A collaboration by Chief Kirby and Lt. Marritza

--Transporter Room Two--

"First Lieutenant Marritza, the Romulan Warbird's shields have just dropped," came the voice over the Comm System. Tom lost his train of thought for a second as he realized that this was the moment of truth. Then, suddenly, the words came back to him. Tom tapped his comm badge. "This is Marritza, all groups energize!"

--Main Engineering, Romulan Warbird T'saloset--

Svilith, the first engineer of the warbird, scurried about with his crew, trying to bring life back to their dying ship. Shields were down. Weapons were failing. All sorts of peripheral systems were failing, and worse yet, the computer core had been destroyed by a surprise bomb that had been beamed in when the shields fell. Explosions around the room had diminished the number of workers able to anything in the department, and left Svilith with only thirteen capable engineers, not including himself.

He turned his head over his shoulder to deliver a set of orders when a horrifying sight materialized before his eyes. A group of six Starfleet Marines garbed in combat armor appeared behind him. He grabbed for his disruptor pistol and turned around, towards the engine core and the all-important cloaking device. Six more shapes appeared there as well, and as he raised his pistol to fire, a bolt of warm energy struck him between the shoulder blades and he fell over a console, dead.

"COVER POSITIONS!" barked Kirby as he re-formed into solid matter and started firing his rifle. The six Marines fanned out into a roughly circular pattern, and moved into defensive positions, taking cover behind whatever was available. Behind the Marines, the engineer and the science officer appeared, but Kirby wasn't focused on them. Kirby saw Lt. Marritza's group appear in full across the main console. All the Marines were firing and four Romulans had already fallen to the accurate phaser fire.

Kirby jerked his head skyward and saw a Romulan on the deck above, looking down the sight of his weapon at the Marines. Kirby threw himself sideways into Lance Corporal Stevenson, knocking him out of the way just as a green disruptor bolt seared the floor where he had been scant moments before. As he went parallel to the deck, Kirby flipped his assault rifle into pulse mode and squeezed down on the trigger. Scorch marks showed the pattern of the energy blasts and the path led across the chest of the Romulan above them. One pulse hit on each ribcage, and the Romulan flailed back against the wall and died.

Both Kirby and Stevenson scrambled back to their feet and resumed covering the two Starfleet officers working to get the cloaking device out of its casing.

"Corporal Johnson, and Smith, come with me!" Thomas shouted over the phaser blasts. The two Corporals followed him to the Main Door of the Engineering room, each one taking down a Romulan on their way. "I want this door sealed now! Move to the others when possible!" After a short time, the corporals stood. "Make a sweep around the Engineering room. If it does not have a Starfleet or Marine Uniform on, shoot it! Am I understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" shouted the Corporals before moving off.

As they left, Thomas heard a banging on the other side of the door accompanied by the sound of an energy cutter. *"They're trying to get in"* he thought to himself. *"I must put up a force field"*

Thomas moved to a nearby console. *"At times like this, I'm glad I went to the Daystrom Institute"* he thought to himself. He tapped at the keys, and within a few seconds, a force field popped up to reinforce the primary door. *"That should hold them for a while,"* thought Marritza.

Kirby stuck his head up and surveyed the room. Ten dead Romulans littered the area, and a few had retreated before the doors had been sealed. Three Marines were in cover positions on the deck above, and the corpsman tended to the lone wounded Marine, who had been standing beside a panel as it exploded from a disruptor blast.

The other marines were in various cover positions, eyes intent on the doors to Engineering, if the Romulans ever got through the sealed doors. Kirby held the detonator to the anti-matter bomb that had been setup beside the Romulan warp core. His eyes drifted towards the two technical personnel, silently wishing them to hurry up.

--CWO2 Jebediah Kirby, and 1st Lt. Thomas Marritza, SMC, USS GRAIL

NRPG: I thought that we'd let the technical people do their own thing, then we'll all head for home.