JP LCDR Serala & M. Capt. McKnight: Planning an Assault
Jim Davis
(( Marine Country, Deck 13, USS Atlantis, Day 5 ))
:: Serala rarely came down here. This was Marine territory. Still, there was a mission to plan and the Marines were very much going to be a part of it. So, she needed to speak with Captain McKnight and get his input on exactly how the Marines should be utilized. She spotted him watching the latest training session of the Marines. Making her way over to him, she kept an eye on the training session. She had never really been comfortable with the Marines on board. Except Logan, of course. But she just felt they took away from her job as a Security Officer. ::
Serala: Captain McKnight. Glad I found you. I need to speak with you about the rescue mission. We need to do some planning.
:: Having returned from upgrading his fighter, Amuro figured he need to get his Marines prepared and so some drills. ::
McKnight: I was planning on talking to you eventually. There’s only so much I can prepare for.
Serala: Can we go somewhere to talk?
:: Amuro lead the Security Chief to the briefing room where he brought up all the intel they have so far. ::
::
McKnight: As you can see, we don’t have much to work with on where exactly is Raga.
Serala: True. We definitely need more information on where this Volcania is, but once we have it, I want to be ready to move right away. That means have a plan in place. One that is flexible enough to handle whatever developments may come up.
McKnight: With the Atlantis in bad shape, we’re gonna need transport to get there.
Serala: I have secured an agreement with my Mother to use her ship to get to Volcania. There is plenty of room in her shuttle bay for your fighters and our shuttles. My idea was to have all of your Marines, including your fighters, most of my Security teams, and several other officers of the crew. For the actual assault, however, I was thinking of a joint task force comprised of your Marines and my Security teams.
McKnight: Depending on how large the place they are keeping our guy, we’ll need all hands on deck and if it’s heavily defended, I’m gonna need to put bigger guns on my fighters.
Serala: Exactly my thoughts.
:: Pulling up what his fighter has transformed into. Essentially a mobile weapons platform with extra missile pods and cannons. ::
:: Serala looked over the plans for the fighter and was impressed. Security didn’t get toys like that. ::
McKnight: When we’ve figured out where Raga is, we’ll surprise them with a very large distraction. They’ll be too busy with damage control and trying to suppress invaders in one part of their base. We can have a second team approach from another side that would be less defended. Once we know where we’re going that is. Or we could try to be sneaky if it’s too risky or the captain wants us to not overdo on the explosions. Frankly it is a bit harder to not come in guns blazing. It’s kinda what we do.
Serala: I understand that, but it might put Raga at risk. They could kill him out of spite. I was also thinking about having the Security teams mixed in with the Marines. You guys are more the experts at the assault thing than we are. We’ll be able to benefit from your experience. Once the assault begins, however, will you be able to transfer from your fighter to join the ground forces, or will you need to remain airborne?
McKnight: No, I can set my fighter to remote control or have Spurlocke slave the controls to his fighter. He’ll be on over watch outside. But once we get there, they will know we’re here and if we start shooting, it’s going to be hard to keep things quiet.
Serala: oO Convenient. And at some point they’re going to know we’re there. We’re just going to have to risk it. Oo
Serala: That’s a risk we’re going to have to take. We can go in stealthy up to a point, but you’re right. Eventually, they are going to know we are there. I was thinking of having three teams. You lead one, Logan team 2, and me team 3. For ground assault, that is. I’ll rely on you guys to get us in. We can take your fighters, Pembroke, Elysium, and Voltaire. Will that be enough, or should we take one more shuttle?
McKnight: A thought just occurred to me. We’re hitching a ride on a Romulan Warbird. We are going in cloak naturally, but is it possible you can ask your mother for us to borrow the shuttles from her ship? Romulan shuttles can also cloak and there are few people that can detect cloaked Romulan ships. Once we’ve arrived, we can use passive scans to see if we can find Raga and launch cloaked shuttles with our teams undetected. My fighters can launch after the Warbird drops cloak and assist us in the attack. Unless transporting us is the extent of their cooperation?
:: Amuro brought up images of the Warbird that will be transporting them as well as the Romulan shuttles ::
Serala: It’s a good idea. I will have to run it by her, but honestly, as long as we provide the pilots I don’t think it will be a problem. Mother’s biggest issue is too much ship and not enough crew.
McKnight: Huh, I did notice her crew was a bit small for a ship that size.
Serala: That’s why we’re going to be bringing nearly all our engineers. To help keep that ship in working order. Lieutenant Dermont ought to love that. :: Smirks wickedly ::
McKnight: It’s strange. Even during the Dominion war, the Romulans kept all their secrets from us. They would never have allowed Starfleet personnel aboard their ships. How times have changed.
Serala: Yes, they have. And there is still a part of my mother that is not too keen on having us on board, but the Republic is not the Empire. They realize they need us as allies if they are going to thrive. Otherwise, the remains of the Empire will swallow them up again.
McKnight: I’m sure we can spend all day talking about the imperial remnants, but let’s get back on topic. It would be best to get use of the cloak shuttles. We could even land undetected as well. It would give us plenty of time to search before being found out. Hopefully we would have figured out where Raga is before we land.
Serala: oO I just hope we don’t get him killed with our assault. Oo
Serala: Agreed. I like it and will talk to her about it. One other thing you should be aware of, since we were discussing the remains of the Empire. And this is classified: It is possible that the Consortium is working with elements of the Empire. Some members of our crew were attacked the other day by Romulans. They left behind a marker from an ancient society of assassins. Whether that is real or not, I don’t know, but they weren’t my mother’s people. My best guess is Empire. We need to keep an eye out for them.
McKnight: Well, it’s not like we can ask the Tal Shiar for help on that. But working with us would be in the best interest of the Republic since it could lead to more intel about the imperial remnants and who they are still active with.
Serala: True. Well, back to the plan. Sounds like we have the skeleton of a plan, which I think is the best we can do for now, considering our lack of information. Do you have any other suggestions?
McKnight: I think we’ve done all the planning we can do until we know where we are going. We can start transferring our people to the Illa'variea.
Serala: Make it subtle, Captain. I’ll let Mother know you’re coming. But we don’t want to advertise our plans to the station. I have no doubt the Consortium has people there watching us.
McKnight: Again, having the cloaked shuttles would be helpful for the transfer as well. We could bring everybody over there without anyone seeing anything. As for my fighters, I can have both of them leave the Atlantis and just “disappear” before rendezvousing with the Illa'variea. They have stealth capabilities after all, not cloak of course. Treaties and all that...although...the Treaty of Algeron was with the Empire...not the Republic.
Serala: True, but I think they’re still expecting us to hold to it. You do have a good idea, though. Well, I guess I need to contact Mother and make some plans. And of course, run it by the Captain and First Officer. Meanwhile, I will have my teams come down for training and assignments. I am going to leave Noshka here, but Porus, Hyden and I will be going along with fully two-thirds of the Security Department. Since you’re the experts, I will leave assignments of my people up to you.
:: Amuro smiled a bit. ::
McKnight: Please do your best to reassure the Captain and the XO that we’ll try to be low key about this. It’ll be bad press for the Federation if a simple rescue operation looks like a full blown military action to the galaxy. We’re not at war anymore, though some would like to convince us otherwise.
Serala: Roger that, Captain.
as simmed by:
--------
Marine Captain Amuro McKnight
Marine Commanding Officer
USS Atlantis
D239302AM0
and
Lt. Commander Serala
Chief of Tactical and Security
Atlantis Staff Member
Training Team Member
USS Atlantis NCC-74682
A239412S10