In the event of death..

[STSF Precip 0]

It was the first mission Mitar had ever prepared a message for his family in the event of his death. He delivered it as discreetly as possible to Inspector General Morris as to not undermine the crew's already delicate morale for this mission. Precip knew Manticore had been sent on dangerous missions before...but this one was the first where he knew ahead of time there was a good chance they would not becoming back.

 

Arrayed before on his desk lied Manticore's technical specs in the form of about six or seven PADDs. He had to find something...something about this ship that could get them out of where Inspector Morris had ordered them..The Romulan Homeworld.

 

Although he had no proof of the fact, Precip was convinced the Romulan Tal Shiar, their intelligence wing, was well aware of the capabilities of the Manticore. They had run into her before, well actually the first USS Manticore...this being the second one. Mitar had to chuckle briefly about whose idea it was to rename a Space Tug Manticore with a suffix letter A...that would get someone's attention allright.

It seemed to undermine the elaborate move years ago to "fake" the end of the Manticore mission. Not what he would of done.

 

Mitar shook his head...he was digressing. Getting to Romulus he felt would probably be the least dangerous part of the mission...Manticore had a dandy of a cloaking device..illegal of course by the treaty of Algeron with the Romulans. No..delivering her payload and getting out would be the toughest.

The Romulans would swarm over Manticore with their powerful D`deridex class Warbirds..each larger than Manticore herself..in an attempt to destroy her before she delivered what the Romulans would be expecting Manticore to be carrying..her planet killing (PK) tactical module.

 

Precip downed his second cup of caf in twenty minutes.

 

How the in the world would we be able to deploy the mysterious dorsal module Manticore was carrying without it being blown to bits soon after it was free of Manticore. Had the Inspector General really thought this one out? Did he even bother to place himself in the position of the Romulans?

 

Distrust..

 

Precip shook his head again at his habitual reaction to Black Ops command and went back to thinking of a way out of Romulus. The payload could be delivered in a faulty orbit...as not to decend into the planet itself in the heat of battle (and Bolius what a battle it was going to be). That would be plausible. The Romulans might even do what the Inspector General wanted in that case...Grab the module for study..it would be an intelligence windfall.

 

Okay...Now...How do they get away? The past had shown Manticore was capable of a brief burst of incredible speed with her dual Matter Antimmatter Warp Cores supplying extra power to her warp engines...just enough time to clear the blast radius. But in this case, Manticore had to not just escape the Romulus system..but the entire Star Emprie itself. She couldn't fight her way out Mitar concluded the brutal truth..she had to run...faster than she had ever done before. But how? Mitar grabbed an basic Engineering PADD..she only had the standard warp nacelles a Nebula Class Vessel carries.

 

How would they get away?

 

His inability to answer that question led him to write the letter to his family. He couldn't think of a way get the ship home without the Romulans tearing her apart lightyears before she could cross the Federation border. Slugging it out with the Romulan Fleet in a fighting retreat...to him escape was impossible.

 

Precip dropped a science PADD he was holding on his desk..Stood and headed for the bridge. Time was up.

 

He hoped Morris would remember to deliver that PADD.