You order Frank to start a slow, limping course into the Nil'kvee system. No reason to stress the Aegis excessively with so much damage, after all. You then call for an all-officers meeting, to be held thirty hours later, after everyone has had a chance for a well-earned rest.

Thirty hours later, and feeling somewhat more refreshed, you enter the conference room, snagging a large cup of caf and a few pastries before beginning the meeting. Glancing around the table you tick off who is present.

Zheeves has the bridge, but is listening in via microbead.

Adam Mantium is present and looking wide awake and eager for his first official meeting.

Morrigan sits next to him, but she has deep bags under her eyes, and winces with every bite she takes. Not hard to understand, if the bulges under her uniform are bandages.

Frank is with Zheeves on the bridge, but Simo has joined in as the resident expert on xenos species.

Jace is present as well, though he is leaning heavily on the table, and you spot a trio of power chords going from under his robes to various power sockets in the walls. Clearly he has been running on his reserves for far too long.

Vir is sitting close to Yasha, one hand never far from his bolt-charm.

Yasha is looking well rested, but here eyes are still shadowed by the harrowing Warp Journey, if you had to guess.

With everyone accounted for, you open the meeting by asking if any new crises have developed over night. Everyone present answers in the negative, so you proceed, "obviously, were stuck in-system until the Gellar field generators are fully operational and our navigator is properly rested. Once that is the case, I plan to return to Viking directly so that any additional damage can be repaired. With that in mind, is there any progress on that front Jace?"

Jace lethargically shakes his head, "Negative commander, and no progress is anticipated anytime soon. To replace the haemolubricant coolant, the enginseering crew is going to have to reverse-engineer the high-volume synthesizers we need, plus any additional machine equipment needed to construct them. This process is slow at the moment due in large part to simple fatigue. We've been running non-stop for fourteen days now, and need to stand down to something approaching normal watch schedules for at least that long before we can make serious progress."

You nod in understanding, "stand down as much as you are able to then. Next up, crew status. Morrigan, Adam?"

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Morrigan simply motions for Adam to speak and returns to chewing, slowly and painfully, on a pastry. Adam blinks, startled, then jumps right in, "Crew morale is as low as one would expect after such a harrowing journey. Many are attending sermons, and I expect morale to rebound somewhat as nightmares fade. As for the Armsmen core, it's gutted. We're down to perhaps a dozen warm bodies, and seven of them are in the sickbay."

You raise one eyebrow, "that is worse than previously reported. What happened?"

Adam shrugs, "the additional casualties were incurred maintaining the containment. At least two of the dead are suicides however."

You lean back and take another large sip of caf, "So we can't fight a large-scale close action anytime soon. We still have out guns, but with no effective armor, I'm hesitant to bring on a void fight either. Simo, how likely is either, given our unknown locals?"

Simo rubs his MIU jacks, "unknown, but I'd hazard unlikely if my guess is correct. The orbital platform looks like Tau construction. If it is, then it will tend to be lightly armored, combining void construction, civilian shipping, and a large number of system defense guns into one platform. They will be unlikely to start a fight un-provoked, but the planet is so ravaged that all bets may be off."

You take a bite of pastry and nod, "plus there is our contact with Lord Pyrus. No need to strain that without a damn good reason. Vir, any news on that front?"

Vir nods, caressing his bolt-charm, "Some. I have received contact information for a location and time back on Viking, with an indication that more arrangements are to follow on. Zheeves has the details.”

You lean back at your chair and stare at the ceiling, "so we're in something of an awkward spot. We can probably make some repairs on our own, but will likely need resources we don't possess at the moment. We can get those resources from the planet, probably, but the Tau have a presence and we are in no position for a fight. Not against a heavily armed orbital station. So I propose we look to trade for or buy what we need. This will accelerate our repairs and allow us to gather some information for Lord Pyrus. But we cannot commit to any plan of action without some kind of contact from the planet or orbital platform. Vir, Adam, Zheeves, stick around. The rest of you, return to your duties."

The others head off back to work or the sickbay. Once everyone else has left, you wait a moment longer before continuing, "Vir, I hate to ask this of you, but I need you and Adam to check over the armsmen and crew who were exposed again. Morrigan included. I need to be sure that there are no lingering traces of Heresy or Corruption from the breach. Dismissed."

You drink more caf, giving them plenty of time to keep clear before pinging Zheeves' microbead, "Zheeves when we get closer into the planet, I'll want you to open any negotiations. You have better business sense then I do when it comes to these things. In the meantime, have whomever is on communications start building up a list of channels and the chatter on them, so we know who to talk to."

"Already on that Sir, and we have some interesting results. Much of the chatter is meaningless of course, not being in any recognizable form of common, but it largely falls into three categories. The first is encrypted, showing up as ciphered burst transmissions, mostly planet to station and back. The second has the feel of civilian chatter and/or automated beacons. All of this group is originating from the station. The last and smallest portion is far more guttural, possibly Orkish, and originates from the planet itself."