Intel and Away Mission Prep

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:12am by Company Sergeant Major Jeffery "The Mountain" Duval
Edited on on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:12am

Mission: Mission 9: Interference
Location: Various Locations - USS Essex
Timeline: 0800Hrs - April 22nd, 2389

It was the next morning, and the USS Essex was orbiting Socala Major Three. Bremer had arrived on the Bridge a little early, and was looking at the senior reports from the night shift.

Master Sargent Duval was sitting at the bridge communications station as he had spent part of the night monitoring the com chatter of the fierce fighting going on around the target location, most of it was the chatter one would expect from a fight but he didn't know all of what was going on so he had sent all of the chatter he had intercepted to the communications personnel for analysis.

He heard the turbolift doors open as he fought the urge to leap to attention and scream the Admirals presence, instead he simply nodded at the Admiral, a greeting from one warrior to another, for now it would have to do as he did not wish to cause a scene.

He narrowed his eyes as he turned his attention back to what he was hearing. "Admiral, sir. its been a busy night for the guys planetside." he explained once the Admiral was close enough. "I've been sending all the chatter to the Communications people but they are shorthanded a couple of people. I've been monitoring planetside for them." he explained why he was on the bridge.

R'nard was the next one to enter the bridge. He came to the XO's seat and sat down. He joined Bremer in looking over the night reports.

Deela hadn't arrived on the bridge yet. She had trouble sleeping even with meditation, it was difficult. Deela went where she was most comfortable when she was troubled, Deck 8, Astrometrics. A crewmember walked in to see her there. "Admiral T'Lar. I didn't expect to see you here. Is everything okay?"

Deela stared at her for a moment before realizing that it was the shift change, "I didn't mean to startle you. Everything is fine. Carry on." She walked out and caught the turbo lift to the bridge. Upon stepping off, she saw R'nard and and Bremer looking over something. She didn't move to her chair but walked around, making sure everything was still running smoothly.

Meanwhile up on the bridge, Duval continued to monitor as he frowned. "Mmmm..." he turned his head. "Sir. I'm reading a fair amount of com chatter regarding the northern ridge line not far from the objective..." he reported to Bremer.

At present they didn't have names for either side so Duval would assign them placeholder names, he called them Red and Blue until they had real names for them. "The Blue force is defending the area around the target, Red is attacking." he reported. "Red is gathering their forces for a major attack... at present its low level stuff... mostly on the company and occasionally the Battalion level." his eyes narrowed before shifting his weight ever so slightly, for him it was a violent show of his emotions but most wouldn't ever see it, so slight was the movement.

"Red is gathering a decent sized assault force some twenty miles behind their lines.."

"I'd get Doc up here to authorize an' administer the proper amount of Anesthezine Gas," Phoenix announced as she came in via the door from the briefing room's hallway. She was in her pilot's BDUs. Black cargos, black combat jacket with matching utility belt and a holstered registered TAP (Tactical Assault Pistol) prototype, and her department color on the chest pockets' covers. "If wa wanna get to the source without either side gettin' hurt tamperin' with the source, then it's best ta drop sleeping gas bombs atop 'em."

Jack made his way onto the bridge after getting a decent nights sleep and making sure he was ready for the day ahead. After working on the flight plan and landing zone for the away team, he was certain it would work out ok once they were away. He took a good sip from his raktajino and headed to the Ops station.

He relieved Ensign Ramirez from the Operations Station and ran a quick diagnostic on the sensor array to make sure they were running accurately. Once the computer confirmed the completed diagnostic, Jack retrained the sensors planetside on their original target, watching how the battle faired.

Meanwhile Duval heard the comment from Major Phoenix, he turned to regard her. "Major... do we know enough about how these people will react to being bombed with high levels of Anesthezine gas?" he inquired.

"It's Phoenix," the pilot corrected with annoyance. "But that's why we set a shuttle up to pass by them, much like farmers used to ask pilots to do with crop dusting. In this prewarp society, shuttles look much like their own fighters, so there is little threat to the Prime Directive. Plus, aerial superiority is always the best solution when you want to hit and fade... And by the time we've done what we need to, they would not be the wiser once they come to."

Duval regarded the Major as he raised an eyebrow. "Very well, Phoenix... We can't interfere with what's going on planetside without the locals finding out about us, it would be a violation of the prime directive." he responded, suddenly feeling like a total hypocrite but the rules were the rules.

Bremer finished looking over a PADD with information he’d received from Baratan and Keikeya. He’d listened to Phoenix and Duval’s comments (why was a Marine NCO on Bridge duty anyway?) then he added the information he’d been given. ”It seems the defenders have been labeled by the majority of the Governments as ‘Evil’, having attacked and conquered several of their bordering countries and subjugating their populations to labor camps or worse. The forces attacking call themselves the ‘Free Peoples Coalition’, they are made up of nearly twenty of the planets thirty-six ‘countries’ and sovereign territories. Not only do they claim to be attempting to free the people that have been conquered, but to rid of the world of the ‘Advanced Super Weapons the hated enemy has recently deployed’.”

Bremer had seen Solomon enter moments before, and he knew L'Verrem would arrive soon, so now would be a good time to hear what they had found out as well. “Mister Solomon, have anything to add?”

Jack presented the Admiral with a PADD that included all the data that he had discussed with Captain L'Verrem. "I suggest we use a Cloaked Runabout to send a small team to investigate the Tetryon source. Captain L'Verrem agreed that with modification applied to the Runabout, a team could land a kilometre away from the source undetected," he explained to him, pausing for a moment.

"I could install several extra energy dampeners on the runabout to mask a cloaking device running at full power. If its done right, none of the sensors planetside would pick up the energy anomaly caused by the cloak to be detected. I recommend using a Delta Class Runabout for this mission, its design profile is easier to cloak," he explained.

"It's a good infil plan," Phoenix agreed, "But we do need to carry Anesthezine gas in grenade form, at least, in case we are discovered on foot... Who fights who is not our business, no offense to anyone here. Prime Directive is clear on not interferin'."

Deela had been listening to all of the conversations and had a few concerns of her own. The biggest concern had to do with the Prime Directive. She wasn't comfortable with the Anesthezine gas. There was no way that they'd know how it would affect them. Deela looked over at Phoenix, "The prime directive is very complicated. I have read though the sub-orders and it is clear that there is to be no interference but when it comes to this situation, the Prime Directive is unclear. In this case, it is the discretion of the Commanding Officer to decide if our actions will make the situation better or worse. I personally am not comfortable with using a gas of which we have no idea how it would affect them. There is no question that the planet's natural progression has already been compromised and we need to right the wrong without them discovering us."

Deela thought about other possibilities, "We could use cloaked isolation suits. We could modify them, making the head covering less bulky."

L'Verrem presently padded in, the door closing behind them. He bowed his head toward the admirals, then took his seat.
"I apologize for my lateness, but I was summoned by my team monitoring the tetryon source. There have been some changes," L'Verrem said with a slight purr in his voice.

He activated the PADD he was carrying, then commanded it to display its contents on the wall viewer. A spectrographic chart appeared, which began steady, then began to fluctuate.

"This is a sensor reading of the tetryon source. We have been monitoring it since our arrival. This time-elapsed view of its energy spectrum shows it was initially stable, then goes through aperiodic instabilities, then restabilizes. This could indicate damage to either the tetryon emitter, or it's power source. In either case, the away team must proceed with caution and if they make contact with the tetryon source, should be aware of a possible radiation hazard."

L'Verrem then paused, then said "If indeed the power source is damaged, the inhabitants that go near the source may become ill without knowing why. I recommend the away team take a field dampener to attach to the tetryon source in the event they make contact with it. The dampener will protect the inhabitants until we can safely secure and remove the source."

R'nard was listening as the discussion was going on. "Wise prrecautions. And we don't know what anesthizine gas will do to them. There are races that have an allergy to it, and we don't know if this is one of them. I can go along. You know I can come and go unnoticed. It's in my trraining."

Duval felt a tap on his shoulder. "I'm here to relieve you Sargent."

"Of course." and with that he rose to his feet. "Sir, permission to leave the bridge.?" he inquired

Bremer nodded to Duval, then looked back at the others gathered. “We need to know what these people look like, I want Doctor Brislan to disguise the Away Team’s appearance. Even if we use isolation suites, we may need to venture into areas were the suites might be more of a problem than helpful. Make the upgrades to one of the ship’s Runabouts, a Delta Flyer type if one is aboard, it’s smaller and more maneuverable than the others. Away Team will consist of Coleman, Solomon, Pepper, Duval, Lennox, Sullivan, and myself commanding. I want the Essex to keep a constant lock on us, just in case we need an emergency beam out. Once we’re on the surface, we’ll try to get a clean biometric scan of some of the planet’s population, transmit it to the ship, and get the good Doctor to whip up something similar to Anesthizine that can incapacitate them without any harmful side effects. Questions?”

"I'll go help prep the Flyer then, since I'll be flyin' 'er," Phoenix announced as she headed to the turbolift.

Duval held the lift in silence for the Major as she ran towards him, he nodded to her. "Sir."

Jack nodded as he heard he was picked for the away mission. "I'll get a team on the Flyer to get the dampening upgrades and the cloaking device completed as soon as possible. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Shuttlebay," he said, leaving the Ops station and heading to the turbolift to join Sullivan in there. He knew he'd need a few bodies for this and thought of who would be best suited from the Ops department.

He nodded to the Major as he stepped inside. "I'll be having a few of my people working on the Flyer Major, installing the dampening upgrades and the Cloaking device. I'll try to make sure they dont get in the way," he explained.