Don't Fear the Reaper's Duties (Marines Mission Brief)

Posted on 27 Nov 2017 @ 3:47pm by Major Terrance West & Captain Jason Kage (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR, Camp Revenant) & Captain Sular Vivano (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR to XFY)
Edited on on 28 Nov 2017 @ 7:49pm

Mission: He ho'omaka hou 'ana - A New Beginning
Location: Marine Commander's Office - Deck 22
Timeline: 25 Dec 2388

His duty to the overall CO complete, Jason Kage strode down to where Major West was situated. This would be interesting, he hadn't worked for the Major in some years. Happily, he respected the man, suspected he was one of those who pushed for him to leave the line units and attend Starfleet Academy. Kage never asked, Colonel Bishop Fortune, now Lt. General Fortune, taught him to never ask questions that were best kept private.

Hitting the buzzer, Kage said, "Captain Jason Kage, for Major Terrance West, reporting in.

"Get in here!" West shouted.

He was going over personnel files along with reports. West felt bad about coming along for the ride along with the precarious situation of assigning two companies to a ship when normally one would do. The office he was in would've belonged to one of the Captains if he was not there. Although, had he not been there, the Captains would've fought over the Commander's Office and attached quarters.

Kage stepped inside and saluted, standing at attention. He was still dressed in the dress uniform used for the ceremony, complete with a Capellan sword on his belt. "Captain Kage reporting for duty, sir!"

West returned the salute. "I'm surprised you're still in that outfit," he said as he took a sip of tea. "Well, let's not turn this into round two of the commissioning ceremony, have a seat," West gestured, "Have you seen your brother Captain around?"

Shuttle En Route USS Hawaii

Sular watched out of one of the viewports as the transport approached the spacedock. He shook his head as he grabbed his gear. It was a duffel bag in the old military fashion from centuries past. As the transport docked he headed to the hatch to disembark onto the spacedock.

He looked around for a moment before pulling up directions to the ship what was to be his new posting. The USS Hawaii... a Sovereign class. It was going to be a bit different from the Agrippa. Though the Akira class had been purposed for warfare. The Sovereign class was still steeped in scientific routes and was the replacement for the more dated Galaxy class.

He got into the lift and headed for the hatch of the Hawaii. Upon entering he checked with the computer to get directions to the marine CO's office.

Marine Commander's Office - Deck 22

Upon approaching the office he checked his uniform to make sure it was straight and proper. Hoisting his duffel a bit higher on his shoulder he reached out and pressed the button to alert the CO that someone was at the door.

"Right on cue," West smiled, "Yep! Come in!"

Sular looked around at the build of the ship or at least the part he was in for a moment. It would be good to know structural elements in case fighting ensued on the decks. Of course no one wanted to be boarded but it was best to be prepared rather than caught with their pants down. He heard the call to enter and nodded to himself.

Sular tugged his uniform straight and grabbed the PADD from his duffel. He hoisted the duffel back over his shoulder and tugged his uniform straight a final time then entered. He was in his duty uniform. All he would need to do is drop his duffel at his quarters and he would be ready to get to work. He was used living out of his duffel. He'd done quite a bit of it during the Dominion war.

Stepping in he headed right in front of the Major's desk and set the PADD down on it. He set the duffel bag down and stood up. The heels of his boots snapped together with an audible crack as he stood at attention. "Captain Sular Vivano reporting for duty sir!"

"At ease, take a seat," West offered.

The Commander's desk had a conference table, two chairs in front of a desk for guests and a couch along the side.

"Well, since you're both here, I might as well brief you on what we're doing," West explained, "Unless you need time to change and get settled?"

Kage shook his head and took his seat. "No sir, I'll change when we're done."

Heard the major and nodded. He took the other seat in front of the desk. Hearing the question he shook his head. "Negative sir. I can drop my gear off at my quarters after this." He sat at something close to attention as he listened ready to take in the pertinent information.

"The Hawaii will be headed towards Bre'el soon under cover of negotiations with their people. While there, we are to set up a sensor outpost on Bre'el. We don't have great maps of the topography, but it needs to be concealed enough to escape detection yet also not hinder the sensor's capabilities. We'll probably need Science's help on this one.

"After Bre'el, while the ship is surveying Xavier Fleet Yards, we are going to Bellatrix to assess the damage and determine if the Battalion HQ can be set up there. Now, in between, the ship is going to be doing some patrols along the Gorn front, so stay frosty for any boarding actions. We don't know what may happen. I want you both running drills with your Companies after Bre'el, is that clear?" West didn't so much ask, rather told them.

"Any questions?" West inquired genuinely this time as he saw the Captains soak in what he just explained. He forgot he was dealing with Marines and should have brought pictures.

"No sir, don't have enough intel to ask anything in detail right now. Only suggestion is we practice some training actions with fleet on raiding enemy computers for intel. As of now we're in the dark and that's no way to run a war." Kage said, frowning at the lack of information. He'd done black ops with more details than this whole war provided so far.

"I'll get with OPS to see what sort of training they can provide or refer us to," West replied.

Sular thought for a moment. "How large of a complement are we taking to the planet surface to set this up? Should we be engaged what are the rules of engagement we are to follow? Same for the Gorn should they find a way to board the ship. I trust tactical, security and strategic operations will also be involved. I would also like to request if possible all pertinent information that intelligence has on the planet as well as the sector of space we will be patrolling. I will also set up a meeting with tactical, security and strategic operations for better co-ordination between those departments and us. We'll need it in case a tactical extraction has to be done on the planet. Also if the Gorn do happen to board the ship we should develop a system for being able to contact those departments for backup if needed as well as the implementation of force fields in the hallways on the decks the Gorn are on so we can funnel them to points of our choosing that are easily defensible for us."

West raised an eyebrow at Sular. Did he get a marine or a strategic plans officer? Well, logistics were important and every outfit needed one of those types.

"I'll address your questions in order," West started. "For the Bre'el mission, there is some assembly required on the sensor outpost. I haven't inspected it yet, but supposedly the parts small enough to fit on a shuttle are already put together. I figure one MSOT for the outpost and one MSOT for perimeter security works. Keep in mind that what we do here is secret, gentlemen, even from our own crew. Any information release is strictly on a need-to-know-basis and I am that release authority.

"For Bellatrix, I need to send a comm burst to SFM Revenant to determine what the situation on the ground is. Their situation will dictate our footprint planetside.

"Our rules of engagement are to engage any hostile actions. That means unless we encounter Gorn wearing a Starfleet Medical uniform on account of our doctor, it's two in the chest, one in the head. That's why perimeter security will be paramount for the Bre'el mission. We cannot just kill them if one of their people finds out.

"Tactical/Security and OPS are not involved in our missions unless we bring them in and by we, I mean me. As for training and boarding actions, naturally I would expect their involvement.

"As for intel, we'll conduct a mission brief as we get closer to execution day. For sector information, it will be explained at the Senior Staff Briefing.

"Any tactical extractions planetside will be conducted by us. If there's marines down, we're going to bring our boys home, not the fleet.

"I like your thinking on the boarding actions so I'll let you two coordinate with Tactical/Security and OPS," West concluded his explanation of Sular's concerns.

"I'll add extraction and emergency first aid to the training rotation for all marines. There's a holosuite program Colonel...excuse me, General Fortune's team that can be adapted for known conditions and possible Gorn hostiles. We also could add a spec op assault while Gorns are on the attack of our marines. Strike and maybe take one of their small crafts for engineering and intell." Kage replied.

"Captain, why don't you and I divide the labors based on the two aspects of this mission? You have the greater shipboard experience and can best coordinate an attack defense pattern for the ship. My expertise is in the assault and intelligence aspects of the present series of missions. I'll coordinate with intelligence, ops, and engineering for the best means of achieving final objectives. We can set up some training hunts with security, strike team or solo assault versus a security and marines combined team." Kage replied, glad Sular and he had their own strengths.

"I don't mind strengths, yet I expect to use either of you interchangeably as the mission dictates. Just keep that in mind when you conduct training," West cautioned.

Sular nodded at the explainations. "Understood." Looking to Kage he raised an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly untrained in ground based maneuvers. However, I forsee less difficulties there than I do on our patrols. The Gorn are known to be highly volatile and aggressive. There are some exceptions to that but those are rare." He thought for a moment before looking back to the major. "Another thought occurs to me. If we were to sound general quarters after red alert thus clearing all non essential personnel from the hallways. We could then flood the halls that the Gorn are on with neurozine. We simply supply the marines with breathing masks and they can make short work of the Gorn while they are unconscious."

"Except that would be against a half-dozen treaties, Captain," West chuckled. Again, Vivano was proving to be quite the thinker, something unusual to West in the marines.

Sular thought for a moment longer. "As for the planetside mission. If we stun them long enough if they do happen to come upon the perimeter we do have the knowledge and specs somewhere in the Fleet archives of the instruments the Satarrans used on the crew of the Enterprise to invoke memory loss. I'm sure it would not be too hard of a procedure for us to replicate them to use on someone should they happen to breach the line."

"Except we've now kidnapped a civilian and conducted a medical operation upon them without their consent," West explained. "I like that thinking though and it may come to it as a last resort. However, let's try to keep this as far from a diplomatic incident as possible. I am going to be counting on the perimeter team to stop any curious bystanders far before they get a glimpse of what we're doing. If they require a further explanation, we can just explain we're on a training mission."

West took a sip of water and asked, "Anything else gentlemen?"

Kage shook his head. "You stated what I was thinking, sir. Never loved missions that have too many moving parts." He paused and added, " Permission to be dismissed? Need to make sure all marines are ready?"

"Agreed. I'll see you all at the Senior Staff Brief. Dismissed," West said.

He turned back to his reports as the two marines grabbed their gear and left. This was certainly going to be an interesting assignment. He basically had a marine who was steeped in assault and intel then the other one was a veritable egghead, at least by marine standards, yet his thinking was very spot on. Both would be useful, yet they would have to work together.

Special forces wasn't about numbers, it was about tactics.

OFF:

Terrance "Terry" West, Maj, SFMC
Commanding Officer
3d Marine Raider Battalion

Sular Vivano, Capt, SFMC
Commanding Officer
Bravo Company, 3d Marine Raider Battalion

Jason Kage, Capt, SFMC
Commanding Officer
Delta Company, 3d Marine Raider Battalion