Addressing the fairly lengthy derail in the mission thread:
I actually
thought I already explained The Plan well enough, both in and out of character, but I suppose not.
The engineers on the Nemesis are working hardcore overtime to fix the Nemesis in four primary areas, as per acting captain Havor Maluk's orders. These four areas are:
- Engines: Get them repaired just enough to take off and get to the nearest station - Fuhodo Station
- Reactor: Create the framework for a jury-rigged gravity field generator, for the stellaplex Alpha is (hopefully) bringing back
- Thrusters: Just enough to be able to take off (under a half-gravity field), orient, turn and dock - most thrust will come from the main engines.
- Hull: Repaired and patched enough for the Nemesis to be spaceworthy again
These repairs would normally take a month, but shaving off safety checks, quality checks, any and all sleep/leisure time, most lunch breaks, and keeping a very strict watch to make sure nobody starts slacking off can get it down to 3 days - but it's hardly sustainable. Morale will be absolutely shot afterwards and the engineering crew is likely to take a fairly lengthy collective nap.
Meanwhile, Alpha will be securing the stellaplex, and Beta will be securing the nacelle. That's straightforward enough. The ship's two surviving veteran squads are both defending the Nemesis and keeping the enemies at the spaceport (north of Huhoba Qitsit) at bay.
After the mission, when all squads have returned, the engineers will hurriedly throw the stellaplex into the spot they've designed for it and fire it up. The Nemesis will take off, barely in time to avoid the incoming attack from the major military base a few thousand kilometers away, and fly to the nacelle. At this point, after getting into position special jury-rigged camera systems will fire harpoons which will clasp onto the "hooks" which are shaped roughly like so:
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At this point, the engineers will adjust the grav field to encompass the nacelle as well as the Nemesis, and the harpoons will "reel in" the nacelle, "sewing" it onto the rest of the Nemesis... at which point the Nemesis will head for low Nanyej orbit. Afterwards, the engineers will attempt to reattach the severed nacelle enough so that it won't come apart when we start the burn for Fuhodo Station.