Mission Briefing "Prep for Departure" Part Two

Posted on Fri Feb 2nd, 2024 @ 10:58pm by Colonel Josiah McEntyre & Sub-Commander T'shir & Lieutenant Commander Travis Paladin & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Coleman & Major Arjut'Pelan sh'Kohlaka & Lieutenant Keelli Reex & Commander Saul Whitford & Lieutenant JG Elspeth McArthur & Ensign Shor ch'Zeles & Lieutenant Razeen el-Ben

2,485 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: First Deployment
Location: Combat Information Center

Josiah turned the briefing over wordlessly.

An effervescent glint appeared in Pel's eye that made the smirk on her face seem more pronounced. "Just Pel," she said coyly, then launched into the Intel briefing. "The Imperial Fleet has limited numbers in the region, roughly six battle groups with another eight on alert should Romulan forces come to bear. Consequently Imperial assets have been conducting guerilla style hit and run strikes to harry incoming reinforcements and prevent forward strongholds from being established in the sector outside the primary system."

She manipulated the display to fill in a number of starships outside the system. "When Unicorn is ready, the second, fourth, and fifth battle groups will assist in punching through enemy lines to Berengeria. The first and third will maintain flanking positions to preserve an exit route in the event we must fall back while the sixth battle group will be on guard for ambushes beyond the system's edge. They will call for reinforcements should the battle justify them."

Looking back to Josiah and Erin, she concluded, "Until that order is given, the battle groups will continue in their present interdiction."

Brow furrowing Whitford looked askance at the Andorian Major. Guff about the Andorian Imperial Guard. The Armoury Officer was concerned that Pel had responded so broadly to two specific questions and turned it into a peroration on her people's forces. Not that he'd expected anything less, they were a notoriously prideful species. Small tendrils of doubt began to worm themselves into his mental fabric for the first time in a long time.

"Which we hope will keep the Romulan Forces busy and they won't notice ground forces making their way to the planet." Taking over the display controls from Pel, she started the simulation of their drop down to the former site of the colony. "The Imperial fleet will support our Forces but we are well aware that the amount of troops on the ground might not be enough to retake the whole colony. Our objective is to retake the remnants of Starbase one, clear out any classified information and try to hurt the Romulan Forces as much as possible. Hopefully the Naval forces will put enough pressure on the Romulans to make them retreat."

Manipulating the display again she brought up a visual representation of the colony proper. "We have also gotten signals from our deep space probes that there may be MACO forces on the ground still fighting. If we are able to we're going to pull our people out." Erin knew it was a long shot after so long a time but there was a part of her that held out hope.

T'shir sat mostly expressionless as the senior officers discussed their strategic plans to retake the Berengeria Colony. "I would not assume that a threat to what the Romulans have deemed their territory will direct their attention away from the potential threat of ground forces arriving. The Romulans have shown themselves to be aggressive and disproportionately reactive. You should be prepare for the possibility that the effect will not be what you intent. They could in fact dispatch more ground resources and put their security on the colony on high alert."

"They did beat the hell out of the First, when we made our initial landings, but then again there were only three ships and they could focus directly on us." Erin said, bringing up the data from that first landing. They'd torn a lot of the landing craft to shreds, she lost a lot of people that day. "If the Vulcans have any way to help us conceal our ships I wouldn't complain and I'm sure the Colonel wouldn't either."

"I wouldn't be opposed, but we'll be rushing out the gate as soon as we finalize crew and get provisions stowed."

Josiah gestures to Gunnar

"Commander Gunnar has been working on the Unicorn's new Deflector Shields, and I feel that it'll get a work out. Along with Major Ishikawa, i'll be leading the ground team to the surface, while Unicorn breaks and harasses the Romulan Fleet."

TAG GUNNAR

He pauses and leans on the table.

"I strongly urge that we stick with hit and run attacks. In order to get the team on the ground, we'll have to use some shock and awe. I want Commander Magnussan to work with Major Pel, Sub Commander T'shir and our Helm and Navigator to plot a warp jump that'll put us in orbit fairly quickly. Once the Romulan's detect the warp wake, they'll move fairly quicky to intercept us. Unicorn will brush atmo, drop the MACO shuttlepod and get the hell out of dodge."

Keelli just nodded. "Alright," she said.

Josiah looks at Commander T'shir and the new communications officer, McArthur.

"Commander T'shir, Ms. McArthur, We'll need a secured comm channel connecting ground team to Unicorn. Lieutenant Reex will pilot the shuttle down and then break and hide."

Josiah turns to look directly at the new communications officer.

"How much field time have you had, Ms. McArthur?"

He asks her, a plan forming in his mind.

The newly minted Lt Jg straightened up a bit more. "Two trips to Vulcan Sir and only a few hours on the surface."


Keelli gave a LOOK. TWO trips to Vulcan? Cute.

"Get with Lt. Whitford in the Armory, I want you to come with the MACOs to provide Communications support"

T'shir's lips remained pressed together and she raised a solitary eyebrow at the Colonel's suggestion of sending the young human female along with the ground soldiers. "A secure comms channel will not be an issue Colonel. I recommend manually changing frequencies at predetermined random intervals to reduce the risk that Romulan Intelligence will obtain access."

Elspeth merely nodded at the CO's words. "Aye Sir"

Colonel Mack


Vilhelmina arrived at the door, to see the Shepherd looking over the information on the table. She gave a low, but sharp whistle. This caused the dog to turn to look at her. She gave her hand signal for him to come to her side. Which he obeyed.

McArthur hid a smirk at the poor dog's actions as it was called back to its Master.

"MACOs, once this briefing is over, I'd like to assemble in MACO operations to go over specific details. Department Heads go over the mission briefing with you subordiates and department team members. I want readiness reports submitted to Commander Gunnar no later than 1800 HRs."

His thoughts already turning to his readiness report, Whitford waited for his dismissal. It was still strange to be aboard a ship commanded by MACO officers. He wondered briefly if that was the source of the foreboding in the pit of his stomach. Seems to be no Starfleet prints on this op at all.

“As a point of note, as I’m sure Major Ishikawa will speak too, Berengeria is currently in their winter months, break out the cold weather gear. Beyond that, I’ll open up the floor for questions, comments or suggestions”

Josiah said as he opens up the briefing for questions.

"Question, sir," Travis asked as the floor was open, swiftly raising and lowering his hand. "The Stormbird-class is speculated as easily being capable of warp factors above 7, by our estimations and intelligence made available to ship reports. Our ship is only capable of that speed in extreme emergencies. How do you purpose we utilize this disadvantage to our advantage?"

"Blitzkrieg," Pel interjected, speaking the word in a harsh German accent, "is the proper Earth word, I believe. In terms of mission parameters, that means Romulan reinforcements will arrive at the same time as allied reinforcements even with a head start." Pel's smirk held reluctant respect for their mutual enemy. "Other allied battle groups will be harrying Romulan patrols throughout the sector in a manifold show of force against multiple targets. Romulan stratagems will all but certainly identify the colony as the ultimate goal of our blitz but their confidence in their superior propulsion may allow us precious seconds to punch through the enemy lines to the colony before they withdraw forces from the outer incursions in order to shore up planetary defense." She softened her smirk after addressing the humans and their questions. Andorians would prove their quality and spare their own territory from attack in one fell swoop. "Once Berengeria is in sight, their advantage of maximum warp will be rendered moot. It will be the soldiers' fight from there."

"Thank you, Major," Travis said, feeling his question had been adequately answered.

"Why we'll need the engines running at peak performance, and your engine room on hot standby once we're close to Berengeria. Beyond that, Major Pel will hand out the intelligence reports and tactical analysis to all Department Heads for review and commenting."

"You can count on us, sirs," Ben replied enthusiastically for both his Chief and himself.

*FiNE, but if any of those Marines puke in my bird, they're going out of an airlock* she thought. "Alright, sir, I'll prep the boat for maximum warp." Guess this is how she was going to die.

Pel rolled her eyes at the Trill. She was green as grass and twice as wet behind the ears. Was the colonel going to put their lives in her hands?

"Well, if anyone decides to get space sick or if they know if they are space sick, just let me know and I'll make sure that we get them squared away before they leave," Coleman replied with a shy smirk forming across his face as he watched the crew talking about how fast the ship could go. He knew that these newer and higher speeds could cause some issues later on and wanted to make sure that the crew was ready for it.

Kayoko raised a hand. "Erm, question. These 'hit and runs'. How fast do you want them? From a pilots point of view..." she asked. "And do we know of any navigational hazards in the system?"

"We'll download the latest system scans when we get close to Berengeria. As for speed, fast and hard, Lieutenant. Unicorn may only have a few minutes to even deploy the shuttlepod."

Kayoko nodded. "May I suggest we turn the ventral of the ship towards planetside. We can then use the ship as a 'shield' whilst we launch the shuttlepods," she suggested.

Josiah nods in approval, pulling up an orbital chart of Berengeria on the plotting table.

“An Excellent idea, LT. If we plot an angled orbit, we can also polarize the Dorsal Hull Plating in addition to the Dr. Gunnar’s new shield system. That should cover us enough to launch both the shuttle pods and the NX-Foxtrots for air support.”

"I concur, sir," Travis opined. Both Ben and he had been politely observing the meeting. "The manifold should be able to cover the extra cost of two defensive measures, if only for a short time."

"Can't be done," Keelli interjected. "Unless you want people to die, our shuttles can't go that fast. The planes...MAYBE," she said. "It's a death sentence," she said. She wasn't trying to be insubordinate, just factual. These people were nuts. Marines. Why the Fleet ever thought it was a good idea, she'd never understand. "From a pilots perspective, Kayoko, I wouldn't do it. If I wanted to die, there's faster ways."

Listening to the exchange, Whitford raised an eyebrow. 'Wouldn't we be dropping shields to allow the shuttles through in any case?'

T'shir spoke up again, her delivery without passion or favoritism to any one position. "There has been a lot of discussion regarding only estimations of time limitations and speed requirements for the vessels implemented in the proposal. Lieutenant Reex has presented a valid point of concern. However, until we perform precise calculations including a margin of error, we cannot say for certain if the proposal is plausible or... a 'death sentence' as the lieutenant so artfully phrased it." T'lenn paused. "The logical next step would be to run calculations and simulations so that Colonel McEntyre has more information about the likely success rate and risk level to the crew members who would be tasked with carrying out the mission."

Reex nodded. "That would work," she admitted. Trials were always favorable opposed to going in blindly. "I'll only need an hour, Sirs," Keelli said. She still thought it was stupidly dangerous, but a few more training hours would help her feel better about it.

'If you need help from Armory, we can give you a hand,' Whitford offered, feeling relief that a fleeter was at least testing their plan out beforehand.

Vilhelmina and Bruno was hanging in the back of the meeting. She remained quiet as she let the others say their peace.

Ensign ch'Zeles had also quietly observed. He smiled a bit as the Chief Armory Officer offered to help. "I'd be glad to help with the simulations in any way that I could as well.. Sir.. Ma'am." The Andorian smiled warmly. The truth was that he'd be glad to also learn as much information as he could along the way.

"Just make sure that you guys don't come back in bits and pieces. While I'm good at what I do, I don't know how to fix bits and pieces," Coleman replied as he listened into everything that was going around about the various parts of their first mission was coming together.

Keelli shot a cool look at the Docs. "Yeah, no kidding," she said. Where had these COME from? Friggin Fleet Marines. Too damned prideful. She sat back then, having heard enough. This was going to be a mess, she already knew it. When was this meeting going to end? She felt like she'd sat here forever.

"If there is nothing else, We have our orders. Departure will be End of Week, 0900 Hours. Thank you All"

Josiah says ending the briefing.

-----

Colonel Josiah McEntyre
Commanding Officer/MACO Commanding Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Commander Gunnar Magnussan
Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Sub Commander T’shir
Chief Communications Officer/Officer of the Watch
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Kayoko Himeji
Chief Helm Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Blake Weston
Chief Navigator
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Keelli Reex
Helm Officer/Shuttle Pilot
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Saul Whitford
Chief Armory Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Ensign Shor ch'Zeles
Armory Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Commander Travis Paladin
Chief Engineer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Razeen el-Ben
Assistant Chief Engineer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant Thisbe P'rar
Damage Control Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Major Arjut'Pelan sh'Kohlaka
Chief Strategic Intelligence Officer/MACO Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Ensign Jasleen Chakrabarti
Science Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Lieutenant JG Elspeth McArthur
Communications Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Major Erin Ishikawa
MACO Executive Officer
Unicorn NX-151

&

Master Sergeant Johnathan Reese
MACO Raider
Unicorn NX-151


&

Gunnery Sergeant Bjorn Magnusson
MACO Raider
Unicorn NX-151

&

Captain Vilhelmina Nimitz
Military Dog Handler/MACO Officer
Unicorn NX-151

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