Choosing Teams

Posted on Wed Oct 24th, 2012 @ 2:12pm by Captain Liarra Von & Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Major Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: Reindeer Games
Location: Main Briefing Room
Timeline: MD 01 - 0900 hours

Captain Gunning sighed as he was reading his new orders on the PADD in his hand. On one hand, he was glad that Starfleet was starting to regard the Sojourners as a serious threat. On the other hand, what Starfleet was suggesting he do was going to be a major undertaking. Alex reread the orders several times, if nothing else to authenticate that the orders were coming from Cestus III. He lowered the PADD to take another look at the officer in front of him. "This is certainly doable, Commander, though it's going to take a lot of resources to run a readiness response of this scale. Just what is your role in all of this?"

"Starfleet has sent me to take command of one of your garrison ships during the exercise, to provide your crew with more of an unknown element to the scenario," Brian Ratchford responded, standing in front of the captain's desk. He had only just arrived onboard the station after almost limping back to Cestus onboard the Vesta, and considered himself and the rest of that ship's crew that they'd been able to repair enough of the issues caused by the failure in the quantum slipstream drive testing to be able to assist the starbase crew in the battle of Thane. Immediately after his debriefing and his overseeing of the crew of the Vesta departing whilst she went back into drydock to have the drive re-examined, he had been given his orders to report here. "I think they feel that your crew might be more readily able to predict the tactics of one of your staff in command during a battle drill than an outsider like myself.

"They didn't specify which of your vessels I should be commanding though, Sir," the commander continued. "However I had a look over the docking manifests whilst on my way here, and I would suggest the Jackal would be ideally suited to the task. A larger ship would usually require more time to get to know their commander before going into even a drill for battle, so I thought that the Carthage would likely operate better under one of your own staff officers."

Gunning nodded. "I agree. Besides, we faced an Excelsior class at Thane. We know they have at least one, and they know how to use it. She should be commanded by someone that knows first hand what the enemy is capable of."

Alex cleared his throat. "Alright then, let's figure out our game plan." Gunning tapped the comm panel on his desk. "All senior staff, this is Captain Gunning, report to the main briefing room at 0900 hours." He adjusted the controls on his comm panel. "Starbase 332 to 14th Battalion Command. I need Colonel Gifford and Captain Griffiths to report to the main briefing room at 0900 hours."

"Aye Captain. I will make sure they get the message," the voice on the other of the channel reported.

Gunning gestured for the door. "Let's get setup, shall we?"

Simply nodding a silent response, the commander led the way out of the ready room and over towards the turbolift that had ejected him into the expansive operations centre of the station, choosing the safest route in the one that he knew rather than try to search around for another route on the unfamiliar station.

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Liarra was watching the Captain's meeting from her chair in ops. She didn't know what was going on in there, but for some reason in bothered her. It wasn't like Alex to not include her in these meetings, unless there was something really big going on. Her guess was that it had to do with either the Sojourners or the Ritorians. It seemed like everything of late had to do with one of them.

Ever since the disaster at Thane, the Sojourners were becoming more and more aggressive. They've mostly been avoiding direct confrontation with Starfleet, but have been getting into a number of border skirmishes with the Ritorians. Surprisingly to the Federation, the Ritorians did not just use their superior numbers to roll over the Sojourners. Instead, they orchestrated an alliance. Now the Archanis sector didn't just have two enemies in the neighborhood. They had two enemies that were working together.

Liarra's combadge chirped with Gunning's summon to the briefing room. She could see through the glass doors that he and the Lt. Commander were about to leave. She left someone in charge of ops and plotted an intercept course.

Nilani had heard the call as well, and rose from her position at one of the consoles to follow Liarra into the turbo lift with the other officers. On a station this large, she privately noted to herself with an inward grin that the turbolift would likely be the highest concentration of officers above lieutenant in such a small space onboard for a long time.

Sean shook his head as he heard the call. He was busy enough with security details, crime reports and personnel reviews in his own department. Also since he was promoted upwards starfleet just added a more paper work in his lap. Besides station security reports he now had to hand sector security reports in as well. he stood up from his chair and headed for the briefing room.

As he exited the turbolift he entered the briefing room and took a seat. "O'Connell reporting in as order,sir."

Melissa entered the briefing room only a few seconds behind O'Connel. "This isn't a cadet review, Mr. O'Connell." The Doctor moved toward an empty seat and sat down.

Naomi arrived at the briefing room and took a seat at the table and nodded at the others there.

"Has not Colonel Gifford arrived yet? He is usually at these things before me" she asked.

"Well, seeing this isn't a cadet review gifford is running late I imagine or stuck in a turbolift. " Sean grinned and then smiled at the doctor. "And It's Sean Or O'Connell, doctor. Mister or Doctor O'Connell how he is also know is currently pestering his patients in Cahersiveen,Ireland."

Melissa smirked as she found a new way to toy with O'Connel. "Have it your way, Lieutenant Commander."

"I'll keep it simple," Gunning said, silencing the room on the first word. "You all know the situation with the Sojourners, and most of you by now will know that they have made an alliance with the Ritorians. Starfleet agrees with me in the determination that the Sojourners are becoming an imminent thread against Federation member worlds. As such, they have ordered that we begin preparations.

"Captain Griffiths and Colonel Gifford will be leading the marines in several ground-training exercises, whilst Lieutenant Mason will lead the fighter squadrons in various scenarios against one another. The Carthage and Jackal will both engage with each other in a series of wargames designed to heighten awareness and tactical readiness aboard both vessels. Commander Von will take command of the Carthage, whilst Starfleet has sent us Lieutenant Commander Ratchford" - at this, Gunning indicated the officer who was the stranger in the room - "to take command of the Jackal, to introduce some unpredictability to the tests. Meanwhile, myself and Commander Prax will remain on the station to run various drills and heighten our readiness here."

Melissa spoke, "I better get on the subspace channel again and nag Starfleet Medical until they give me enough medical supplies to fight this war." The Doctor noted. "We'll also need hospital ships, field hospitals, and more medical personnel."

Liarra shook her head. "This isn't a war, Doctor, at least not yet. If we all do our jobs, there won't be one."

Rolling her eyes and looking at the one in charge "oh great more training" then shrugging lightly "Always a good thing" She finished with a smile "also I have one question, what scenario should we train the Marines on! a Compound or building insertion?" Naomi asked.

"Our intelligence doesn't tell us much about their ground capabilities. Right now the Sojourner controlled territory are mostly worlds that they have swayed to their side," the executive officer replied. "It would probably be best to prepare for taking command centers to disrupt their troops."

"Agreed," Gunning added from the end of the table. "Make that a priority, but emphasize any areas that you feel could use some help."

"Any security matter I should know? because if this is it! I would like to thank somebody for wasting my time. I have four suspects to hand over to the magistrate today. I have to retest half my arsenal, because of new security guidelines and no I can't send in my assistant I need to manually check them myself, because of yet another new guideline. So thank you for inviting me, next time send me a transcript and I'll have a reply next month, because I have a back log of paper work. Then again I think I am gonna hear those orders which will give me an headache. 'Mister O'Connell You will be manning tactical on the Carthage or the Jackal. ' "Sean looked annoyed at best.

"Mister O'Connell, I'm sure that Starfleet would forgive the delegation of some of your duties in light of a more pressing assignment," Ratchford said, speaking for the first time during the meeting. His tone was the stern one of a command officer, but held back enough to show that he didn't want to step on the captain's toes, or the toes of any of the senior officers actually assigned to the station. "It's a large station, and I know for a fact that Starfleet cannot force you to take on every single job yourself."

Gunning nodded his head. "Agreed. Commander, we all have other duties to attend to, but this is a pressing matter, coming straight from the Eleventh Fleet command. And don't worry about being away from the station. I need you here to lead the security drills. Besides, there's a reason why you have an assistant chief. He can take over some of your other duties for the time being."

The captain cleared his throat and looked around the room. "If no one has any other questions or concerns, then I suggest we dismiss. Commander Ratchford will be speaking with the individual team leaders to go over some of the details before you set out. Dismissed."

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Captain Alexander Gunning [NPC]
Commanding Officer
Starbase 332

Commander Liarra Von
Executive Officer
Starbase 332

Lt. Commander Brian Ratchford
Commanding Officer
USS Jackal

Lt. Commander Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer
Starbase 332

Lt. Commander Sean O'Connell
Chief Security Officer
Starbase 332

Lt. Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer
Starbase 332

Captain Naomi Griffiths
Executive Officer
14th Battalion