Canterra - Operation Dust Bowl Rendezvous

Posted on 09 Sep 2019 @ 12:22pm by Commander S’chqenr T’Jedf Tolkath (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Jinn Tevran (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Bernard, Ph.D. & Major Terrance West & First Lieutenant Gregor Goss (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & First Lieutenant Eleanor Hargreaves (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Isabella Kelly & Corporal James Robert, House of Rogath

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: East of Sophiaville
Timeline: T+3 1845 hrs Zulu

[ON]

[South East of Sophiaville]

The Hilo skimmed close over the forest, carefully wending its way through the dips and valleys in the sea of green where the canopy was lower. Beneath the skulking runabout, through breaks and clearings in the thick treetops, there were glimpses of the animals and other diverse life of the region. Predator chased prey, Predator devoured prey, Prey scurried, or burrowed, or hid itself, or fought back with strength and courage. All things in the forest remained locked in the complex dance of life, blithely unaware of the turmoil and conflict that other, alien creatures had brought to their world.

The Starfleet craft darted across the roadway when it came to it, like a dun-colored scar bisecting the jagged green peaks of the massed conifers. The painstaking progress continued onward, now on a more northerly trajectory as the sun dipped lower on the horizon. There approached another rift in forest, with a gleaming line of work-polished metal running through its center.
Stopping a short distance before the monorail track, the Hilo set down in one of the few open clearings, and opened the rear entrance. Gregor and 3 MSOT's command element stepped down the ramp, weapons at their sides and looked around.

"Welcome to Sophiaville sir," a level voice spoke from within the brush. Gregor turned to face the sound, as a bald-headed man stepped out into the clearing. He was heavily camoflaged, but his SFMC gear, and elaborate Tiburonian ears could still be clearly made out.

"Good to see you made it Mr. Kord," Gregor said to his subordinate. "Come over here and let's discuss what you've found." He motioned first to the trees, and the rest of the recon element emerged, and then he waived to any still remaining aboard the Hilo, marines, fleet, and partisans.

West was skeptical about the surroundings. It was almost too quiet.

Cortez followed the Marine commander down the ramp. Looking around the clearing, wondering if they really had made it here undetected by the Gorn. She checked her weapons, just in case.

Having eaten her evening Ration's and havng stripped down her phaser rifle to check that it was in working order before leaving the Camp, Isabella walked slowly down the ramp of the Hilio to join the rest of the team "Morning all," she said looking at the other newly arrived team members.

Griffith-Bailey shut down the Runabout, cutting everything but warp power and setting the control for a quick restart if the needed to buy-out in a hurry.

The retired Master Chief and his group disembarked, Dr Helen Wells and Joe Binkman Junior among them. The young lad had a grim look on his face and he stood quietly with the others. While Brooks joined West and the rest.

"Nice to have access to a transporter again" He said, referring to the decision to use the Runabouts transporter to beam in the recon team ahead if their arrival. "We kinda miss those."

"Yes," Gregor replied simply. "Now, Mr. Kord, tell us what you saw."

Before the man could report there was a distant whirring sound that quickly came closer. Skimming in, just above the tree tops came a pair of ducted-fan helicopters. One light blue, of Federation civilian design and sporting Canterra CommSat in large letters on the side. The other of Gorn design, smaller, green and armed.

"INCOMING!" West shouted and darted for the jungle with others in tow. He knew it was too quiet.

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The craft dropped in over the clearing and settled into land. The motors whining down as hatches swung open.

Hargreaves made sure she was waiting at the ramp and was first to disembark; nobody benefited from confusion on exactly who was showing up at a rendezvous when they were flying enemy craft. With boots on the ground she headed for the gathered, attention primarily on Major West.

"Major; 4MSOT here and all accounted for. We've had a busy 36 hours. It's good to see you all."

West was a bit dumbfounded. "Hargreaves? Aren't you supposed to be in the mountains?"

"Two craft commandeered, as you can see: civilian comms shuttle and a light Gorn atmospheric craft for troop transport. We've conducted recon of the vicinity of Onidon, and planted surveillance equipment at a nearby comms tower with a good overview of the area. More importantly..." She reached for her pack and withdrew the transceiver. "Gorn transceiver. We successfully used it to make contact with the battle group in orbit."

"Well, hot damn. Good work, Lieutenant. We had an opposite idea... blow up the Gorn's fancy jammer," West chuckled. "With the comms though, we can request orbital bombardment."

"We were of a mind to minimise evidence of our presence," Hargreaves said philosophically, "though the Gorn will notice their missing unit eventually. The best news from orbit, rather than bombardment, is the confirmation the battle group won the fight and has orbital superiority."

"That's the best news I've heard next to seeing your face, Lieutenant," West beamed. "We'll at least have somewhere to go after we complete our mission here."

Bernard had unbuckled and exited the Skink. The forest and the air were both very welcome. He cracked his neck by turning it side-to-side. Then he waited, searching the trees for places the Gorn could hide.

Jinn hopped out of the liberated transport and made his way directly to the small gathering. He nodded in greetings and smiled. "Major! What a pleasant surprise! How have you been enjoying our Canterra stay thus far?"

West turned to the Intelligence Lieutenant. "I'm just glad y'all aren't a bunch of Gorn. Otherwise, I see you've managed to survive yourself."

Cortez nodded to her section's leader. "Been a blast" She said wryly.

Lennon completed his post-landing checks, but left the motor tuning over on the lowest revs, in case they needed a quick take off. He followed the Marines out into the clearing. There were more Marines, some Starfleet crew and a group of other Humans, dressed in what looked like cut-down Gorn uniforms, carrying Gorn weapons. These must be the resistance fighters they had heard of back in Onidon. He hung back and just took it all in, happy to be free of a Gorn cage.

"Good to see you made it Hillary," Gregor offered, raising a hand in acknowledgement. "I hope you didn't find the mountains too taxing."

Isabella just stood in the background listening to all the information taking it all in, knowing that this was going to be a hard task even to pull it off, but she knew with the right plan in place they could do it. as she knew also that if she interrupted the flow of the information she might miss something.

Once the meet and greet was concluded Goss turned back to to his Element Leader."Now, Mr. Kord, tell us what you saw."

"The intelligence provided by the locals was mostly right," Kord began, giving a nod in the direction of the partisans. "The river sections off an area that's roughly split in two by the rail line, there are 3 missile batteries, and 3 heavy disrupter batteries on either side of the line." He tapped out a few commands on his wristguard and uploaded the data he and his team had gathered to the Hilo, soon a holoprojector was displaying a marked 3D map of the compound and surrounding area. "The emplacements are here," Kord picked back up, highlighting the locations. "We count two operators at each point, and another two guards posted at each entrance to the compound, our estimate is that there may be about 2 dozen Gorn inside the compound. We expect that with the city so close, Gorn reinforcements can be here within a very short time. The road is patrolled by surveillance drones, they also sweep the area immediately around the base, and make occasional forays into the forest. If you ask me, we need to avoid detection for as long as possible."

"So what's the plan?" asked Isabella as she looked back at those in front of her having posed the question.

"What are our numbers?" Jinn asked. "A simultaneous strike on the weapons emplacements may be our best bet if we've the manpower."

"A few dozen," Gregor offered. "And I'm inclined to agree with you, I suggest That Hillary assault the emplacements north of the rail, and Fawcett will handle those to the south. The locals can be divided between us."

"Once we hit the emplacements, I imagine the Gorn inside the compound will react quickly," Jinn replied. "Gorn are a fairly aggressive species. Their psych profiles typically indicate they're more likely to focus on a sortie against our forces than to hunker down and defend their position. We can use that to our advantage. What if we have a reserve force ready to flank the Gorn who try to engage us?"

"If they're going to be that willing for a search and destroy sortie..." Hargreaves pursed her lips thoughtfully. "One team takes the approach with the densest cover, as well as the heavy weapons Hilary acquired and any local assets. Conduct hit and runs on the position, disguising their numbers. If the Gorn emerge, lure them out of position, deploy hidden numbers and apply heavy weaponry. If the Gorn just rally to defend their posts - let them gather, then again apply heavy weapons. Either way, in the chaos, the other team approaches from the far side, exploits the opportunity to take out the emplacement. Then hits the Gorn in the rear. More risky for one team and our local assets," she allowed. "And more time consuming which might make reinforcements a concern. But it gives us more control than simply descending on their position from both sides, hard and heavy."

"I like your thinking," West nodded. "Yet now that you have comms, why don't we just blow this mother and then take pot shots at whoever dares to emerge with rifles raised?"

West was a simple officer... a true marine that grew up through the ranks. A powerful hit and minor cleanup was much better than a protracted battle. He looked to the grizzled Master Chief to see what he thought.

"If the facility is not something we necessarily need intact, and if we can confirm there are no colonists inside, an orbital strike may not exactly be the worst decision," Jinn agreed.

"We would rather not have half the planet blown up Major" Brooks objected "This is our home, you're meant to be helping take it back, not completing the Gorn's work by destroying the place!

"And how do we know they don't have hostages in there? The lizards have them pretty much everywhere else!"

"Excuse me Sir" Griffith-Bailey spoke up. "According to Tactical on the Hawaii," he had been the one to reconfigure the comms and contact the ship.

"They were not sure they could accurately hit anything. The jammer disrupts communications and sensors. They'd have to carpet-bombard this whole area, which means the town, rail, road, bridge would all get hit just to be sure of taking out the array."

"My complete lack of regards to Starfleet Tactical if they couldn't target our transmitted coordinates and recon details for them to conduct a surgical orbital strike," Hargreaves mused. "I'd be more concerned about hostages. However, for hostages to be effective - we have to know they exist. Secret hostages do nobody any good. Reconnaissance could likely indicate their existence one way or another." She paused, and only the briefest flicker of tension at her jaw betrayed how much she disliked having to say the next part. "I don't know whether Lieutenant Tevran's talents would be of assistance with sufficient precision at the ranges we're talking. Without that information or the assurances from the battle group, though, we're back to an assault."

"Fortunately, technology allows us to strike a balance with our use of force," Gregor chimed in. "Tell the ships to set their phasers to stun, that allows us to compensate for any targeting imprecision from above, and prevents unnecessary damage to what used to be valuable scientific equipment. once the emplaced weapons are down, and the stun sweep has been conducted, we can breach the compound, disable the reactor, and remove the computer's main logic processors. The Gorn will have one less signal jammer, and we will have not lost our astronomical array."

"Sounds like a plan to me. I wouldn't want Lieutenant Stevens to be firing on us anyways, lethally at least," West joked. "Plus, as the Master Chief said, it keeps the facility in-tact."

Jinn nodded in agreement. "Less risk to our people on the ground, less collateral damage... Seems like a win-win here."

As the officers were conversing, the enlisted also discussed a different plan on the edge of the perimeter, as they were oft to do, mostly to beat boredom.

Bernard looked at JimBob and said in a voice only he could hear: "Pew-pew?" meaning, "Can't we just shoot everything and fix the problem that way?"

JimBob, without looking at Bernard, keeping his gaze on the gathering of the group's leaders, sighed audibly. "Lil feller, my kids showed more maturity when going through jak'tahla. You're an officer. Kesh. Act like one."

How this person had lived through combat engagements, still served aboard a starship, hadn't had the insufferable beaten out of him, JimBob had no idea. For Kortar's sake, even the Betazoid spy was less annoying and more trustworthy.

Bernard noticed that the man had not even looked in his direction, making his remark carry much more disdain. Bernard rolled his eyes. "Another Marine who thinks I'm dren," Bernard thought. JimBob no longer wanted to have fun. Bernard would now have to find a way to ease the seriousness of the situation some other way than by cracking jokes with a friend. You don't have any friends. "Maybe I don't," he thought to himself, "but that doesn't mean life has to hurt." You should be ashamed. "For what?" he thought, "I'm not running this show, and I've helped the team more than I've hurt it. I've done nothing to be ashamed of. I just have to talk to you now." I don't like you either. "Good," He thought, "Then I'll enjoy bothering you."

Bernard made a decision: if JimBob ever looked in his direction again, Bernard would be a model citizen. Just a very quiet, black and white man, with an almost placid expression, a rifle, and a faraway look in his eye.

As the group conversed, Jinn picked up on something that caused him to furrow his brow in concern. He shot a curious glance in Bernard's direction, but said nothing. He'd broach the topic with Major West and Lieutenant's Hargreaves and Goss in private later.

To Be Continued...