A New Plan
Posted on Thu Sep 24th, 2015 @ 3:54am by Commander Elliot Drake & Captain Julius Whitlam & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Gunning & Captain Melody Windsor
Mission:
First Strike
Location: Main Bridge
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The line from a piece he couldn’t remember repeated itself over and over in Julius Whitlam’s mind as he stroked his chin and considered his next course of action. The Baltimore was lost and with her his friend, five hundred crew and a company of special forces marines.
It was those last hundred or so individuals that concerned him the most right now. Despite the tragedy and scale of the loss, it was the loss of those marines that damaged the prospects of success in this mission the most. He needed to find a way to compensate for their loss, or the mission would fail.
He was in deep, frantic discussion with Commander Drake and Lieutenant Commander Gunning when the turbolift door opened to reveal the diminutive marine captain, kitted out in full combat gear ready to deploy.
"All due respect, Captain, but I was already in my damn drop ship. Are we not going hot, or what?" She asked, sharply as she stepped onto the bridge. So help her, if this was Whitlam trying to assert some sort of misguided authority over here, she was going to punch the man.
Whitlam clenched his jaw and made an effort to breath slowly as he regarded the marine. Now isn't the time, he told himself. Without a word, he gestured to the viewscreen, which still showed the scattering wreckage of their sister ship. "The Baltimore has been destroyed. Lost with all hands, including half of your air support and all of your comrades in Bravo Company."
Melody's defensive stance immediately dropped as she raised a hand to cover her open mouth, "Oh no..." She muttered from behind her hand.
"Now, we can either abandon the mission," Whitlam said, drawing the marine captain's attention back to the huddle of senior officers in the middle of the bridge, "or we press on. If I send you and your marines down there, the forces defending Jerad will cut you down." He paused and straightened his back, uncertain about how she would react to this next part. "I want to reinforce Delta Company with elements of the Manoora's own security detail. Given that you are now the senior marine officer in this operation, do you think that will allow us to complete the mission?"
Melody shook her head with a genuine look of concern on her face, "Sir, your security officers aren't training in hard ground combat. They're trained in ship combat and defense, which is another animal entirely. Please understand, I am not commenting on their ability to serve or their ability as officer, I'm saying that they're vastly under-trained for what we'd be putting them up against." She didn't want anyone on the bridge - especially Gunning - to think that she was discrediting the security officers, but defending a ship was one thing. War was something else entirely.
Whitlam didn't like the sound of that; he was determined to accomplish his mission and the thought of having to abandon it didn't sit well at all. He turned to his security chief, "Commander Gunning, your thoughts?"
"On any other day, I'd be inclined to agree with Captain Windsor." Gunning began. Probably not the reaction the Captain had been expecting, but she was right. The security personnel of the Manoora were good - hell they were among the best - when it came to ship-based tactics and manoeuvres but most of his security staff had never even been on an away team, let along fought in a ground war. He took a moment to collect his thoughts. "We don't have the luxury of choice though. Neither I, nor any of my team, are going to let good people go down to that planet to die on the streets without anyone watching their back. We'll be ready to do our bit."
Melody sat and considered what Gunning had said, staring intently at the floor for a long moment before she finally looked back up, "We'll mix our teams," Melody replied. "Half security, half marine. That way my marines will be able to keep your security officers out of trouble, and your security officers will be able to provide the extra fire that we need in the groups. Sec stays back and the Marine's take point. Everyone in agreement with that plan?" She asked, looking from the CO to Gunning, hoping for approval without a fight. She didn't want to lose this great opportunity either, but the loss of life from the security forces that she was projecting ... it didn't sit well with her.
"Sounds sensible to me." Gunning replied, trying to reassure the marine captain with his own shaky smile. He doubted it would do much good.
The captain's smile was much more confident than his chief of security. "Excellent," he said, before turning to the XO. "Number One, the security teams are going to need landing craft. Get flight operations to reassign those shuttles allocated for evacuation duty and load them up with Gunning's people. I want you on one of the runabouts commanding the insertion and extraction operations. Can you do that?"
Elliot nodded. "Aye, sir." Rushing into battle against Cardassian fighters was not where he wanted to be. But then again, nothing about this war was where he wanted to be. "I'll make sure we get our people out of there."
"Very good," Whitlam nodded, his confidence in this new plan and, importantly, his officers going a long way to override his natural pessimism. "Let's get it done," he said before he turned sharply away from his officers and started issuing orders to the duty officer at the operations console.
"Commander Gunning... walk with me and talk with me. We've got to do some quick planning," Melody said, already heading back to the turbolift.
"I'm with you, Captain." Gunning smiled.
Melody gave the CO a salute and fell into step with Gunning, already rattling off procedures.
Captain Julius Whitlam
Commanding Officer
Commander Elliot Drake
Executive Officer
Captain Melody Anne Windsor
Marine Commanding Officer
Lt. Commander Alexander Gunning
Chief Tactical Officer
