Here comes the Tanks

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:35am by Field General Jason Pepper & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi

Mission: Mission 10: Holding on and Letting Go
Location: Marine Country - Starbase 400
Timeline: 0900Hrs - August 1st, 2389

Lt Commander Torilla Yamaguchi and the personnel on the USS Yorktown had recently returned to the Starbase the day before and now Torilla was just finishing catching up on her paperwork. when she noticed a reference to a company of armor that had arrived earlier this week for the 1st armored division.

Torilla had been in her office when she had found out about it so rather then complain about it endlessly and drink her now cold cup of coffee, she rose to her feet as she dusted off her skirt as she plucked the unwanted cup from where it was sitting and she went over to the replicator.

She placed it in the replicator's tray and she tapped the button to recycle it as she decided she simply had to see these tanks for herself.

She then plucked her uniform jacket and slipped it on before walking out of her office as she was zipping it up.

Torilla preferred the Starfleet bomber jacket at times rather then the regular duty uniform but she was unusual in her uniform choices, she walked over to a turbolift which obediently opened at her approach. "Marine Country." she said evenly.

The Turbolift then hurtled to her destination as she stood in silence and moments later the doors opened as an enlisted man screamed. "Officer on deck!" as he then saluted her

Torilla returned his salute with one of her own. "Stand easy Marines." she commented as she walked off of the turbolift. "Anyone seen Major Pepper?"

"He's in the tank hanger sir..err ma'am."

"Thank you Private." Torilla smiled as she turned and marched off down the hallway, her steps eating the distance between her and her prey and what seemed like moments later, she emerged into an area that was simply full of equipment.

"Major Pepper?" Torilla inquired as she looked at the first man she came across

Tommy had his head in a crate at the time and simply pointed with a wrench "Through the doors..." before he could finish his sentence he bumped his head on the inside of the crate and rolled out of it, he was about to swear when he noticed a female officer stood in-front of him. Immediately he stood up and dropped the wrench.

"No Ma'am, I'm just a sergeant but if you'd like to follow me I'll take you to the major" Tommy motioned towards the door then walked through them

Torilla extended her hand as the wrench suddenly moved from its downwards trajectory and up into her waiting hand as she then handed it to him. "I'd like that, I don't want to get lost around here."

Tommy looked confused, he couldnt believe what he'd just seen. He rubbed his eyes thinking maybe he was just tired, but when he opened his eyes again he noticed the wrench was still in her hands, looking at her in complete disbelief he tried to say something but the words just didnt come out.

"No Sergeant. I'm not human and I'm used to it." she responded with a smile.

Inside the tanks had been neatly put in rows with small spaces between them just big enough to walk down. Tommy walked along the front of two of the tanks then walked down the narrow pathway between them, the back of the tank had a small gap barley big enough to slide sideways through before the front of the next one. Tommy lead about a third of the way down the line before he stopped and banged on the side of the tank.

"What!" came a voice from inside the vehicle

"Visitor Sir" announced Tommy

Jason knew right away that it had to be someone official just by Tommy's tone, so he placed the tools down and climbed out of the top hatch of the tank.

"Thank you sergeant, can you check the power cup-links on 402 they came off again" Said Pepper as he was now fully out of the tank and looking down at his visitor.

Jason Pepper jumped down from the tank and now stood almost face to face with Torilla

"Can I help you with something Lieutenant Commander" he asked

"I was looking for some information regarding the armor I see before me." Torilla regarded. "I'm Lt Commander Torilla Yamaguchi, base Strategic ops officer and nobody mentioned anything of this to me..." she commented.
"I just got back on the USS Yorktown yesterday... and since I heard we have armor at last. I thought I'd come see them for myself."

Jason smiled at her then motioned to one of the crane operators who lowered a small platform near to the pair. "Yeah I love these things too, climb on" he said as he took a seat on the beam and attached the safety line to his belt.

Torilla stepped onto the small platform as she took one of the other safety lines and attached it to her uniform belt. "I've always been a fan of tanks, especially those from Earth's history." she explained. "I'd always hoped we'd get armor." she turned to regard the Major. "When did all this arrive?" she inquired.

Jason shrugged at the question, truth be told he'd lost all track of how long they had been there he had simply got stuck in unpacking and making sure the entire battalion was ready for deployment at a moments notice. Instead he simply waited for the crane to raise them above the tanks then he pointed at the row of tanks below them.

"These are the Mark 2 light tanks, they look more traditionally like the old 20th century tanks, each has an inter-changeable turret. First option is the cannon which you can see on those tanks, and the other is the anti-aircraft turret which you can see over the back" he pointed towards the Gatling turrets poking up at the rear of the line.

"The Mark two is the most versatile but operates better as a ground vehicle. It has top doors on the rear so we can mount mortars in the back of it or simply open it up as a firing step for the marines in the back"

"Those tanks are set aside as medical tanks which is why they have the white square on them, and the ones with the boxes on the back are the engineers tanks and the ones with the big dome are command and communication tanks" he said as he pointed towards them

"Thats HQ Company, next to it is 2nd company which is 16 mark one light tanks, they are mostly hover tanks and each one has four different turrets which we put on depending on what its needed for. 2nd company is mostly to support the 1st marine division, its basically a light tank with a troop compartment built onto the back of it"

"That next row is third company, all mark two's and all assigned as reservist tanks, they are on skeleton crews, that is to say minimal amount of crew. They only come out when we really need them since the crews can be supplemented by reservist" Jason pointed at the rows as he spoke

"The Mark ones and two's can either hover or work on tracks which gives them a lot of options in a combat zone" he said looking at his toys

"Those big things on the far side are the Somme Class main battle tanks which is 1st company, modern, big and every single one of them is a hover tank, they are the power behind the punch and not a single one has tracks" he said as he pointed at the large gunned tanks at the far side of the bay.

Torilla listened to him in silence as she absorbed all of the information and while the Major did not need to give her a tour, she certainly appreciated it so she decided to simply enjoy herself here. "This is amazing Major." she commented. "but I must ask... do you have a dedicated starship to load everything up and truck it off to wherever it needs to be?" she inquired. "space like this can only be found on maybe the Pegasus, the Sutherland and the Saratoga... maybe one or two of the other ships..." she paused.

Of course. "If you don't have a ship then send someone to see Ensign Jiao Anderson on the Saratoga, she's young and eager to work... she can help with whatever space you need on her hanger decks for your armor." she regarded him. "I can't wait to see these guys in action."

"we have some adapted civilian transports, they can take a hell of a lot of punishment and I'm not going to spoil the surprise, you'll have to come watch us during training to see how they deploy... I could do with some dedicated shuttle transports for them but as you can see we just don't have the room"

"For now Major... for now." Torilla responded. "I will look into getting you some more room." she responded. "the hanger on the Saratoga for example can house some of these guys and building a transporter big enough to move tanks and their gear won't be hard at all." she then smiled. "My engineering guys are sitting around bored out of their minds... say the word Major and it'll be done."

"It would be ideal to adapt a cargo shuttle to be able to carry two tanks at a time, the problem is they will need a drop and go or pick up and go feature.. if your guys can come up with something it would be ideal and would save us lugging our pods around" he replied

Torilla frowned as she thought about it. "What about a Danube class runabout.... as the starting model for that?" she inquired. "sort of like an old Sikorsky Helicopter from Earth... they could carry their tanks... I'll have to talk to Commander Coleman about it... but a new class of runabout designed to haul tanks around..."

"On our last posting we used Blackhawk shuttles, the rear was emptied out and the entire back end was converted to a loading door so we could just drive in" Pepper pointed at the larger main battle tanks at the far side "Except those things, they had to be attached to the underside with a series of small tractor beam units"

"Yeah. the Blackhawk is close to twenty years old and also we don't have a lot of them in inventory either." she paused. "We have six as I recall.... nowhere near enough for your needs." she paused. "I'll need to have one of my guys look into it."