Preparations
Posted on Mon Sep 21st, 2015 @ 10:01pm by Captain Liarra Von & Commander Jordan Gunning & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Major Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Ensign Corrine Steiner
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Senior Officers' Conference Room [Deck 14, Starbase 332]
Timeline: MD01: 0800hrs [Station Time]
Corrine Steiner had always heard that staff meetings were the stuff of monotonous agony. Yet, current lifestyle prevailing, something completely ordinary truly felt like a rare treat. She showed up early, relishing quiet moments that departmental denizens wouldn't be interrupting.
Commander Titus Livius Drusus strode into the conference room with his eyes fixed on a PADD he held at chest height. Without taking his eyes from the article he was reading - a thoroughly engrossing dissertation on the metabolism of the Lissepian tree squid - he rounded the table, pulled out a chair, sat down and settled in to continue reading while he waited for the meeting to begin. "Good morning, Ensign," he said, still without lifting his eyes.
A grin flickered across Corrines lips, "Good morning, Commander." Senior management rarely appreciated it, but she wholeheartedly valued the ability to relegate staff meetings into a multitasked circus side show.
On the tail end of the response Major Naomi Griffiths the station's Human/Bajoran hybrid entered the conference room, she went over to the replicator and replicated a Raktajino with two sweetners and walked over to the table and sat opposite the Commander and Ensign.
"Hello Commander, Ensign; we have not properly or officially met, I am Major Naomi Lapanya Griffiths Marine Commanding Officer, how are we all today?" she said.
"Titus Livius Drusus, Chief Science Officer," Drusus replied, lifting his eyes from the PADD long enough to affect a polite wave in greeting.
Corrine extended her hand, "A pleasure, Major. You are the one who took such good care of my friend S'er'in'e!"
Taking the offered hand and giving it a firm shake "Thank you Ensign, at the time he was under my command so it was my duty, but I would do the same for anyone" Griffiths said with a smile.
Lieutenant Lynsi Mason found herself back in a senior staff meeting. She never liked the administrative side of her role as acting CAG. Commanding an entire air group was not for her, at least at this point in her career. But with Colonel Maxwell pulled away, she once again back in the role. She took her seat towards the far end of the table, giving no more than a acknowledgment towards the more senior officers. "Sirs," she said with a nod.
Austin walked into the meeting room a little bit confused. He'd been working on the Montreal's warp core when a call to the meeting room on the station had come in. He couldn't figure out why he'd need to be in one of the station's briefings, but he didn't argue orders. He found a seat and waved sheepishly at the other folks around the table he'd sat at so many times before, "Hi guys," He offered with a smile.
Jordan Gunning, the station's executive officer shambled into the room, looking like a man who had forgotten what it was to sleep. His ringed eyes seemed blackened and the pile of PADDs which balanced precariously in his hands gave some indication of how he had spent his hours. Had it been so long since the Captain had given him a precious day off? No, only a few days had passed.
Von was the last to arrive, though she was was running a bit late to her own meeting. She took a seat at the head of the table. "Good morning, everyone. I apologize for the delay. I was held up in another call. Shall we get started? Let's start with Ensign Steiner. Ensign, can you give us a brief status update?"
"Ma'am, I think we've swapped out all the substandard Ferenginar equipment on the base, notably including phaser coils... We contained the outbreak of laughing spores on Promenade Two... The missing tricobalt bomb has been located... And the holodeck program of the admiral dancing in a tutu has been deleted." Her lips pursed in a failed attempt to smile, "...Ma'am."
Von gave Gunning a glance. She hadn't even been aware of a missing tricobalt device, and she had no idea what Ferengi equipment the ensign was talking about. Gunning's head shaken in response told her that her first officer was a bit confused as well. Liarra made a note on her PADD to follow up with it. There were far more pressing matters to attend to, and she didn't have the time or patience to get into it now. "Thank you, Ensign. Major Griffiths. Can you give us a quick report?"
Looking at the Captain "No problem Captain, you are the boss, boss." She paused with a smile. "The marine department is all ready and awaiting further duties, Captain."
"Thank you, Major," Liarra replied, nodding. She made more notes in her PADD. "Commander Drusus, please."
Drusus visibly straightened in his chair and spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact tone. "Science is working well at the moment. We've had several experiments finalise in the last week, including the transphasic field experiment in Lab Twenty-Two, so you're all free to wander around deck eight-oh-eight section fifteen again. We've also been approached by the Archan Science Ministry to assist them in conducting a survey of a couple of the outer planetoids in this system; I'll have to discuss that with you later, Captain." He nodded at Von before continuing. "And, finally, Ensign M'Gora has completed his doctoral dissertation. I've sent it off to Starfleet Science for their assessment, but we're pretty confident that he'll be awarded his doctorate. We're holding a celebration for him tomorrow night if anybody is interested in stopping by."
"I'm afraid that I won't be able to make it tomorrow night, but if I can't, please offer Ensign M'Gora my congratulations," Von replied with a proud smile. While it was Drusus's department, she still liked seeing officers succeed under her command. "Lieutenant Le, how are things going in engineering?"
"Ah... well... I can give you a report on the status of the Montreal..." Austin offered, shrugging. "I'm not sure what I can report on with the station. I'm feeling like I missed a memo here," He explained, honestly. It was entirely possible, he'd been head first in the Montreal's engines... maybe he really had missed a memo...
Liarra's eyes closed as she nodded. She knew that she had forgotten something. "Forgive me, Lieutenant. There's been a lot going on, and while the official paperwork has been filed, I seem to have forgotten to actually speak with you. Since Lieutenant Marz has moved to a new assignment, I'm able to give your old post back. No one has had the station operating at quite the same efficiency since you left, so I figured it was best for all of us if we put her back in your hands. Congratulations, Lieutenant."
Austin's face curled into a wide, toothy smile, "I got the big girl back?!" He asked, excitedly. "Thanks much, boss lady! I'll call a meeting with the Engineering staff and get you a solid report on your desk ASAP." He replied, giving her a self-assured nod.
Liarra followed up with a slight smirk on her face. "Glad to hear it. I trust that you'll take good care of her. Lieutenant Mason, let's hear from you next."
Mason coughed to clear her throat. "Aye, Captain. The air wing is standing by. Losing Colonel Maxwell left us in a bit of disarray, but we're managing. Patrols are still going as scheduled. We had one incident this week of a cargo hauler not wanting to submit to inspections, but everything turned out fine. It was more of a concern of invasion of privacy than it was anything they were trying to smuggle. Other than that, we've had no issues."
"Understood, Lieutenant," Von replied. "Thank you. With those out of the way, let's get down to some more serious matters. Commander Gunning, can you please share what we've learned from the most recent security briefings."
Gunning took notes of the people he needed to speak to. With the escalation in the region, he was slightly concerned at some of the departmental readiness but hell - he couldn't blame them - they were stuck out here in the back o' beyond with next to no interest from Starfleet and the Sojourners were crawling all over the region like cockroaches in the dark.
"As most of you will doubtless have heard on the grapevine, the Sojourners have now enlisted the assistance of the Pak'Leth but aside from that, there hasn't been a peep out of them in the last few weeks." He looked around the table and most of the assembled group seemed to be following him that far at least. Good.
Despite her previous mentions of a desire to retake Thane, Captain Von remained stoic. It was clear that there was something weighing more heavily on her mind.
"What most of you won't know is that both the Ferengi outpost at Mira and Starfleet have stepped up patrols in the vicinity of the trading station." Gunning chose his next words carefully. "Starfleet has decided that to make preparations for a full scale attack on Sojourner space. There is currently a Task Group assembling at Cestus III. When it is fully assembled it will form a pinch formation and take the Sojourner space at Thane."
The Executive Officer could see a few smiles forming on the faces of his fellow officers. Many had been stuck out here on the frontier for years with little to no support, or even a feeling that Starfleet had interest in anything south of Cestus III. "Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends." All of the smiles disappeared: hardly surprising. "The suspicion has been that the small group sent to the Pak'Leth and their, shall we say, lull in activity has been done to cover a massing of a fleet somewhere in their space."
"We have received reports that this is the case. The Sojourners are amassing a fleet at Thane." Gunning pulled up the holographic display in the centre of the table which displayed the system map, showing a blob where the Sojourner fleet was - as far as they knew - massing with a path cut out into Federation space. "Our understanding is that their intention is to attack us here at Starbase 332. Many fine operatives put their lives at risk to bring us this information and I trust in its veracity."
"There is one other point of information which you may find interesting." He motioned with his hand, zooming the holographic display in on the Sojourner fleet. A contact, a trader of ill-repute some might say, had given them this particular snippet of information and had almost died in getting it out. "There are currently no Ritorian ships in the formation. Either they are being held in reserve, or there may be some kind of division between the Ritorians and Sojourners. That being said, the chances that the Ritorians are preparing for an attack elsewhere in Galactic South is not being overlooked. The Phoenicians and Ferengi have been notified."
Von raised her hand to try to stifle any murmurs around the senior staff. "At this point it is conjecture, but the location of the buildup and the intelligence we have received make it likely that this station is the target. We need to be ready just in case. We're not sure how long we have until their fleet is ready to leave Thane, but best estimates suggest that they will be ready before our task force at Cestus III is. If they do attack here, we may have to go it alone until our reinforcements arrive."
Griffiths raised her hand. "Commander what is the possibility that a ground op will be initiated and do we have any current information on what our people can expect upon arrival?" she asked.
"Good question." Gunning was yet to give much thought to what would happen if the Sojourners put boots on the ground of Archa IV. "The Fourteenth will be on standby on the station, but I want you to prepare a ground team should the Sojourners be able to put troops on the ground. In all likelihood, your role will be supplementing station security and defending vital areas of the station in the event that we're boarded." He took a quick look at the PADD. "If they get on the ground, the chances are that they'll use a series of small insertion parties, similar to what we saw on Myaz. I'll transmit the projections to you, but you should be briefing your Companies for manoeuvres on the station."
Corrine Steiner did a mediocre job of keeping her distraught emotions from getting the better of her, "Captain Von, I assume that we will militarize the base. Am I free to begin evacuating civilians and their ships?" She felt compassion for innocents, but she also felt fear over how difficult espionage would be to deal with if non-fleeters remained.
"We also don't know with one hundred percent certainty that we're the target. If we order an evacuation now, we could cause a panic," Von replied. The thought had crossed her mind, but she was unsure on the execution of an evacuation. "Even if we did evacuate the civilians, the station's residents have no place to go. The Archan government isn't exactly thrilled with us right now, and if I start asking for a place to send station residents now that they've finally been able to get the refugees to move on, I'm afraid that they're going to run out of patience entirely. The best alternative that I can think of is to star turning away incoming ships until we can be sure that we are not the target. Lieutenant Mason, I would leave that to your squadrons."
Lynsi shrugged. "Aye, captain. It won't be easy. There will be a lot of ships looking to either unload or stock up on supplies. We're going to upset a lot of the local businesses as well. We start redirecting traffic, it won't just be the station that suffers. We'll be diverting a lot of incoming trade from Archa IV as well." She may have been a fighter pilot, but she had still learned a thing or two about the ships moving in and out of the station's space.
"Good point, but it may have to be a sacrifice we have to make. Commander, any thoughts?"
"We might be able to set up a temporary drop site on one of the outer moons - that should do us temporarily." Gunning mused. "I'll look into it."
Von clasped her hands in front of her and laid them on the table. "If there are no more questions, then we need to get to work making sure that we are battle ready. Lieutenant Mason, secure the perimeter and turn away non-essential traffic. I want to step up patrols and make sure that we don't have any issues."
"Aye, captain," Mason acknowledged, nodding. She took some notes on her PADD for future reference.
"Austin, prepare your engineering teams. Run drills as you see fit. If push comes to shove, keeping damage under control might just be the difference between defeat and victory."
"Count on it, sir. They'll be running like clockwork," He said, nodding.
"Commander, we need to prepare our tactical readiness. Work with security and Major Griffiths to formulate a plan against boarding parties. Security teams should focus on setting up safe areas for any civilians still on the station, and supplementing the marines. They'll be the main fighting force in the event that we are boarded."
"Aye, sir."
"Yes Captain, it shall be done" Griffiths responded as she looked at the Commander with a smile.
"Ensign Steiner, work with Lieutenant Le, Doctor Innis, and Commander Gunning to get them whatever resources they need. We may have to borrow from supplies dedicated to resupply, but making sure that we can successfully defend the station is our priority right now."
Corrine curled fingers in and typed flurries of symbols at the back of her holobook, "I'll make sure that supplies and damage control resources are well distributed, Captain."
"Thank you, Ensign," Von replied. "If there is nothing else, I think we all have a lot of work to do. We best get to it. Dismissed."
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Commander Jordan Gunning
Executive Officer
Commander Titus Livius Drusus
Chief Science Officer
Major Naomi Griffiths
Marine Commanding Officer
14th Marine Btn SFMC
Ens. Corrine Steiner
Chief Operations Officer
Lieutenant Le Austin
Chief Engineer, SB332
