<<Romulan Warbird T'saloset>>

<<Bridge>>

"The smaller craft are concentrating their fire on our disruptor arrays.", Dierden at Tactical reported. "Weapon efficiency in the forward array has been reduced to 50%."

"Every Targ suffers fleas.", Sarvid responded in irritation. "`Tis simple enough to scratch."

"They are skimming our shield surfaces. I am having....", Dierden growled in satisfaction. "I have disabled one of the smaller fighters!"

Sarvid sneered at the fool. "Do not gloat over such a small victory."

"The difficulty in dealing with them is their proximity.", Dierden answered with disdain. "It is a sound tactic they employ. They are so close, we risk hitting ourselves."

Then, Sarvid fell silent. The fool was right. It was a wise and unexpected attack. Who would have expected them to attack with such puny craft? But, what bothered Sarvid the most was, the brunt of the Federation attack was yet to come. What were they waiting for?

`They are `softening us up'.', he thought to himself. `They are playing our own game. Using OUR tactics.' Sarvid's anxiety was turning to anger. "Fire all disruptors on the Stardrive. NOW!!" He slammed his command chair with a fist to drive his order home.