Briefed

Posted on Sun Nov 27th, 2022 @ 6:01pm by Captain Xavier Carey & Commander Antonia 'Tony" Stoffels

Mission: Evacuation
Location: Marine Country
Timeline: Post: Security Planning

Xavier paused before exiting the turbolift. With most civilians off the ship, save for families of the officers, this deck was now reserved for the marines. He could hear the men working, to change things to suit them. Taking a deep breath he walked out of the lift and walked past some of the marine engineers work their magic. He nodded at the marines, before turning and heading down the corridor.

Jack was going over squad assignments to make sure that skill sets were ideally placed depending on the squads nature, Marksmen needed qualified spotters which means gear was assigned, squad members had to meet, and even a training simulation to settle. After so many years of this routine it didn't take nearly as long as it once had because as with any experience in a task shortcuts, key imports and knowing where to look saved a great deal of time.

Xavier looked around the offices, noticed the Colonel at his desk. Which was surprising. Walking over, he noticed several sparring marines to the side of the room. "Colonel, hope you don't mind a word."

It was rare for fleet types to venture into marine areas but in light of being on a Starship it was perhaps to be expected, even if they were lost. It was however little surprise when Jack looked up to see the Captain. "Captain Carey." Jack nodded towards a chair opposite him. "What can I do for you?"

Nodding, xavier accepted the seat. "Just seeing how you guys are settling. I want to excuse my initial response. Having a contingent of marines suddenly and without warning, kind of throws a wrench in things."

"Settling as best we can for the moment, most do not like ships but solid ground under their feet." Jack replied leaning back into his chair. "Once we get to where we are going we will try and leave the 4 decks as we found them." If they didn't, he'd speak to whoever made the mess.

"I have misgivings about the whole special ops thing about the whole thing... the whole keeping my first officer out of the know bothers me immensely." He replied, his past with special operations. His father hoped to get him into it and his whole team.

Jack listened to the Captain and in part could understand his perspective. "You have dealt with Special Forces before Captain?" Jack asked trying to get a measure of information from the man before he continued.

"My father dealt with going behind enemy lines, eliminating threats, by any means necessary," Xavier replied. "Usually leaving behind a trail of dead."

That was not uncommon to hear but Jack liked to set a different standard. "I like to think my men and I are different, we eliminate threats of course, it comes part of the job but sometimes a scalpel is more effective than a club," Jack answered. "When force needs to be applied it needs to be measured and calculated. I don't just throw everyone at a situation when a small team will do it better." Something that Jack had ordered many times before.

"If you heard of the Greyson Genocides... A starfleet team of special ops responsible for hundreds if not thousands. Not just targets, but civilians. Whether they were allies, or enemies."

Silence befell the room for a moment before Jack spoke again. "I'm aware that our arrival has come as a bit of a surprise to you, it often does to Starship Commanders who seem to have their starships diverted suddenly. That said, if you would like I can brief you on my mission, and your role in it?"

"One condition, my XO gets read in on it. I promised her no secrets between us two, if we were to function as a proper tandem in command." He paused. "If its as big as you are making it sound to be, we both need in on the know."

"I should point out that clearance level 10 has been deemed as required by Starfleet Council, aside from them only 5 people know of the plan, including myself, the Major, the logistics Colonel in Command, my Commanding Officer and the President. Are you taking responsibility for your First Officer having this knowledge?" Jack spoke. He had to ask this because his mens lives depended a lot on secrecy, loose lips sank ships as the saying went and more so, his own life was in the mix as well.

"Without her, there would be no me. I owe her that much."

Jack could understand loyalty very well. "Very well." He tapped his commbadge. =^= Major Snyder, to me sharp.=^= He paused but for a moment but expected no reply, Sam was a woman of few words but what words she did speak, carried much. "It would look better for both of us if you called for your First Officer to attend, make no mention of a briefing however."

Sam was not far from the Colonel's office, she was in her own office reading up on recommendations and suggestions from two of her Captains with regards to squad lineups. Hearing the Colonel call for her attendance Sam secured her work and walked out of her door and through the Colonels. It opened automatically to her, a setting the two of them had fallen into given how they worked, what they did and the understanding the two of them shared.

=/\=Commander Stoffels, please join me in Col Frosts office please=/\= Xavier replied as he watched the major enter. "I appreciate it Col."

It took Tony a little longer to make her way to marine country and join the marines and the captain in the colonel's office. "You wanted to see me, sir?" She asked being ultra formal.

"Yes Commander. The Col wanted to brief me in to the role the resolution plays into the reason they are here." He replied. "I informed him that unless you are here, I did not want to be briefed."

Tony was incredibly touched by this but tried to keep the emotion off her face. "Thank you sir, I really appreciate that."

Jack wasn't entirely thrilled by the notion since it was out of directed orders, but pressed on. He gave a look to Sam so she would secure the room, locking doors so entry was forbidden. Once done he pressed a button on his console and a holographic image appeared above his desk. It started with the Starfleet logo rotating before it changed to 'Security Alert' and paused. Jack held up a Padd that contained on it, said alert.

"This briefing is classified, it is not to be discussed with anyone outside of this room." Jack began to read off the Padd. "Should it be discovered you have broken the confidentiality of this briefing, this Padd.." Holding up another in his free hand. "Allows me to detain and isolate you until the conclusion of the operation where you will be handed over directly to Starfleet Security on Earth, and charged." Now that was out of the way, Jack pressed his fingers to the table indicating the security alert had been performed.

The image cleared and was replaced with a structure built into the base of a cliff face, the surrounding area was very rocky, mountinous, creeks and crags littered the area. Jack walked to the side of the table so that people didnt have to look through the hologram to see him. "Starfleet Intelligence has reported the location of a covert communications array capable of considerable range, it is believed to double as a long range sensor array belonging to the Dominion. It's position means it can, if the sensor ability is to be believed can monitor ship movements over 5 sectors." Jack paused as he watched his target rotate.

"Intelligence believes that this facility also has access, due to its location, and nature, to the Dominion's secure network. This network could provide Starfleet with a vast amount of information that may prove useful, if it turns out to be true." Jack paused again.

"Long range covert probes have also revealed two camps close to the facility." Jack changed the view to one that was from orbit, the clouds were removed, and the facility was flashing red, the two camps yellow. "It is understood that between these two camps approximately 400 to 600 troops billet. All believed to be Jem'hadar." Jack paused the image. "Patrols have been sighted around the facility, ridge and cliff tops and around the camps themselves. Numbers vary however but the facility is lightly to moderately guarded, we speculate that guards and patrols are rotated in and out from these two camps."

"My mission, is to capture this facility, eliminate enemy forces before they can wipe the memory cores and hold the facility against counterattack. All the marines currently on board will be deployed in this operation." Jack paused, a moment to let the information sink in and be processed. "Any questions so far?"

"This early? The Cardassians must have been working on this for months... to already have set things up this fast." He paused. "With reports of the cardassians movement through the wormhole said to have been increasing... that is not surprising."

Tony whistled at the extend of the mission. "I've got a question. How the hell are we going to have the element of surprise if they can monitor space that well. You've got 400 marines and with that you are going to need the element of surprise to surprise the billetted troops." She looked at the two marine officers.

It was Sam that was to speak next. "Every 53 days a single ship enters and leaves the system for what we believe is a supply transit to the planet." Sam switched the display to reveal a single Jem'Hadar Strike Cruiser. "Reports indicate it operates radio silent and dark as it transits to various outposts, bases and locations before going to our target." The view changed to a map detailing in part, the route the Cruiser was known to take. "Other marine elements have already captured one of these bases and when the ship pays a visit, a more explosive cargo will be beamed aboard."

Jack listened to Sam waiting for her to finish before he added to it. "The Resolution will take its place using this ion storm to mask its approach, once there we will meet with the U.S.S. Warspite which will imprint on the Resolution a Dominion Warp signature onto the ship's energy matrix which should last the rest of the trip. To long range sensors we will appear to be the supply ship. It has to be imprinted however, it can't be generated from the Resolution itself." Jack spoke.

"Once the ship enters orbit, my men and I will be ready on every transporter padd this ship has. Trials have yielded 3 minutes 11 seconds to beams all 400 of us to the surface. Once done the Resolution will leave the area and return 3 days later. The rest, it up to us..."

Tony nodded making the calculations herself. "Tight. But doable. But three days? That is a long time if something does not go to plan."

"If the Resolution is detected they will with little doubt send a fleet of ships to investigate. With her gone, things will at least appear normal especially since the Strike Cruiser runs silent anyway. We will use our limited measure of surprise to eliminate surrounding patrols, fake check ins if possible to buy us as much time as possible before the attack." Jack replied.

"I see why you want to keep this quiet." Tony said softly. This could very well be a one way mission and she applauded the marines for their guts. "The captain and I will do what we can to help you."

"As soon as the ship is imprinted to appear as the Dominion Ship, all outbound communications must be locked down. 1 hour before we arrive all non-essential personnel should be confined to quarters. 30 minutes before arrival the Colonel should be given priority control of the Turbolifts to ensure that we can quickly relocate to the transporter padds throughout the ship without delays. Security should be posted at every junction and turbolift to ensure security shipside. All required equipment will be tagged for transport after we have all disembarked. Once all of us are on the surface, you should depart the same way you came presenting a minimal aspect profile to the facility back towards the Warspite. You will seek shelter in this Ion field, in 3 days, you return." Sam spoke laying down at least the plan for the ship and its part in the larger scheme of things.

"I think it will go without saying that when you arrive you should have your entire medical staff ready for casualties and an area assigned for the dead." Jack knew that sounded grim but this wasn't some ill trained militia they were going up against, it was the Jem'Hadar. He knew there would be casualties and a lot of them, part of him could only hope that after 3 days, there would be someone left to collect.

"We will. I will personally take care of making sure we can have that set up very fast." She could do some preparations without telling the medical staff what was going on.

"I will feel better dropping off the remaining of the civilians... with just select crew... I doubt its going to be left unattended..." Xavier paused, "This is the reason the Resolution is being placed in the Eleventh fleet."

Jack sighed, this mission was steeped in risk and he knew many of his men would not be returning. The Jem'Hadar didn't take prisoners unless told and even that, was irregular. Of the 400 marines on board, he could only hope he would be one of the lucky ones if they managed to pull this off. "As grim as it sounds, if on the 3rd day when you return, you do not receive a coded signal burst from any one of our insertion points. Leave." Jack spoke. "Failure to get the signal will mean we have all been killed and highly likely your presence reported and ships inbound to destroy you." That sentence alone hinted at the level of risk, especially with the Jem'Hadar where danger ramped up very quickly and often with deadly consequences.

"This officially moves it from being on the verge of war, to in war." Xavier replied as he looked the plan over. "How many ships are guarding it. Surely they dont leave something so valuable unguarded."

"Nothing, no ships, no satellites, just a ground force," Sam replied. "They know the array is valuable because of its strategic location, ships add presence and that adds attention which they don't want. We learned of this facility through another operation so currently, they are unaware we know of its existence and if they did, there would be more defenses. This is why we have to act, before it's too late. Once we have the array we can move ships around the combat theatre without being watched." Sam summed up. "Our window is slight, once they realize the strike cruiser is missing they will transit ships to every stop in its route. We need to capture it before that happens."

"So first phase is to capture, second is to defend... what ships do we have for the inevitable defense of it."

Jack chipped in this time. "That, I'm afraid is classified. The reason being is the operation has been segmented. Your mission is to transport us to the location, our mission is to capture and hold. A relief force will arrive once captured, you will collect us and we will leave. The arriving force has its own orders but what exactly they are, is obviously, classified." Jack understood the reasons for it, because that way no one person had all the information in case of capture and torture. That naturally was not limited to crew but starships as well since reports and records would be kept and logged.

Tony nodded. "I understand. It's not easy to work this way but I understand the need to minimize the risk of this getting out. We will do our part." She assured the marines.

Xavier paused for a moment, thought about the ships mission, thinking about the marines mission. The way it sounded, there was a high probability that the marines that they transport, is only going to be a one way. "Very well... I would argue that a mission thats that dangerous, is not worth the lives. But in this instance." He turned to the Commander, and then back to the two marines. "The intel could save many more. I will let anymore information thats classified remain with you, and should you deem it necessary, relay it to the Commander and myself."

"Very well." Jack spoke seeing that the briefing was essentially concluded. What would come next, would be a lot of planning.

"I will make sure we get everything started? I know this is going to take a week or slightly more."