They shall not pass
Posted on 15 Sep 2022 @ 10:42am by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Command Master Chief Tāne HaiRoa
Edited on on 27 Jan 2023 @ 12:17am
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: CIC Conference room
Timeline: MD06 12:20Hrs
1295 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Once the Executive Officer's command group meeting had concluded HaiRoa, Vey and Rochambeau found themselves an adjacent conference room in to discuss defense options.
"Can you tell us about your experience, with the enemy, on the Ardeshir Commander?" HaiRoa started them off, once they were all seated.
"Fascinating and terrifying in equal measure," Rochambeau answered. Lieutenant Commander Elise Rochambeau was a slight woman with short blonde hair and fierce features. Most never considered she'd be the type for Tactical or Security, but they generally only made that mistake once. She was more than capable of handling herself on the bridge or on the sparring mat.
HaiRoa listened quietly while Rochambeau recounted the incident in detail. Over the years he had heard plenty of rumors and tall tales about encounters with unknown ships, often they were just so much fantasy. But, it seems she had lived through a real one.
"These guys are clearly aggressive and their technology is as dangerous as it is unpredictable... but..." she trailed off with a slight smirk. "It's like... they're not used to dealing with anyone that actually fights back. Almost like a child with a howitzer. They're doing incredible damage, but they're really not all that sure how to use it. If that makes sense," she explained, remembering how their weapons arcs seemed clunky and their torpedo patterns easy to predict. Yet, even though they'd been able to juke, dive and outmaneuver, the few hits that they did land sure packed a wallop.
"Then while we need to trust that those coordinating the system defense are able to hold off any incursion, we cannot rely on that and still need to prepare for a potential boarding" HaiRoa continued.
He had done his homework on his new assignment during the transit flight here "Which will be the second such action that has befallen this station.
The last time is was a bunch of pirates and renegades, who were successfully held off by our Marine colleagues..." he turned to the quiet Marine.
"Were you involved in that action?" He asked "And what lessons can be learned from it? Seems they got aboard without too much difficulty, although were stopped when they assaulted the medical decks."
"I was not assigned here for that action," Vey answered, his voice heavy with an Irish lilt. He wasn't generally a man of many words and preferred to keep his words brief and not fill the space with idle banter.
"I've read the after-action reports," Rochambeau chimed in. "We won the station because we were prepared. Engineering was locked down tight and the Medical decks were loaded with armed marines."
"How do we adapt that, to the current threat?"
"Supplement all Starfleet security teams with Marine's," Vey offered. "Reinforce medical, engineering and the CIC with extra personnel."
Elise nodded, "And any other areas critical to the station functioning. We have to assume that if they're boarding the station, they've chewed through our exterior defenses. There's not going to be a need for weapons or shields. Engineering is going to be the single most important deck, followed by the CIC and Medical." At least, to her mind that was what she figured needed to be protected. "We can't defend this station if they take out life support. There's too many people to hand out EVA suits."
"Security and Marine personnel should probably wear theirs on duty," Vey added plainly.
I concur, adding in Marine personnel to Security patrols is sensible" HaiRoa nodded "How many are available? I'd also like to keep at least a couple of Platoons in reserve as a Quick Reaction Force, able to deploy to wherever needed. We need to be able to outgun them at some point, otherwise we're just stalling"
"There's over twelve-hundred Marines in the regiment," Vey answered. "It won't take more than a few company to reinforce security. That leaves more than two battalions in reserve. We will be fine."
"Twelve Hundred? That's reassuring" HaiRoa nodded, "Battalion strength QRF is even better. That's your area of expertise Master Sergeant, we can leave the details with you"
As for EVO suits, I'm not sure wearing them constantly is practical. But they can deploy with them to their assignments and duty posts." EVO suit did come with a carrying bag, it was bulky but manageable. "We will get at least some notice if or when their ships arrive in system. That should be enough time for personnel to get suited up.
The CIC, Engineering and Life support must be our priority, along with containment and forcefields. Once they start punching holes in our hull and we vent atmosphere then its all over. We need Engineering and Operations to harden up those systems as much as possible.
Medical is up there, but I think we would be better off deploying as many medical teams out side of the Medical levels as we can. No merit in securing medical, if we can't get injured personnel in there"
Both Vey and Rochambeau nodded in agreement.
"As well as a QRF, we need to explore other ways to outgun them. The raiders brought insome kind of mining robot that had been converted for combat operations. I believe its down in one of the cargo bays. If we can get that up and functional it may be useful in helping to secure the CIC"
"I'm not sure the Admiral will go for that one. But we can try," Rochambeau offered. She didn't much like the idea of repurposing a robot - at least not one that was originally programmed to kill them all.
"It's not my first choice either" HarRoa heard the skepticism in her voice
"But if it's possible I don't think we should ignore the potential. If Engineering can indeed get it functioning, we'll ensure they include a kill switch"
There's only one robot, but the other piece of equipment we have plenty of is WorkBees. There are dozens of them in the shipyard and they are small enough to fit into the corridors. We put them in remote-pilot drone mode and we can use them to go against those armored suits. We can try the manipulator arms to grapple with, or just straight up ram them!"
"A last resort?" Elise asked, nodding. "It could work. We'll need to decide on where to deploy them so we can transport them into place. It's not going to be easy," she mused, wondering just what the expression would be like on the transporter chief's face when she asked them to transport the entire compliment of workbee pods into various strategic locations throughout the station. "To convince people, or to execute."
"Yes, a bit like the robot, but if we have the tools, let's at least have them ready for use. I'd rather have them ready and not need them, than wish we had them and be without, if those things ever get loose on the station.
Planning where they go is an important consideration we can work on. I trust our people to be able to execute if needed. And I'll take care of the convincing" He gave a tight closed lip grin.
"What else are we missing?" He asked the other two.
"I think this is more than enough to keep us busy for a while. We can work through any further details as they pop up," Elise offered in answer, already eager to get to work on this. It might have seemed like a simple task, but the devil was certainly going to be in the details.
"Agreed." Vey nodded matter-of-factly.
HaiRoa nodded. "I'll inform the XO of our stratergy. We can set up further reviews every twenty-fours hours to review progress"
