Operation Toe Dip: 3d MSOT - CallSign Fawcett - On the river

Posted on 27 Jul 2019 @ 5:54am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Eira Cortez & Major Terrance West & First Lieutenant Gregor Goss (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Ensign Spencer Griffith-Bailey & Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Isabella Kelly

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: Outbound LZ Bogota
Timeline: T+1 0505hrs

[ON]

[Hilo]

Once the Arrow had resurfaced the team, along with Dr Wells and the bodied of her comrades loaded aboard. Now it was heading upstream towards the partisan camp.

Wells gave Griffith-Bailey the coordinates, the camp was some twenty kilometers up river, just off a side tributary.

"You have to keep low" Wells was standing at the rear of the cockpit "Drag her hull through the water if you can because if the Gorn track us there, they will hit the camp hard and we don't have the firepower to defend against that"

Spencer gave a heavy sigh: he was made for more than being a shuttle pilot and missed being in the air, but a job was a job, "It's gonna be a slow journey then, ma'am. But I've got no issues keeping it in the water." He looked over the co-ordinates and memorized them.

The former college lecturer turned resistance fighter turned to West, Goss and Cortez. "What's the plan once we get there, what do you need from us?"

"A place we can hide our runabout, and guidance through the jungle if you can supply it." Gregor replied succinctly.

"Also enough space for 15 sleeping bags," West noted. "Goss, I'll take first watch. Give me two marines for perimeter patrol and I'll let you set up the rest of the watches. I don't know how long we're going to be here, yet there's no sense in having everyone up. I at least want some of the team off duty in case this stretches into the night."

"Yes sir, of course," Gregor affirmed.

"I think we can accomplish that” Wells replied with a nod.

"I'll keep working on the getting as much new information as I can on the Gorn." Cortez rubbed hard under eyes and set about getting her PaDD out and working.

As Isabella sat in the back of the shuttle with the rest of the team, as she pondered on the recent events that had transpired with the loss of those in the airboat, she knew that she hadn't had the time to think about it or even dwell on it until now, but she could and the loss of life was apart of the job and she knew it when she applied to join Starfleet. As she watched the other members of the team, she knew that everyone of them had not liked how those that had died had lost their lives, but that was the nature of this job and she had to get to grips with it or maybe leave Starfleet and go back home. But by doing that would prove her father right about her joining Starfleet as he had disapproved of it in the first place.

[30 minutes later]

Wells peered forward through the windscreen as the Hilo cruised up the river. "Alright, we're getting near, there a bend to the right up here, around that rocky cliff. " She pointed ahead where a large promontory could be seen, darker than the surrounding forest "Stop once we round the turn and I'll alert our sentry who should be on the cliff. Then, about fifty meters after that there's another river coming in from the right. Turn in there, it's not as wide as this, so it might be a little tight but the camp's only a couple hundred meters up there"

"Expect a little turbulence, but I'll get us there in one piece" Spencer grinned as he followed the directions given. He kept a look out for any particular landmarks he could use as reference.

Once then Runabout had come to a stop asked the Pilot to open the starboard hatch, she went back and lean out of the doorway.

"Eight and five!" She called out into the darkness "It's Helen. I'm ok, this is a Starfleet Marine transport. They'er here to help"

There was silence, "We use a simple number password, the sum of any number, change it daily today it's thirteen. So Five and Eight, Twelve and One, you get the idea. If you're under duress, you give the wrong sum"

She leaned out the hatch and tried again "Eight and Five. It's Helen. C'mon guys I know you're there"

Still silence for a long moment but then a Human female voice came back out of the darkness.

"Where's the Air Boat Helen? Mark's up on top of the ridge he said he saw some explosions down river about forty five minutes ago"

"Gorn 'copters got it" Wells responded "I'm the only one still alive. Let the camp know we're coming in"

"Ahh dammit, I'll let Chief Brooks know. Who's gonna tell Joe Junior?"

"I'll handle it" Wells replied resignedly. She shut the hatch "Ok we can go up, turn into the tributary"

The pilot nodded and followed the directions, making sure to keep it nice and low as possible. He waved her off saying he'll be fine.

Wells walked back to West and Goss "Tony Brooks is our groups leader. He's ex 'Fleet like me, he was a Command Master Chief but lost half his his left arm in the Dominion War. The skin grafts and cybernetic replacement wouldn't take so he came out here. He's kept us alive and fighting back since the invasion"

"I look forward to meeting the Master Chief," West smiled.

Gregor merely nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later when the Hilo came to rest Wells led the way out on to the river bank.

The river ran under a rocky overhand, there was a small beach with two air boats drawn up on it and beyond it a clearing in the woods. Several figures came forward out of the darkness into the clearing.

One came up to the Runabout, a burly Human male, not tall but broad, cropped grey hair and rugged features. Like the rest dressed in camouflaged clothing, a disrupter rifle slung over his shoulder, he was missing his left arm from the elbow down.

"Helen you alright?" He asked, his voice gruff but concerned. "What happened?"

She briefly explained events, coming across the Marines and the Gorn attack which killed the other three of their group. Then introduced him.

"Master Chief Tony Brooks, this is Major West, Lieutenant Goss and Lieutenant Cortez."

Brooks stepped over and offered his hand "I dropped the Chief when I left Starfleet courtesy of the Jem'Hadar," he raised his empty left sleeve "But these guys brought it back when we came together." He tipped his head towards the others, "Good to meet you Major, Lieutenant, Lieutenant. I hope you brought half the fleet with you!"

"Maybe not half the fleet, but there's a lot of us up there. I'd like to get your thoughts on how to strike this 'Scythe' thing, Dr. Wells has mentioned," West went straight to business.

“The Scythe?” Brooks said “Gonna need our technical expert for that Major!”

He beckoned one of the group over. “And here she is! Major, this is Molly Henderson, third year Science Major Onidon Colony College. “

A young studious looking blonde Human girl came up, like the rest wearing military style clothing and carrying a large weapon.

“She was on Helen’s field trip when the Gorn came. She’s the best we have!” Brooks gave the girl a smile.

“Molly, the Major is interested in The Scythe.” He explained.

“Err ok, well.” The girl looked a little nervous but answered “It looks like the lizards took over the radio telescope at Arcsall. It was research facility, I went up there a few times as part of my college course.

"They are using some kind of reverse Doppler system, with a modulating frequency sensor, which they have sorta cross linked to a directional matrix using both of the longitudinal dishes, you know?. That enables then to kinda suppress standard Federation communication and sensors frequencies by pushing them into parallel continuous feedback loops, which is really like, smart, you know.

"But I’m not sure where they got the power to do that because when we went there from college they didn’t have that kind of output. But whatever it is, they must have solved the induction feedback overload, you know, cos like putting that amount of terrawatts through those arrays would normally, like, you know, like, totally fry the central induction bus!

"Of course, but with that power level then you’d get a reverse flow build up on the transmission coils, right? Well, as you know, that’s like, gonna cause your control system to malfunction, so your alignment would be like totally off! Well then - "

Brooks's eyes glazed over a bit, he gave West and Goss a look, realized they were probably as baffled as he was and then tapped the girl on the arm. "Moll, honey, for those of us who are over thirty, can you give us the simple version, please?"

West smirked and appreciated the Master Chief asking for a simplified version. He was an officer yet radio telecommunications was not his strong suit.

"Oh, well, er, yeah like sure Chief" She blinked for a moment to gather her thoughts "Well the Gorn took over the research telescope and they are using it to block Federation sensors and communications over a large section of the planet. Kinda like they put up a big umbrella and it slowly rotates, the umbrella starts at maybe a hundred feet off the ground and goes up to about ten thousand feet. It scrambles up senors and communications signals and anything that goes through it, up or down, gets detected.

"We found out the Gorn use a kind of shortwave frequency for their communications and those are not effected by the umbrella, or as the lizards call it The Scythe" She gave them a small grin "That simple enough?"

"Yes, thank you, ma'am. I am willing to bet they have some high-powered generators, maybe even a reactor of some sort that is powering such a high frequency jamming device. There's no way we're going to be able to communicate back to the ship without taking this out. There's also almost no way to get out of here, unless we hot tail it back to the ship," West weighed their options. He looked around at the refugees of Canterra.

"Using the same style of frequencies as the Gorn you can communicate Major" Brooks said "We've been doing it for weeks now,"

"As l said at the beach, we can show you how to retune your comms" Dr Wells added.

"Yes, so you've said, yet I'm a marine, not an engineer," West looked across the room to spot their red shirt. "Ensign," he projected, "we need you to work with the colonists to re-tune our shuttle comms."

Retune the shuttle comms? That should be easy enough. "No problems there, sir. We'll have it done in no time." Spencer got up out of the seat and stretched his legs, feeling the crack of his knee and wincing. He waited for Molly to become free so he could chat with her about it all.

"We can't fit everyone into the Hilo, that's for sure. What do you think, Lieutenant?" West turned back to the task at hand, looking up at his fellow marine officer. Command was often lonely, and officers learned to rely on each other, regardless of rank, to make decisions with wide-ranging impacts.

"You don't understand, we don't want to be rescued Major" Brooks said " We're not letting the damn lizards take our home! We've paid for this land in blood and we'er going to fight to keep it, whether the Federation helps us or not! We already have friends out there getting us supplies.

"Starfleet took it's sweet time getting here, so now you can help take the planet back or stay the hell outta our way!" Brooks finished.

There were angry cries of support from the rest of the group. They were not giving up and becoming refugees, they were fighting for the homes they had established here.

"I have to agree with them in this instance sir," Gregor advised in response to West's earlier question. "We don't have the capacity, and even if we did the risk of detection and interception are unacceptably high for transporting civilians. Evacuation is, in my view, quite untenable for now."

"You do realize you'll be considered combatants during a time of war, chief? I don't have extra armor or weapons to supply you," West warned.

Brooks gave a bitter laugh "Major, our group ranges in age from fifteen to seventy one, we'er farmers, teachers, mechanics, retierees, grandmother's, you name it and we've ALL been combatants for weeks now!

"The Gorn don't care none for uniforms and titles. To them we'er nothing but cattle!

"They hunt us, kill us, pen us up as human shields in Onidon, force us to work for them or turn us in to mindless slaves with their damned implants!

"We've even heard stories of them eating us!

"As for weapons?" He held up his Gorn disrupter in his right hand. "I'd say we'er better armed than you!

Helen and her students found a downed Gorn transporter lifter full of these, extra battery packs and other munitions, so don't you worry none about that!"

The rest of the group brandished their weapons and cheered Brooks.

The old Master Chief looked around the group then back to West "I told you Major, we'er fighting for what's ours!"

West couldn't help but chuckle. "I like your spirit, Master Chief and y'all have done well. Have you scouted the best approach path to The Scythe? Any weaknesses?"

"We went to look once, before we worked out quite what it is" Brooks replied "The telescope complex is just north of town, by the monorail line from Onidon. We couldn't get close, just enough to see it was very heavily guarded.

"We didn't really know what they were doing and didn't have the heavy weapons for an attack," He finished

West nodded. He didn't have the heart to tell them they didn't exactly have heavy weapons capability themselves.

"A very difficult scenario..." Gregor mused. "We will need to review every one of our options and assets carefully to determine a plan."

As Isabella stood next to West and looked back at Brooks and his team and gave a short smile, she said, "well Master chief , we are here to help you attack that base," as she thought about each member of her team taking a group at differant points and attack the Gorn who would be caught napping.

She looked at West and said, "Sir I have an idea," As her thoughts started to turn to those that had been lost in the air boat crash as at the time she had to remain detached, but for the young man who had lost his family and those that might lose thier own families, she knew they had to stop the Gorn and force them off of the planet.

"Go on," West turned to the Tactical/Security Senior Chief.

Isabella responded, "Well Sir, I was thinking about if we each take a group and attack from opposite sides and the Gorn would not know who to defend against," as she proposed her idea to the Marine, she continued, "it would be their Buridan's ass."

Ironically, West did not catch the reference of Buridan's ass, a paradox named after French philosopher, Jean Buridan, where a starving and parched donkey dies because he cannot choose between water or hay as they are equidistant from him. Unbeknownst to the Major, the situation quite described the conundrum he was facing.

Before West could respond though, the Master Chief beat him to a reply.

Brooks snorted at Kelly's ill conceived suggestion "That's what you call a plan? We've only been near the place once, you've never been there!

"So you have no idea of how many lizards are there; what their defenses are, or even the layout of the place! But we should rush in and attack from opposite sides?!"

Brooks turned to West "If that's what you're suggesting Major, then count us out! We have not stayed alive this long by being dumb!"

"Well, let's not get hasty now, both of you," the Major started. "Clearly we need to take out the Scythe, yet I agree, we don't need to just throw bodies at it, especially if it needs heavy weapons. Any complex machinery usually has a weak spot though... a power supply, critical terminal, something. We're special operators. We scout out the dish, figure out its weak spot, blow it up, and then call up to Hawaii for additional firepower," West quickly explained. "Thoughts?" he added after a distinct pause from the group.

“Scouting the place out first, instead of blindly rushing in ?” Brooks agreed “That we will help with, Major.

It will be light in an hour or so, the Gorn are much more active during the day, so we generally lay low. They don’t do so well in the darkness, we should plan on moving tonight”

"Fair enough," replied Isabella as he looked around the assembled personnel, "so we recon the place tonight to make the plan?" as he asked West who was in charge of the team.

"Agreed," Gregor offered.

There was a movement from the side of the camp, a young lad wandered out, hair mussed from sleep, he yawned, then stopped looking around wide eyed at seeing the Marines.

“Wow! You guys are Starfleet Marines? That’s cool!”

He looked around some more, seemly searching for a face he did not see.

His gaze fell on Wells. “Dr. Wells, where’s my dad?” He asked.

Well’s caught her breath, she went to speak but faltered “Joe…”

"He... died fighting the Gorn." Gregor stated, filling the silence. It was blunt, maybe too much, but he felt it would be best not to tip-toe around the issue.


To Be Continued...