for him. The guy nodded. "Yah so's everyone else, fer sure. But we dinna got no time fer it the now, on account of cause the Kinshaya are about ta run over us. So ye gotta pick up yer phaser an start shootin."

"I'm an engineer...."

Kyan slapped the fresh power cell into his phaser rifle. "An if yer after bein one tomorrow, then yer gonna hafta get off yer arse an fight today. Or lay there an get trampled by dem over there." He indicated the Kinshaya. "So c'mon. Let's get 'em!"

With that Kyan got up on his knees and turned back toward the enemy and started shooting. The Ensign beside him flinched at the shots and stayed put. After a dozen or so shots, the Onlie looked down to see he Ensign in the same spot. He reached down and grabbed the man's collar. "Get up here! Let's go!" he yelled down at him while pulling him up. "I canna shoot all of em!" Hesitantly the Ensign rose to his knees, and set his rifle on the crate. Kyan nodded in approval. "Dats it.. now shoot it."

It took a few seconds and a fair amount of hyperventilating, but the terrified man squeezed the trigger, unleashing a red beam that lanced out and seared a bulkhead beside the Kinshaya that he was aiming for.

Kyan shrugged. It was progress. He clapped him on the back. "That's it! Keep it up!" the Onlied offered. "Shoot em!... C'mon!."

As the Ensign fired more shots... some of which hit their targets, Kyan went back to his own targets. Even on the highest settings, their phaser rifles took a half dozen shots to fell one of the Kinshaya. He'd seen more than a few of them get up after being downed too, which was very disappointing.

"Keep shootin em after dey go down!" Kyan yelled over the noise. Then, seeing that the guy was still shaking some, he recalled what a Klingon had told him once. "Y'know... I heard dat singing helps calm yer nerves so. I's a Klingon battle tactic. Sometimes it even scares the enemies."

S...Singing?" the Ensign asked, confused.

"Aye. Singing. Know any good songs?"

"Uhh.. well, I like old rock ballads."

Kyan glanced over He had no idea what a "rock ballad was. "Ok... sing yer favorites rock ballads song...." He fired off a salvo. "....whilst we kill these Kinshaya."

"Ok... uhh.. ok......Tommy used to work on the docks, union's been on strike. He's down on his luck, it's tough, so tough..."

Kyan didn't recognize the song, but if it worked, then who was he to complain? And as he looked over at him, the Ensign seemed to be getting into it.

"Gina works the diner all day, working for her man she brings home her pay, for love, mmm, for love.."

The Onlie shrugged. It wasn't something that sounded like a battle song, but it wasn't bad. And as he sang it, the man's aim was improving. As he continued shooting, Kyan wondered if any of the songs that the Klingons sang during battles were their own versions of "rock ballads". It made him laugh to think of a Klingon in a firefight just belting out a song like this in Klingon, which made their enemies tremble... but was really about two Klingon grups was were married or something.

His thought were interrupted by the chorus. He could tell because the Ensign got louder as he sang it.

She says, "We've gotta hold on to what we've got. It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not. We've got each other and that's a lot for love....." then he really started belting it out, confirming the suspicion that it was the song's chrus. "...We'll give it a shot....Whoa, we're half way there, Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer..."

Kyan had to admit it. Not only was it a catchy song.... but it kinda fit their situation. The chorus did anyway. If he got back to the Challenger alive, he made a mental note to show it to Lahr and see if he knew it.

"Should we hold the corridor?" asked Kenny to the Boss in charge, scrambling to reload his phaser.

Kyan hadn't heard or seen Mackit come up until he'd stopped beside him. "Nah just let 'em past." The ancient boy deadpanned, glancing over between shots. "Ya daft rocket! A course we're ta hold the corridor. But also we gotta get up ta the bridge. I need ta make sure the Captain is still alive."

The Ensign paused singing. "He's not." he offered flatly without looking over. "Neither is the XO. Ummm...Lieutenant Commander Prel is in command."

Kyan didn't like the way he'd said that. But it might not be all that bad, unless...

"She's the ship's counselor."

Ok...so it was all that bad. And now the song's lyrics were even more poignant.

"Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear...Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer"

[Tora Zalos]

[Bridge]

It was an odd feeling, being left without control of the ship at her station after being so far in the zone in terms of flying.  Out of all the people on here, Alex was probably the best guy to fly the ship, at least through this maneuver.  She'd have to be ready for when things did get started again, however.

[medbay]

[As Oyari Sedaya]

Sedaya was learning a lot of things today; About surgery, about  herself, and how to deal with a true emergency. And then the call came out; They needed people to help on the away team. Unfortunately, that left her to take care of the remaining triaged patients mostly on her own. Looking at the unfortunate ensign who was still intubated, she noticed a sharp spike in his vitals.  She turned to one of the remaining doctors on duty. "He seems to be in cardiopulmonary distress. What now?" With as few doctors as they had right now, they needed backup. Can we get some more people to help us here? she asked out to the ship at large. She was running on fumes at this point, but she couldn't stop now.

[Deck 2 - Rainier]

[as Security crewman Kenny Mackit." ]

"Mackit! You're up!'

Crewman Mackit rushed the corridor along Lt. Saye, phaser in hand, He could do this. He had to.  Nodding to Bill as he got closer, he ducked behind a doorframe,  making whatever potshots he could. The Kinshaya were pretty tough. it took a couple good phaser shots to take one down.

"Should we hold the corridor?" asked Kenny to the Boss in charge, scrambling to reload his phaser.

[Ensign Tora Zalos | Sickbay | USS Challenger]

Everyone who wasn't working on the toxin torpedoes had been told to go down to sickbay to lend an appendage (you know, since nowadays not every species serving in Starfleet necessarily had hands) - which was a category Tora and about half her colleagues fell into. She only possessed basic first aid knowledge common to all Starfleet personnel at best, but hey, any and all help was welcome, right? The Cardassian traipsed through the door with another three science officers; she in particular approached Sedaya, for it was her voice she'd heard over her commbadge anyway. "Rough evening, huh. Never a dull moment." She quipped, with somewhat forced cheerfulness. "How can we help?"

[Ensign Ss'tiva | Science Lab 2 | USS Challenger]

"It's done!" Ss'tiva looked up from her console at the rest of her colleagues. How the Gorn was managing to keep it together in the chaos around her was anyone's guess. She rose from her seat and stomped over to what looked like a massive metal container the size of a helium tank in the corner, donned a rebreather and removed the tube steadily filling it up with gas. "The aerosolised compound is ready! All we need to do is use it... at the right time." At least, that was what she hoped for. Of course, if the Kinshaya decide to break in and do their worst, there'd be no good option left. Sometimes, she'd learned, peace just wasn't realistic to expect.

[Ian Galloway]

[Kinshaya/Klingon Border]

As expected, the battle had been bad. Although the Federation had faced tough fighting in the Dominion War, the Kinshaya took fighting to a whole new level of ferocity. So far, the USS Tarhe, and the USS Hungary were destroyed with the Rainier, Ararat, and Moldova no longer mission capable. Five of twelve Starfleet ships were out of the fight and things looked grim. Then it was like a switch had been flipped, one minute the Kinshaya were fighting with unmitigated fury, the next minute, they broke off their attack.

It was a testament to the impact the Kinshaya had on the Klingons in that when the globe ships went to warp, the Klingons did not follow. Instead, the Klingons took the time to pull critically damaged ships out the line and restored weak spots with reinforcements. The Federation ships were allowed to pull back with the Barnard towing the Ararat and the Challenger towing the Rainier. The Moldova's engines were functional enough that she could move under her own power.

On the Rainier, the Kinshaya that attempted to storm engineering found the defenses were too strong and with Zhuk's team as reinforcement wiped out the attackers in engineering. Blackfeather's team had arrived just in time to bring the Kinshaya aboard the Rainier under withering crossfire which evened the numbers up quickly. Kyan's group, was down to seven still fighting when the four surviving Kinshaya closed into hand to hand fighting. Which brought a level of brutality that not even the Onlie had seen in his own long life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian listened to Wu's damage report, mirrored and enhanced by Sunik and could only wince. The Point of Impact shields had done their job, aside from the half dozen blaster scores in the ship's armor when the shields had to be dropped to send over the away team, not a single Kinshaya weapon penetrated the shields. However, not penetrated did not equal 'no damage', circuit overloads, plasma leaks, blown consoles all added up and while Challenger could fight if needed, she was not 100%. She needed time to recover. Worse still, the damage sustained also translated into injuries. Sickbay was flooded and Ian hadn't even heard from the away team. There were 72 personnel aboard the Rainier, the butcher's bill could be much, much worse. Ian was heartsick and muttered a quote by the Duke of Wellington.

"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck One - Jeffries tube behind the viewscreen]

With his PADD already signed onto the Bridge's security camera footage, Lahr double checked that the main viewscreen was up and functioning after his repair.

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Back to you, Ardyn." Alex transferred controls back to the helm as soon as they had a brief respite after the viewscreen flickered back to life.  Leaving the gauntlet surrounding Rainer had given them a brief respite, and he used that time to quickly run through the ship's status board. "We took damage to practically every system during that intervention, Captain." Alex warned, prioritizing several repairs for the damage control teams. "I'm reading power fluctuations throughout the primary EPS, number 2 impulse engine is not responding to restart commands, and multiple shield emitters are offline. Structural integrity field is at 86% with emergency power and holding."

Hearing Lieutenant Wu list off all the various damaged systems, Lahr knew he was going to be in for a long shift, even after the battle was over - assuming they survived.  With a sigh, the engineer quickly replaced the wall panel before reporting back to Sunik that the repair to the main viewscreen was complete; and as a reward for his good work Lahr was given a task list of several repairs to do on the Bridge next.  "No time to waste!" he prodded himself out loud in mental motivation, as he crawled his way out to the nearest exit and made his way to Bridge.
.
.
.
[USS Challenger-A   -  Deck One  -  Bridge]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian listened to Wu's damage report, mirrored and enhanced by Sunik and could only wince. The Point of Impact shields had done their job, aside from the half dozen blaster scores in the ship's armor when the shields had to be dropped to send over the away team, not a single Kinshaya weapon penetrated the shields. However, not penetrated did not equal 'no damage', circuit overloads, plasma leaks, blown consoles all added up and while Challenger could fight if needed, she was not 100%. She needed time to recover. Worse still, the damage sustained also translated into injuries. Sickbay was flooded and Ian hadn't even heard from the away team. There were 72 personnel aboard the Rainier, the butcher's bill could be much, much worse. Ian was heartsick and muttered a quote by the Duke of Wellington.

"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

As the hallway doors to the Bridge opened, Lahr could smell burnt circuitry in the air.   The viewscreen showed a completely different battle scene layout than what he'd seen a few minutes earlier before crawling his way out of the jefferies tube.  It looked like the enemy had backed off... for good?  or just to regroup?

The Bridge crew working were all rather quiet as the ship towed another away from the main defense line.  So quiet  that the Captain's quiet muttered quote was easily picked up by the Andorian.  Well, it seemed someone needed to lighten the mood on the Bridge.

"Who here called for engineering support?" he called out loud enough to be heard throughout the Bridge.  His voice was animated much like he spoke when he was DJing.  This was a performance.

He made show of looking down at his PADD.  "First up we got, Tactical console... with overload warnings... huh" Lahr looked over to the cadet manning the station as he walked over.  "Yo, cadet, this is a precision piece of tactical technology... you can't just spam the fire button."