Ens Chevalier - Sengoku Jidai
CPT Arianus
(( BZR Hideout aka “The Nerve Center” - Medara, Betazed ~2376 ))
War was always risky business, even if the enemy made it simpler and more manageable. Jaseb saw similar development within their own troops on Bayran, where mundane, humdrum and recurring security patrols often lead to shortcuts, which lead to breaches in security and more death from the hands of Bayran’s freedom haters who wanted to bring their “society” back to times of oligarchic economic slavery.
His father ensured he never forgot what it meant to “be complacent” with his duties to the nation and his fellow citizens. And as far he heard here, Dominion forces were more than relaxed in their duties. They were almost irresponsible and indifferent to their duties.
Savel: That could be a potential way past the guards. The risk of an early discovery by the Jem'Hadar would be minimal compared to a louder method of entry.
Dakora: We’d just have to find a way to get aboard that convoy undetected, which doesn’t sound all that easy.
Chevalier: I don’t think this facility ::points around:: will have resources for quite challenging transformation for both our visuals and our DNA to pass the security scanners. Sir.
Leera: We were thinking along the same lines, but the entire convoy is made up of Cardassians and Jem’Hadar. None of us would stand a chance of blending in.
Although their discussion was productive, it was quickly starting to go nowhere. At least it managed to clean up the more or less good possibilities... but ultimately, none would succeed.
Dwayx interrupted the discussion by holding up a finger to make others quiet.
Dwayx: I may have an alternate idea. ::He pointed to the little chit next to the nameplate on his coveralls.:: I’ve been brown-nosing sufficiently that they’ve promoted me to work-gang leader. Which means I drive the lev-sled my maintenance team uses to get in and out of the site. Most of the guards have been getting a bit too comfortable lately and have only been checking my credentials before letting us roll through. ::He shrugged.:: It could work.
Jaseb nodded firmly. That was a proposal he liked. It could be counting on the fact that the guard would neglect their duty with shortcuts. Still, as was already mentioned here - that's precisely what was happening here, especially with secondary units assigned to mundane facilities security duty.
Savel: It does solve the issue of not knowing the delivery schedule of the ketracel convoy. However, it also presents others.
Leera: We’d be able to blend in more easily, that’s for sure.
Chevalier: This is a plan I can stand behind. Simple, prim, and works with the environment.
Jaseb looked at the surprisingly silent commander. He took his time to think about what he would say next.
Dakora: Lately? How long have they been forgoing these checks?
Dwayx: Twice. They’ve done it twice. The last two work parties. And the next work party is scheduled for tomorrow.
“Tomorrow” was something Jaseb did not want to hear. Tomorrow means they must hurry up their planning, coercion training, and gear preparation. They could make it work if they worked around the clock, but it was still a cut-throat deadline, emphasizing cutthroat.
Savel: Commander, I believe the risk would be acceptable when considering the absence of viable alternatives.
Chevalier: It can work, sir. If they are lazy and negligent in their duties… :: shrugs shoulders:: And we will work around the clock to prepare ourselves, gear and plan… I believe we can make it work.
Leera: Believe me, if we had more time to plan, we’d come up with something a little more ironclad. Given we don’t have much time at all, and the ramifications if we fail… This is the best chance we’ve got, and we need to take it.
And there it was. That moment could be clearly defined - “Speak now or forever hold your peace”. A decision needed to be made. Everyone in the room felt it. Knew it.
Dakora: OK then. Let’s say we make it past the checkpoint by some miracle. Does your work party have access to the production floor?
Dwayx: No. They only let us work on the industrial waste and exhaust systems on the exterior. But that’s where you guys come in. We have explosives, construction-grade stuff made for demolishing old buildings. You guys blow your way in and bring the place down while we cover you and hold off the response force.
The commander turned to his officers. Ultimately, it was their decision to be made as much as it was his. Jaseb and Savel risked their lives, just like anyone else here.
Dakora: What do you think? ::He paused.:: And speak freely. I’m not going to order you to do this. If we move forward, it’s by choice.
Savel was the first to speak. His input, from the point of view of being a security officer, definitely had strategic value. It was always better to let others say their end and thus avoid expressing an opinion that could be problematic.
Savel: Our method of entry has a low chance of succeeding. Should we manage to get beyond the walls, we must then immediately alert all Jem'Hadar forces in the area of our presence by breaching the facility with explosives. Once inside, we face an unknown complement of enemy forces with the goal of demolishing the entire factory. Whether or not we accomplish that goal, the probability of an extraction is extremely low. ::pausing while looking at everyone individually, settling on Talos:: I think, Commander, that the Resistance will need Starfleet's assistance for this operation to be victorious. They will have mine.
Good. Savel did not believe in their success and expected them to die trying. Even with this view of the situation, he was willing to sacrifice himself while trying to succeed. Jaseb nodded firmly to his words and looked at the 3D holo picture of the factory.
Chevalier: We do not need access to the production floor, sir. Their plasma power plants use tritium as a combustion element, a byproduct of their matter-antimatter warp cores. Tritium and its byproducts are highly flammable and hellishly prone to thermal fluctuations. We can blow up the exhaust ports and powerplant’s heat exchange control systems and leave the rest to the introductory chemistry. There are still risks involved as the following fusion implosion possibly flattens everything within the immediate surroundings of the factory. Still, I’m sure it will create enough heat to burn the radioactive elements from the tritium explosive burn.
Jaseb looked at Leera. His words were clear YES to the plan. He did yes too enthusiastically if his emotions weren't so mechanically cold and flat. He did not enjoy thinking that it meant killing everyone in the factory - both the Dominion occupation government and the Jem'Hadar, but also the Betazoid forced laborers. It was as if something had conditioned him to accept the collateral loss as a necessary sacrifice without much thought.
Leera: Cousin Ares, what do you think?
Dakora: Response
Savel: Since we intend on moving forward with this, we should seek whatever intelligence we can about the challenges we may face inside. ::to Nieran:: Do you know of anyone that has been conscripted to work inside the factory that we could contact?
Dwayx: Response
Their little ground continued brainstorming ideas and adjustments to the plan when Leera laid the blueprint plans on a table with a projector.
Zarek: Those look like architectural plans for the factories. By the Four, how did you get those!
Leera: ::Correcting Zarek:: Not for the factories – for the shipyards that were on that same grounds previously. The Medara Historical Society had been in negotiations to renovate and restore the aging buildings; convert them into a cultural site…
Leera looked sad and upset at the same time. Dominion destroyed their cultural heritage just to make a place for their poisonous factories of death. Like many occupiers in the history of countless races, the Dominion cared only about industrial output, not the lives and history hidden behind the dry statistical sum of income, inputs, outputs, and expenditures.
Leera: I had been contracted to work on some of the designs. While I don’t have any of the plans for what’s there now, I understand they used a lot of the pre-existing infrastructure to save time. Electrical, water, sewage, and so on. ::Pointing:: We might be able to use this to at least get a sense of the general layout within; possibly even sabotage these systems as a distraction or to buy time.
How well it served as a crutch to think about how, after theoretically succeeding in escaping the factory compound, it didn't seem likely that they would be able to use anything from it after they carried out their sabotage.
Chevalier: Sabotaging them before would only increase attention in the factory. But we could use them… ::looks at the map:: No, those sewers seem too shallowly laid for escape. The factory explosion probably collapses them.
Dakora: Response
Savel: ::looking at the map:: If we waited for the transport to land at the docking platform, is it possible we could then use it to escape?
There was a brief pause in the room as the assembled resistance members thought about it. None of them had the skills to pilot the transport shuttle, so it had never factored into their plans before.
Leera: Maybe. But that’s another variable to pray on – hoping that the convoy to the local distribution center and the regional transport arrive at the same time…? ::To Dwayx:: Does that ever happen?
Dwayx: Response
Leera: ::To the others:: If you could get aboard, do you think you could escape on it? Surely, the response force would try to stop you – assuming they didn’t just shoot you down.
Chevalier: That could work even if we bring on ourselves the heat of attention from the response forces. We don’t need to flee the planet nor to travel that far from the factory. ::moves the blueprints aside to show back the sector map with the factory:: We just need to crashland somewhere where collaborators live and escape through the underground. Dominion would turn their immediate repressions in their direction, and we safely escape through the more than familiar network to your movement — two birds with one stone.
Dwayx/Dakora/Savel: Response
Jaseb felt it would take a few more moments in the subsequent discussion to polish the details, but they had the final outline of the plan for how to proceed tomorrow. But when he looked at Leera - and how she wrinkled her forehead - it was clear that she was not so satisfied and that something was still plaguing her mind.
Leera: If it does come down to a firefight, I know Illux and his team are prepared… Though I’m a bit worried that they haven’t checked in yet. At this point, we might not hear from them until tomorrow. But it’s worrying. They were just supposed to stick around and clean up after the ambush in town earlier.
Chevalier: Does this happen often? One of your sentries to refrain from reporting after facing the enemy?
Dakora/Savel: Response
Leera looked at Nieran.
Leera: No word from any of them on the encrypted channels?
Dwayx: Response
Chevalier: Could they have been compromised or captured? Will it be necessary to postpone our plans because of this?
Dakora/Savel: Response
TAG/TBC
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