This was written before it was announced that Lower Decks would end at Season 5.
It is the beginning of the Romulan Evacuation Effort, and there is a new rising star within Starfleet, going from cadet to Captain in less than a year. He is now in command of the Federation's newest, most advanced starship, the USS Odyssey, NX-97000. He is also slated to replace Captain Worf as commanding officer of Enterprise. While he is viewed by many as the best that Starfleet has to offer, some say he only got those positions he's the son of an Admiral, whom we meet throughout the story.
Captain Freeman has sent an application to Starfleet Command, volunteering the Cerritos and her crew for the evacuation. The lower decks crew and others have their thoughts about the evacuation, some questioning why they're saving Romulans and Remans, two species which have been nothing but trouble for the Federation, while most are willing to put those troubles aside for the sake of solidarity and salvation. Since the Cerritos is basically the Enterprise of support ships, she expected her application to be approved. Much to Freeman's disappointment, however, her application was rejected, as the part she was volunteetring for will mostly be filled by synthetics.
A while after, a Code 1 distress signal is sent from Sector 001, Mars is under attack. The Cerritos crew rushed to Sol at maximum warp, but by the time they got there, there was nothing left to save. Mars was engulfed in a firestorm, thousands, if not millions, are dead, and the evacuation fleet was completely destroyed. The Captain i mentioned earlier was in-system at the time, so he was able to rescue thousands. A while after arriving, Freeman decides to consult with Starfleet Command on how the Romulan evacuation will proceed, only to be told it won't, as multiple Federation members threatened to secede over the evacuation. This, in addition to the Synth Ban, was decided by the Federation Council, a decision which only the Vulcans opposed. The crew is disappointed for this, and also for Picard to be dismissed over his objections to the decision, with the crew regarding Picard as one of the best men Starfleet ever had. The Odyssey Captain's father downplays this, saying Picard wasn't loyal enough to Starfleet, and that his Irumodic Syndrome meant he would be dismissed sooner or later.
Quietly, the Odyssey Captain voices his complaints to his father, saying he wanted to save the Romulans, but now his loyalty to Starfleet says otherwise. In a public statement, he says that, while the permanent suspension of the evacuation efforts weighed on him, it was a decision he will comply with, as loyalty is one of Starfleet's core values. The Cerritos crew reacts disparingly to this, and also point out that the "separatists" in the Council are bullying it into submission, making appeals to the emotions of the Council to get rubber-stamp approval to anything they want. The only reason the Vulcans are opposing them is because logic is first and foremost in their decision-making, and appeals to emotion don't work on them. They expect the Klingons to evacuate Romulus instead, but then, the Council passed the "Neutral Zone Lockdown Order", stating that no vessel, Federation, Klingon, or otherwise, would be allowed into Romulan space, unless explicitly permitted to do so by the Federation Council. Federation ships that fail to comply will have their crew spend life in a penal colony. Starfleet vessels would patrol the Neutral Zone to enforce the order.
The crew of the Cerritos are pissed off about this, and get angrier when they find out that the entire California-class is scheduled to be decommissioned after the Romulan star goes nova, including their ship. To add insult to injury, the entire crew, including Freeman and the senior staff, will be reassigned to Starbase 80, a space station which the crew dreads, after the Cerritos is decommissioned. Morale is at an all-time low on the ship, and as some crew members contemplate suicide, one last hope is found. A rejected alternate Romulan evac plan proposed by former Starfleet officers Jean-Luc Picard and Rafaella Musiker, which was probably the reason why they were dismissed. The plan called for usage of mothballed vessels from Beta Antares and 40 Eridani A (including DSC-, TOS-, and TMP-era ships) to conduct the evacuation, albeit at a severely reduced capacity and the plan still included the now-outlawed synthetics. The plan was quickly censored, but Freeman got hold of a copy of it, which then gave her and her crew an idea. Contacting the other California-class captains and other people, including Mariner's friends from her Picard-backed treasure hunt, she presents a modified version of the plan, now called Operation Magna Roma, involving the secret recruitment of volunteers and willing people, as well as using the California-class ships and other volunteering ships to fill the gap in capacity from Picard's proposed plan.
All the California-class captains and senior staff accepted the Magna Roma plan and the risks that come with it. Preparations secretly begin for the final voyage of the Cerritos and the other California-class ships, the crews mostly acting "as usual" in carrying out their assigned missions, while secretly preparing to save a species that the rest of the Federation abandoned, alongside the personnel at the two shipyards they were going to "steal" from. With preparations for Operation Magna Roma nearly complete, Captain Freeman, arriving at Starbase 80 under the pretense of getting to know the place, secretly opens a secure channel using encryption keys from the cancelled evacuation effort. She explains to the Praetor that Starfleet may have abandoned them, but she and her friends have not, and will soon be on their way to evacuate them. She also tells him all about Operation Magna Roma, explaining it in detail, and warning him to not warn Starfleet about it, as if they find out before they can begin, they will be given life sentence in a penal colony and the evacuation will fail.
While not aware of the contents of the transmission, the Odyssey Captain's father summons him and explains that an encrypted subspace transmission has been detected originating from Starbase 80, and it was transmitted towards the Romulan system. He believes the transmission to be a sign that someone was about to betray Starfleet, and he added additional ships to the Neutral Zone patrol (making its composition nearly the same as the Interceptor Fleet over Mars in PRO: Supernova), and had the Odyssey be in command of enforcing the lockdown. This goes on FNN, and Freeman and the others hear it, leading them to hurry with the final preparations for Operation Magna Roma. With preparations complete, all ships proceed to the shipyards, where before leaving for Miri's planet, and then for Romulus, Freeman gives a speech to all those gathered in Beta Antares first, then on 40 Eridani A, gathering all ship crews in a large shuttlebay on both facilities, and painting a line in the middle of the shuttlebays.
"Greetings, crews of Operation Magna Roma in [this place]. In a few hours, ships from this facility will join the ships from the other facility at the Miri Memorial Station, from which we will launch the largest rescue mission in Federation history. The California-class ships, which many of us command, are old, and have been through a lot of voyages in the past decades. This will likely be their last. What we're doing is illegal, but we're doing it for a noble cause. As a wise man once said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Well, the Romulans and Remans are the many, and we the rescuers are the few. I know the weight i'm placing on your shoulders is heavy, and i can't force you to join our mission. You have probably noticed a painted red line on the floor of this shuttlebay, between me and the bay doors. Those who wish to board the ships and go evacuate Romulus and Remus will stand on my side of the line, and those who wish to board a shuttle and head to [Vulcan/Antares Prime (last one is antaran homeworld)] will stand on the opposite side. Should there not be enough people to crew all of the ships, i will be forced to break more laws than i already am by activating synths to fill the missing roles. This could be enough to earn us the death penalty, but that's okay for those who will not join us. I know the pressure on you is huge, but you must choose: Do you wanna go to safety in a shuttlecraft, or do you wanna join me, and save billions? Make your choice, and good luck to you all." -Captain Morgan Freeman
In not one, but two repeats of that scene from the BSG finale, people start shuffling around as they choose whether they want to go to Romulus or not. When the shuffling settles and all people have taken a side and are standing still on it, Freeman's senior staff did headcounts of the number of people who had chosen either option. While a sizeable number of people want to board the shuttles and bail out, there are more than enough people available and willing to crew the ships and evacuate Romulus and Remus. They won't have to activate the synthetics, and Operation Magma Roma can proceed. They sabotaged the internal sensors of both shipyards to make Starfleet think that all the mothballed ships are still there. All ships leave to rendezvous at Miri Memorial Station, a station built to serve as a reminder of the tragedy that happened on the Earth clone below. It's finished, but hasn't opened yet. All ships arrive and after conducting final checks and confirming everyone is ready to go, Freeman sends a hail to all ships, saying: "We are go for Operation Magna Roma. All ships, set course for the Romulan system, maximum warp. Time to save the Romulans and Remans. All ships, Engage!" and all ships went to warp, as Operation Magna Roma begins.
Their course will take them towards a point between the now-abandoned Outposts 3 and 4 (see this map: https://www.deviantart.com/jbobroony/art/Map-Strange-new-worlds-added-final-episode-922285020), at which they will make a course correction before heading to Romulus and Remus, and saving everyone there. However, the Dad of the Odyssey Captain caught wind of Magna Roma and ordered his son's ship to take the entire patrol fleet to the course correction point. When the Magna Roma evac fleet arrives there, they find the Odyssey and the other ships waiting for them. FNN broadcasts Magna Roma and the intercept live, as the Odyssey Captain hails the Cerritos and gives all ships an ultimatum: Return to where they came from within the next 10 minutes, or be fired upon and arrested. He is sympathetic towards them, and promises to give them all reduced sentences if they cooperate and return home. Little does he know, there are ships willing to help them. The USS Verity, Picard's old command before he and his last XO left, drops out of warp next to the evac fleet, captained by Commander Tajuth, Picard's Romulan liaison. Afterwards, the Enterprise-E commanded by Captain Worf drops out of warp, and the Odyssey Captain teases both by saying unloyal officers run deep in the ships Picard commanded, and that it's no wonder why Picard was forced to resign. Afterwards, the USS Titan, with four other Luna-class ships, drop out of warp, followed by the Defiant and the Voyager-A, commanded by Captain Ezri Dax and Admiral Kathryn Janeway, respectively. The Odyssey Captain extends his ultimatum to the other 9 ships, saying they can either join him, leave, or fight. Only two Luna-class ships, USS Ganymede and USS Callisto, join the Odyssey Captain, the other two, USS Phobos and USS Deimos, as well as the Titan, decide to protect the fleet.
Just then, it is revealed that someone called for extra backup, as a flotilla of Klingon Birds of Prey, led by two Vor'chas and a Negh'Var, all from the House of Martok, which Worf is a member of, drop out of warp, the Negh'Var being captained by the Chancellor himself. Apparently, killing by inaction is dishonorable, and what Starfleet is doing is even more dishonorable. And, as if things couldn't get worse, a Ferengi merchant fleet owned by Quark (though he's not leading it right now) drops out of warp as well. As it turns out, Quark sunk large amounts of latinum into the cancelled evacuation efforts, and if Operation Magna Roma means a return on his investment, then they will defend it. Everyone has shields up and weapons hot, and once the 10-minute deadline has elapsed, the Odyssey Captain hails all Magna Roma ships, saying their time had run out, that he hoped they would be reasonable, and that they made their choice. He then cuts communication and orders all ships to target the Magna Roma fleet and fire to disable. The Enterprise and the others fire back, and a battle ensues with the Enterprise and the other backup ships forming a sort of "rear guard" to allow Freeman and her ships to enter the neutral zone. While they slip through the blockade line, the Odyssey begins firing heavier Quantum Torpedos at the Magna Roma fleet, hoping they would be damaged enough to stop. Just then, a Romulan Warbird battlegroup led by Commander T'Rul, whom you've met in DS9, decloaks and starts firing at the torpedoes, intercepting and destroying them. She announces that she and her battlegroup were sent by the Praetor to escort them to the Romulus system, and that Romulus and Remus are ready for evacuation. After leaving enemy firing range, Freeman orders the evac fleet to go to warp, and advises their "reinforcements" to do the same and follow them to Romulus. The evac fleet then goes to warp, miraculously unharmed. Most of the other backup ships follow them, though some, including the Enterprise-E, are destroyed or wrecked by the Odyssey's fleet.
With all eyes on Magna Roma, the Odyssey Captain and his dad begin planning their moves carefully. After gaining clearance to enter Romulan space, the Captain's father tells them to ambush the Magna Roma fleet, but the Captain refuses, saying that all eyes are on them now, and if they destroy a ship full of Romulan and/or Reman civilians, there will be major backlash. He instead places his fleet between Romulus and Vashti, and sends Defiant-class ships to perform hit-and-run attacks against the evac fleet, harassing their ships and hoping this would force them to abort the mission. The Defiant-class ships would drop out of warp and perform strafing runs in flights of two ships at a time, forcing the evac ships to raise their shields, preventing people from being beamed up and preventing shuttles from leaving or entering shuttlebays. This wasn't effective for long, however, as Martok would respond by detaching two birds of prey to hinder their attacks, allowing the Magna Roma ships to keep their shields down for as long as possible without worrying about being hit. After a while, the Romulans send a cloaked scout ship to spy on the Odyssey's fleet, following the warp trail of a retreating Defiant. After it returns, they deduce that the Odyssey is preparing for an ambush as soon as they jump to Vashti, and decide to go elsewhere, to one of the fallback relocation hubs designated in the event Vashti was not available for some reason. (These include Rator III and Dewa III from STO.) Soon, the Romulan evacuation nears completion, as Remus is already empty, and the last few Romulans and Remans are being beamed off the surface of Romulus. Not a moment too soon, as the Romulus/Hobus/Eisn/whatever star shows signs that the supernova will begin at any moment. As a pair of Defiants drop out of warp to perform one last attack, the Operation Magna Roma crews soon find themselves on a race against time, and they'll be cutting it close. The Klingon ships are beginning to withdraw due to the supernova, rendering the Magna Roma ships defenseless.
After the Supernova begins, the Defiants come around for another strafing run, and they only have a few minutes before the increased stellar radiation makes it impossible to beam up the remaining evacuees, even with pattern enhancers. When all hope seems lost, a strange Vulcan vessel (Spock's Jellyfish) drops out of warp and fires upon the Defiants, which then begin chasing the Jellyfish in an attempt to destroy or disable it as it heads towards the exploding star. As they continue chasing while firing at Spock, they are spotted by the rogue vessel Narada, which locks on to the Defiants. As they take down Spock's shields and prepare to deliver the killing blow, they suddenly detect incoming weapons on sensors. The crew identifies it as some sort of fragmentation cluster missile fired from an unknown vessel with a Romulan energy signature. The two missiles fired make mincemeat of the Defiants, dropping their shields and wrecking the ships. The surviving crew members are forced to evacuate through the shuttlecraft, and get out of the system before the star consumes them. With Spock freeing up the ships, they rush to complete the remaining beam-ups and have the shuttlecraft make their last pick-ups before returning to their ships. With only 28 seconds to spare before transporters become useless, the last evacuees are beamed aboard, Romulus is empty and the evacuation is complete. Freeman then orders immediate maximum warp to [insert alternate relocation hub here] as Romulus is about to be destroyed. All vessels then jump to warp, leaving the system seconds before the supernova destroys Romulus.
With everyone - Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, and Federation - leaving, Freeman reminds them that Operation Magna Roma is not over yet, as they still need to reach the fallback hub and drop off the Romulans and Remans there. The Odyssey's fleet, however, found out where they're heading, and soon move to intercept. Deploying high-power warp field inhibitors to force them out of warp, they decide to end this here and now. A battle ensues, weapons fire left and right, the Odyssey and its fleet barely holding on. The Odyssey Captain's dad, in the middle of a meeting with the Federation President somewhere, suddenly receives an emergency hail from the Odyssey. His son comes on, stating that they are coming under extremely heavy fire, and are requesting immediate assistance. The dad reminds the Captain that their ships have transphasic torpedos, and tells him to use them. The Odyssey Captain objects, saying that they're trying to disable the vessels, not to destroy them. His dad orders him to do so, merely stating "Do as you're told, my son. Remember, you are loyal to the Federation. Or do you want to get discharged like that old man Picard?" With his son conflicted as to whether to fire the transphasics or not, the President walks into the conversation, having just learned of what was going on. Despite the Dad's objections, the President orders the Odyssey and its fleet to stand down, and to let the evac fleet proceed to their destination. If the other guys want to secede, so be it. The Odyssey's fleet stops firing, and both fleets then proceed to their destination. After arriving at the fallback hub and as they're dropping off and beaming down the evacuees, they receive a message from the Federation President, stating that all personnel involved in Operation Magna Roma have been pardoned for all crimes, and that he will soon give them all medals for saving the Romulan and Reman peoples. Ship captains in particular will receive the Starfleet Medal of Honor, Starfleet's highest award. With their Romulans and Remans dropped off on the planet, the crew of the USS Cerritos decides to head to Earth, for the awards ceremony where they and everyone else will get medals.
It is the beginning of the Romulan Evacuation Effort, and there is a new rising star within Starfleet, going from cadet to Captain in less than a year. He is now in command of the Federation's newest, most advanced starship, the USS Odyssey, NX-97000. He is also slated to replace Captain Worf as commanding officer of Enterprise. While he is viewed by many as the best that Starfleet has to offer, some say he only got those positions he's the son of an Admiral, whom we meet throughout the story.
Captain Freeman has sent an application to Starfleet Command, volunteering the Cerritos and her crew for the evacuation. The lower decks crew and others have their thoughts about the evacuation, some questioning why they're saving Romulans and Remans, two species which have been nothing but trouble for the Federation, while most are willing to put those troubles aside for the sake of solidarity and salvation. Since the Cerritos is basically the Enterprise of support ships, she expected her application to be approved. Much to Freeman's disappointment, however, her application was rejected, as the part she was volunteetring for will mostly be filled by synthetics.
A while after, a Code 1 distress signal is sent from Sector 001, Mars is under attack. The Cerritos crew rushed to Sol at maximum warp, but by the time they got there, there was nothing left to save. Mars was engulfed in a firestorm, thousands, if not millions, are dead, and the evacuation fleet was completely destroyed. The Captain i mentioned earlier was in-system at the time, so he was able to rescue thousands. A while after arriving, Freeman decides to consult with Starfleet Command on how the Romulan evacuation will proceed, only to be told it won't, as multiple Federation members threatened to secede over the evacuation. This, in addition to the Synth Ban, was decided by the Federation Council, a decision which only the Vulcans opposed. The crew is disappointed for this, and also for Picard to be dismissed over his objections to the decision, with the crew regarding Picard as one of the best men Starfleet ever had. The Odyssey Captain's father downplays this, saying Picard wasn't loyal enough to Starfleet, and that his Irumodic Syndrome meant he would be dismissed sooner or later.
Quietly, the Odyssey Captain voices his complaints to his father, saying he wanted to save the Romulans, but now his loyalty to Starfleet says otherwise. In a public statement, he says that, while the permanent suspension of the evacuation efforts weighed on him, it was a decision he will comply with, as loyalty is one of Starfleet's core values. The Cerritos crew reacts disparingly to this, and also point out that the "separatists" in the Council are bullying it into submission, making appeals to the emotions of the Council to get rubber-stamp approval to anything they want. The only reason the Vulcans are opposing them is because logic is first and foremost in their decision-making, and appeals to emotion don't work on them. They expect the Klingons to evacuate Romulus instead, but then, the Council passed the "Neutral Zone Lockdown Order", stating that no vessel, Federation, Klingon, or otherwise, would be allowed into Romulan space, unless explicitly permitted to do so by the Federation Council. Federation ships that fail to comply will have their crew spend life in a penal colony. Starfleet vessels would patrol the Neutral Zone to enforce the order.
The crew of the Cerritos are pissed off about this, and get angrier when they find out that the entire California-class is scheduled to be decommissioned after the Romulan star goes nova, including their ship. To add insult to injury, the entire crew, including Freeman and the senior staff, will be reassigned to Starbase 80, a space station which the crew dreads, after the Cerritos is decommissioned. Morale is at an all-time low on the ship, and as some crew members contemplate suicide, one last hope is found. A rejected alternate Romulan evac plan proposed by former Starfleet officers Jean-Luc Picard and Rafaella Musiker, which was probably the reason why they were dismissed. The plan called for usage of mothballed vessels from Beta Antares and 40 Eridani A (including DSC-, TOS-, and TMP-era ships) to conduct the evacuation, albeit at a severely reduced capacity and the plan still included the now-outlawed synthetics. The plan was quickly censored, but Freeman got hold of a copy of it, which then gave her and her crew an idea. Contacting the other California-class captains and other people, including Mariner's friends from her Picard-backed treasure hunt, she presents a modified version of the plan, now called Operation Magna Roma, involving the secret recruitment of volunteers and willing people, as well as using the California-class ships and other volunteering ships to fill the gap in capacity from Picard's proposed plan.
All the California-class captains and senior staff accepted the Magna Roma plan and the risks that come with it. Preparations secretly begin for the final voyage of the Cerritos and the other California-class ships, the crews mostly acting "as usual" in carrying out their assigned missions, while secretly preparing to save a species that the rest of the Federation abandoned, alongside the personnel at the two shipyards they were going to "steal" from. With preparations for Operation Magna Roma nearly complete, Captain Freeman, arriving at Starbase 80 under the pretense of getting to know the place, secretly opens a secure channel using encryption keys from the cancelled evacuation effort. She explains to the Praetor that Starfleet may have abandoned them, but she and her friends have not, and will soon be on their way to evacuate them. She also tells him all about Operation Magna Roma, explaining it in detail, and warning him to not warn Starfleet about it, as if they find out before they can begin, they will be given life sentence in a penal colony and the evacuation will fail.
While not aware of the contents of the transmission, the Odyssey Captain's father summons him and explains that an encrypted subspace transmission has been detected originating from Starbase 80, and it was transmitted towards the Romulan system. He believes the transmission to be a sign that someone was about to betray Starfleet, and he added additional ships to the Neutral Zone patrol (making its composition nearly the same as the Interceptor Fleet over Mars in PRO: Supernova), and had the Odyssey be in command of enforcing the lockdown. This goes on FNN, and Freeman and the others hear it, leading them to hurry with the final preparations for Operation Magna Roma. With preparations complete, all ships proceed to the shipyards, where before leaving for Miri's planet, and then for Romulus, Freeman gives a speech to all those gathered in Beta Antares first, then on 40 Eridani A, gathering all ship crews in a large shuttlebay on both facilities, and painting a line in the middle of the shuttlebays.
"Greetings, crews of Operation Magna Roma in [this place]. In a few hours, ships from this facility will join the ships from the other facility at the Miri Memorial Station, from which we will launch the largest rescue mission in Federation history. The California-class ships, which many of us command, are old, and have been through a lot of voyages in the past decades. This will likely be their last. What we're doing is illegal, but we're doing it for a noble cause. As a wise man once said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Well, the Romulans and Remans are the many, and we the rescuers are the few. I know the weight i'm placing on your shoulders is heavy, and i can't force you to join our mission. You have probably noticed a painted red line on the floor of this shuttlebay, between me and the bay doors. Those who wish to board the ships and go evacuate Romulus and Remus will stand on my side of the line, and those who wish to board a shuttle and head to [Vulcan/Antares Prime (last one is antaran homeworld)] will stand on the opposite side. Should there not be enough people to crew all of the ships, i will be forced to break more laws than i already am by activating synths to fill the missing roles. This could be enough to earn us the death penalty, but that's okay for those who will not join us. I know the pressure on you is huge, but you must choose: Do you wanna go to safety in a shuttlecraft, or do you wanna join me, and save billions? Make your choice, and good luck to you all." -Captain Morgan Freeman
In not one, but two repeats of that scene from the BSG finale, people start shuffling around as they choose whether they want to go to Romulus or not. When the shuffling settles and all people have taken a side and are standing still on it, Freeman's senior staff did headcounts of the number of people who had chosen either option. While a sizeable number of people want to board the shuttles and bail out, there are more than enough people available and willing to crew the ships and evacuate Romulus and Remus. They won't have to activate the synthetics, and Operation Magma Roma can proceed. They sabotaged the internal sensors of both shipyards to make Starfleet think that all the mothballed ships are still there. All ships leave to rendezvous at Miri Memorial Station, a station built to serve as a reminder of the tragedy that happened on the Earth clone below. It's finished, but hasn't opened yet. All ships arrive and after conducting final checks and confirming everyone is ready to go, Freeman sends a hail to all ships, saying: "We are go for Operation Magna Roma. All ships, set course for the Romulan system, maximum warp. Time to save the Romulans and Remans. All ships, Engage!" and all ships went to warp, as Operation Magna Roma begins.
Their course will take them towards a point between the now-abandoned Outposts 3 and 4 (see this map: https://www.deviantart.com/jbobroony/art/Map-Strange-new-worlds-added-final-episode-922285020), at which they will make a course correction before heading to Romulus and Remus, and saving everyone there. However, the Dad of the Odyssey Captain caught wind of Magna Roma and ordered his son's ship to take the entire patrol fleet to the course correction point. When the Magna Roma evac fleet arrives there, they find the Odyssey and the other ships waiting for them. FNN broadcasts Magna Roma and the intercept live, as the Odyssey Captain hails the Cerritos and gives all ships an ultimatum: Return to where they came from within the next 10 minutes, or be fired upon and arrested. He is sympathetic towards them, and promises to give them all reduced sentences if they cooperate and return home. Little does he know, there are ships willing to help them. The USS Verity, Picard's old command before he and his last XO left, drops out of warp next to the evac fleet, captained by Commander Tajuth, Picard's Romulan liaison. Afterwards, the Enterprise-E commanded by Captain Worf drops out of warp, and the Odyssey Captain teases both by saying unloyal officers run deep in the ships Picard commanded, and that it's no wonder why Picard was forced to resign. Afterwards, the USS Titan, with four other Luna-class ships, drop out of warp, followed by the Defiant and the Voyager-A, commanded by Captain Ezri Dax and Admiral Kathryn Janeway, respectively. The Odyssey Captain extends his ultimatum to the other 9 ships, saying they can either join him, leave, or fight. Only two Luna-class ships, USS Ganymede and USS Callisto, join the Odyssey Captain, the other two, USS Phobos and USS Deimos, as well as the Titan, decide to protect the fleet.
Just then, it is revealed that someone called for extra backup, as a flotilla of Klingon Birds of Prey, led by two Vor'chas and a Negh'Var, all from the House of Martok, which Worf is a member of, drop out of warp, the Negh'Var being captained by the Chancellor himself. Apparently, killing by inaction is dishonorable, and what Starfleet is doing is even more dishonorable. And, as if things couldn't get worse, a Ferengi merchant fleet owned by Quark (though he's not leading it right now) drops out of warp as well. As it turns out, Quark sunk large amounts of latinum into the cancelled evacuation efforts, and if Operation Magna Roma means a return on his investment, then they will defend it. Everyone has shields up and weapons hot, and once the 10-minute deadline has elapsed, the Odyssey Captain hails all Magna Roma ships, saying their time had run out, that he hoped they would be reasonable, and that they made their choice. He then cuts communication and orders all ships to target the Magna Roma fleet and fire to disable. The Enterprise and the others fire back, and a battle ensues with the Enterprise and the other backup ships forming a sort of "rear guard" to allow Freeman and her ships to enter the neutral zone. While they slip through the blockade line, the Odyssey begins firing heavier Quantum Torpedos at the Magna Roma fleet, hoping they would be damaged enough to stop. Just then, a Romulan Warbird battlegroup led by Commander T'Rul, whom you've met in DS9, decloaks and starts firing at the torpedoes, intercepting and destroying them. She announces that she and her battlegroup were sent by the Praetor to escort them to the Romulus system, and that Romulus and Remus are ready for evacuation. After leaving enemy firing range, Freeman orders the evac fleet to go to warp, and advises their "reinforcements" to do the same and follow them to Romulus. The evac fleet then goes to warp, miraculously unharmed. Most of the other backup ships follow them, though some, including the Enterprise-E, are destroyed or wrecked by the Odyssey's fleet.
With all eyes on Magna Roma, the Odyssey Captain and his dad begin planning their moves carefully. After gaining clearance to enter Romulan space, the Captain's father tells them to ambush the Magna Roma fleet, but the Captain refuses, saying that all eyes are on them now, and if they destroy a ship full of Romulan and/or Reman civilians, there will be major backlash. He instead places his fleet between Romulus and Vashti, and sends Defiant-class ships to perform hit-and-run attacks against the evac fleet, harassing their ships and hoping this would force them to abort the mission. The Defiant-class ships would drop out of warp and perform strafing runs in flights of two ships at a time, forcing the evac ships to raise their shields, preventing people from being beamed up and preventing shuttles from leaving or entering shuttlebays. This wasn't effective for long, however, as Martok would respond by detaching two birds of prey to hinder their attacks, allowing the Magna Roma ships to keep their shields down for as long as possible without worrying about being hit. After a while, the Romulans send a cloaked scout ship to spy on the Odyssey's fleet, following the warp trail of a retreating Defiant. After it returns, they deduce that the Odyssey is preparing for an ambush as soon as they jump to Vashti, and decide to go elsewhere, to one of the fallback relocation hubs designated in the event Vashti was not available for some reason. (These include Rator III and Dewa III from STO.) Soon, the Romulan evacuation nears completion, as Remus is already empty, and the last few Romulans and Remans are being beamed off the surface of Romulus. Not a moment too soon, as the Romulus/Hobus/Eisn/whatever star shows signs that the supernova will begin at any moment. As a pair of Defiants drop out of warp to perform one last attack, the Operation Magna Roma crews soon find themselves on a race against time, and they'll be cutting it close. The Klingon ships are beginning to withdraw due to the supernova, rendering the Magna Roma ships defenseless.
After the Supernova begins, the Defiants come around for another strafing run, and they only have a few minutes before the increased stellar radiation makes it impossible to beam up the remaining evacuees, even with pattern enhancers. When all hope seems lost, a strange Vulcan vessel (Spock's Jellyfish) drops out of warp and fires upon the Defiants, which then begin chasing the Jellyfish in an attempt to destroy or disable it as it heads towards the exploding star. As they continue chasing while firing at Spock, they are spotted by the rogue vessel Narada, which locks on to the Defiants. As they take down Spock's shields and prepare to deliver the killing blow, they suddenly detect incoming weapons on sensors. The crew identifies it as some sort of fragmentation cluster missile fired from an unknown vessel with a Romulan energy signature. The two missiles fired make mincemeat of the Defiants, dropping their shields and wrecking the ships. The surviving crew members are forced to evacuate through the shuttlecraft, and get out of the system before the star consumes them. With Spock freeing up the ships, they rush to complete the remaining beam-ups and have the shuttlecraft make their last pick-ups before returning to their ships. With only 28 seconds to spare before transporters become useless, the last evacuees are beamed aboard, Romulus is empty and the evacuation is complete. Freeman then orders immediate maximum warp to [insert alternate relocation hub here] as Romulus is about to be destroyed. All vessels then jump to warp, leaving the system seconds before the supernova destroys Romulus.
With everyone - Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, and Federation - leaving, Freeman reminds them that Operation Magna Roma is not over yet, as they still need to reach the fallback hub and drop off the Romulans and Remans there. The Odyssey's fleet, however, found out where they're heading, and soon move to intercept. Deploying high-power warp field inhibitors to force them out of warp, they decide to end this here and now. A battle ensues, weapons fire left and right, the Odyssey and its fleet barely holding on. The Odyssey Captain's dad, in the middle of a meeting with the Federation President somewhere, suddenly receives an emergency hail from the Odyssey. His son comes on, stating that they are coming under extremely heavy fire, and are requesting immediate assistance. The dad reminds the Captain that their ships have transphasic torpedos, and tells him to use them. The Odyssey Captain objects, saying that they're trying to disable the vessels, not to destroy them. His dad orders him to do so, merely stating "Do as you're told, my son. Remember, you are loyal to the Federation. Or do you want to get discharged like that old man Picard?" With his son conflicted as to whether to fire the transphasics or not, the President walks into the conversation, having just learned of what was going on. Despite the Dad's objections, the President orders the Odyssey and its fleet to stand down, and to let the evac fleet proceed to their destination. If the other guys want to secede, so be it. The Odyssey's fleet stops firing, and both fleets then proceed to their destination. After arriving at the fallback hub and as they're dropping off and beaming down the evacuees, they receive a message from the Federation President, stating that all personnel involved in Operation Magna Roma have been pardoned for all crimes, and that he will soon give them all medals for saving the Romulan and Reman peoples. Ship captains in particular will receive the Starfleet Medal of Honor, Starfleet's highest award. With their Romulans and Remans dropped off on the planet, the crew of the USS Cerritos decides to head to Earth, for the awards ceremony where they and everyone else will get medals.
