After the response from the bridge, Sergent Calhound reported back a simple "Acknowledged, Captain" in a tone more befitting that of NO4H than a human being. With the comm's closed, he turned to NO4H directly, "Confirm the admiral's countermanding order, and note the time in the Engineering log." 

"Orders confirmed, and a log entry has been made at the request of Chief Engineer Calhound." Noah recited, as he returned to normal operating procedures, including whatever else the Admiral had planned. Xaith then stepped back into the main hall, and gave a final order to the computer to reseal the hatch before opening a line of communication to Main Engineering.

"Rorq!" He shouted into his comm device, "Noah is back online. Pull the team from manual operations—pull the whole damn section—and get them started on analyzing every scrap of data we're getting from sensors." In his voice was the urgency that reflected also in the pace of his run, "I want to know [i]everything[/i] about that ship. From mass-density, local gravametric distortions, and energy wake, to the chemical composition of debris, and resonance frequency of the hull, right down to the sound it'd make if bounced a goddamn ping-pong ball off of it."

He was, initially, running to Engineering but new orders relayed from the bridge changed his path, and the direction of his orders. "Forward a copy of the information and your own analysis to my quarters."

"Quarters, sir?" Lt. Rorq asked right before the line to Engineering was cut, and Xaith made a new call.

"Engineering to Calhound," Xaith said, using the self-call exploit his call was routed to his quarters. He simply said: "Adjutant online" before replying to the Admiral's orders to fighter control. "In and out, Captain, I read you."

[hr]

The fighter bay was a massive, and open space. When Xaith arrived the CAG officer met him already briefed on the situation. Both being career men the Commander of the Air Group, and the Sargent First Class wasted little time sizing each other up. After which Xaith got that look. The one he got from Lt. Rorq, and all the other officers see for the first time that an Enlisted man has a position of actual power, without being an officer. "Four minutes is not a lot of time, Sargent." The CAG officer offered as they made haste to fighter control. "If you know something I don't then now would be the time to share."

"Try holding your breath, sir," Xaith offered to one of the highest ranking officers on the ship. "Two minutes is a lifetime, when you're holding your breath, and four is an eternity." he clarified the reference to the relativistic nature of time, as his EEGARD drew up a slew of schematics regarding devices already on hand. His mind raced as he ripped through each one for relevant details, "Ordinance," he ordered both to the CAG officer as well as to his own device. The Commander frowned, and Xaith paused to address the awkwardness of the situation, "We don't have time for politics, sir, and I don't stand on formalities. I'm not here to run your shit, but I—[i]we[/i] have a job to do. If you don't like how I consult, then file a complaint with the admiral when we're done and safely still alive."

The Commander of the Air Group, a man of action not prone to hesitation, was quick with his response. "I'll do just that, Sargent. In the mean-time you do not give orders. You provide your expertise, and I give the orders." Xaith acknowledged with a dismissive gesture as to indicate 'yes, sir, whatever you say sir' as to bring the pissing match to a close. Each moment they spent hosing down the deck was a second he was distracted, and was therefore wasted.

"The Grave Robbers and the Barracudas are out there with twenty Serpent missiles and two Trebuchets each," explained the CAG Officer, as using whats already available may be vital to forming any kind of plan, "The Vitae has a number of weapons on-board but not nearly so many mines, or mine-layers to put a grid in place so quickly."

The Chief Engineer's eyes scanned the complete list of ordinance available for launch, from his EEGARD, while scanning what other systems he had access to from the console. "Bring them back," he said to the CAG officer.

"Sargent, we just went over this. You're not authorized to recall them."

Xaith shook his head, "I didn't say to the hanger," he corrected as he swiped through some holograms, "Bring them to the ship." The holographic image displayed his plan as he searched for ordinance to implement with it. 

The CAG officer inspected the hologram, as it dawned on him what he was looking at, Xaith called up the shield control subsystems to see what their reaction delay was. "The skill alone required..." to which Calhound interrupted with a shrug, and countered with a dismissive: "I assumed you had the best of the best out there, which is good, because anything less will not work."

"Will it though?" the commander questioned Xaith, "Wouldn't such a maneuver ordinarily requires shields?"

After finding what he was looking for, Xaith shook his head, "No. We'll swap out the the T-47's missile pods with electronic warfare modules to engage while making their runs." he zoomed in on the hologram to show that a non-guided electronic attack would be too weak to affect the ark directly, but would produce a similar polarization effect on the hull. "The problem is, the escorts can't fly too close to that field without being effected."

Putting ECM on an escort fighter was not a plan anyone liked, but with the CAG officer's permission, Xaith put a call out to the Grave Robbers and the Barracuda's wing commanders to explain the situation. "This is Chief Engineer Xaith Calhound consulting for your CAG officer. I need you to do something for me while you're out there..." Xaith paused as he transmitted some flight plans,  "I need you escort some T-47s as they skim the hull of this ship with ECM pods. From stem to stern, and aft to bow. They will do so in a manner that creates long, uninterrupted, non-crossing lines of contact."

He turned back to the CAG officer with a list of supplies. "If we pull all the orbital attack ordinance we can from our Reaper Cruiser, and load them into two squads of those fighters, we can do it all in one run.  The distributed ordinance will stick to the parts of our polarized hull, and since they're designed to still function in a heavily ionized atmosphere, the electronic countermeasures pods shouldn't have an effect on them."

"How does that make a mine-field?" The CAG officer asked as he motioned to his next two top squad leaders to prep for launch.

"It doesn't," Xaith admitted, "Not in the traditional sense, but the force of our acceleration to Pre-Jump will distribute the materials [i]like[/i] a mine-field. Until then they'll be completely masked by our mass, and our hull polarization. When we go to make our jump, they'll dislodge and we'll cycle the shield's frequency which will repel and active the ordinance." Xaith made sideways jazz-hands to symbolize the ripple in the electromagnetic spectrum. "They'll be armed, and think they're falling through an atmosphere, and won't explode until either they hit something, or their internal timers tell them too."

Xaith clarified as he pointed to the shield modulation metrics, and programmed a response into the space-to-ground bombs. "Additionally, they'll aid in scattering our wake, making it difficult—if not impossible—to track us from our initial position. It's the best we can do with the three minutes we have remaining. It also leaves our ship-to-ship ordinance free for our fighters discretionary application to the incoming hostiles." 

"Lt. Hawkins," the CAG officer shouted into the line that had been open since Xaith initially called the squad, "Make it happen."