Just read the details about ship to ship boarding while looking for info about engineering brigades and after reading through it, something struck me as unanswered.
Boarding crews will break through armor if there are no gaps into the ship, that makes sense. But what would happen if, say, a missile were to strike the armor block that they are currently breaking through? Would attacks against the target ship kill boarders while they're still trying to find a way into the ship? Or do they exist in a hypothetical plane of "On the Hull" until they break through?
Second question: Can/do engineering brigades act as engineers while aboard ships to assist in maintenance?