Organizing the Troops, part 1

Posted on Wed Nov 3rd, 2010 @ 1:06pm by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Colonel Damon Raine & Lieutenant Lorne Jaxara & Lieutenant Commander Delon Tovan & Lieutenant Commander Leanne Bowen & Lieutenant JG Nava & Major Leroy Mangalia & Sergeant Chichire Shintaku
Edited on on Wed Nov 3rd, 2010 @ 1:11pm

1,294 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Peace, or Something Like It
Location: Conference Room, USS Calypso
Timeline: Current

ON

Doctor Leanne Bowen heard the call for all senior members to report to the conference room. She left sickbay to head to the special room, after she notified her nurse to contact Doctor Hart to report to sickbay to be on duty, as he was sent off duty a couple of hours ago.

Just as she entered, it appeared to be empty. She went over to the replicator to order another cup of coffee and took a seat. Leanne set the PADD and the mug on the table and waited for the others to arrive.

Chichire walked in to the room she saw Doc Bowen getting coffee form the replicator surprising too see no one else in the room at all. "Why would they call me here in stead of the some of the NCOs'" she said out aloud with out realizing it. She looked at Bowen hoping she did not hear her walked over the replicator to get coffee and some Bailey's Irish cream then sat down and waited for every one else to enter.

Ronnie walked in next. She wasn't sure if Jerry would be there, but as he'd asked her to attend the last briefing, she figured she'd show up for this one, too. She got herself a cup of hot chocolate and took a seat near the back where she could listen and observe but be out of the way at the same time.

Jaxara entered the room. He had a cup of coffee. His PADD had no real plans on it. Just a bunch of drawings of security and marine officers shooting everything on the planet with various weaponry, including photon torpedoes. He smiled at the drawings, and saved them for later use.

Leo walked in, looking around. Almost no one was there, which didn't bother him in the least. A large container of water sloshed in his hand as he sat down. He intended to stay silent during the meeting, if at all possible.

Nava entered and stood toward the back of the room. She watched the others for a few moments.

Damon waited patiently for everyone to get seated before starting.

"As of a few minutes ago, a number of people from the planet started coming forward about a telepathic message they received recently. They tell me that someone named Sam was looking to tell me that they are being held by mercenaries."

Damon turned and toggled the large display screen. Instantly a large topographical map appeared along with a number of red dots.

"This is where the people were when they 'heard' her."

Next the map lit up with a number of yellow dots in relatively close proximity with the red dots.

"These show the number of small mercenary forts, bases and holdings in the area. As you can see, there are a number of potential locations. We can try to hit them all, but it would be too risky, casualties would be unacceptably high."

He let the information sink in to the group sitting before him. They could probably tell from his eyes that it may still be an option if they couldn't narrow it down; he was never very good at hiding his emotions.

"All of this got me thinking, though." He turned and faced the image on the screen and seemed to ponder on it for a moment. "Maybe we have been going about this the wrong way. Instead of looking for where they are we should be looking for where they aren't."

The Major's eyes turned and rested on Delon "From the report you gave me on the Coalition's communication systems it sounds like they would need some incredibly powerful transmitters to push a message though. Would that be accurate?"

"That would be correct." Delon responded. He was interested just what Delon was planning on doing.

Damon nodded. "The impression I got from the Grand Marshall over the last few days is that he needs to be in control at all times. A man like that would likely have access to their comm channels wherever he went. Given what is happening with the Coalition, I'd say he isn't in communication with them at all right now. Assuming there is such a device on him and it has not been discovered, what could stop the line? In line with that, the people I talked to on the surface said they tried to respond to Sam and...the Captain's plea when they heard her message, however, they felt the connection was severed suddenly."

He allowed a moment or two to pass for people in the room to follow where he was going with this.

"What we are looking for is a proverbial black hole of communication." He tapped his finger down on the table. "Now many of these mercenary bases have shielding of some sort, but to throw up this amount of static it would have to be very powerful."

"Delon, Jaxara, how many of these bases are generating that much power within this map?"

Jaxara raised his eyebrows. He pulled up the tactical scans from his PADD, and put them up on the screen. He pressed a few places. "Three alliance bases, here, here, and here, one Union base, here, and two of the third factions, here, and here. There are also two civilian installations, here, and here. The northernmost civilian installation is a power relay station, that seems to be taking more power than it is distributing."

"Interesting." Damon said as he looked at the new information on the screen, strangely enough only one of them was a known mercenary holding. "Delon, do you think the civilian structure and mercenary base have the shielding necessary to block any kind of communication?"

Jaxara scowled. He pulled up science's scans. "They wouldn't need it. The geological scans indicate a heavy collection of a lead-analog material in the area, and the place is underground." He pulled up the land survey scans. "There are two such locations, the other is that mercenary base; similar material in the immediately surrounding area. Enough to seriously hamper sub-space, or radio transmissions. "

He nodded to Tovan. "I'm also pretty sure that both of those locations have the right power inputs, but there is weird scan readings present. What do you make of those readings?"

"You know," Ronnie said, pulling up some information on the planet. "A combination of minerals and shielding would be a very efficient way to block both types of signal. Has there been increased activity at the mercenary base? If Sam said she was captured by mercenaries, we could discount the Alliance and Coalition bases. That narrows things down considerably."

"It does." Damon agreed. "I'm not sure that increased activity around that mercenary base would indicate much, though." He zoomed in the map and highlighted that area. "That base is well within Coalition territory and both of their bases are on high alert right now. Lots of troop movement might be making those mercenaries nervous. Still, as of right now it looks like our prime target. I want to have a look at that civilian structure to the north as well."

Damon regarded the officers. "What potential concerns do we have if we run a raid on these locations?"

"You know what my stance is, Marine Captain." Jaxara said. "Let's lock and load. But I am sure there are other options."

(To be Continued..._)

Major Damon Raine
Marine CO/Acting XO

Lieutenant Delon Tovan
Chief Operations Officer/Acting XO

Lieutenant JG Lorne Jaxara
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG LeAnn Bowen
Chief Medical Officer

Corporal Chichire Shintaku
Marine Sniper

Lieutenant JG Nava
Chief Diplomatic Officer

1st Lieutenant Leo Mangalia
Marine XO

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster (PNPC)
Assistant Chief Science Officer

 

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