From: Erik (felldoh_at_voyager.net)
Date: Sun May 25 2008 - 14:41:41 PDT
"Operation Marathon" continued from "121" Location: USS PATRIOT Stardate: 2.80524.2002 Scene: MOC Ben was tired. He'd spent most of the last 12 hours locked in a room with the group of admirals most directly involved with planning the war, key members of their staffs, and a few other select officers they had deemed essential to the execution of their latest plan. He fell into the latter category. He waited until the last member of his senior staff arrived. The admirals had suggested only those whose role in the coming operation would differ significantly from standard procedure should be allowed at this meeting. For most of the ships involved Ben agreed that a policy of need to know was for the best, but he had argued that the unique, and critical, nature of his own mission required that every member of his senior staff have full disclosure. Eventually they'd agreed. Ens. Ivanovich, the Chief Science Officer was the last to arrive, and as he took his seat Ben stood and nodded to the women sitting next to him. "This is Commander Maruu, with Starfleet Medical." He addressed the staff, as Maruu rose and produced a hypospray. "She is about to inject me with a compound Starfleet has been working on in secret for some time. It causes changelings to destabilize and revert to their liquid state. It's uncomfortable for humanoids, but has no lasting side effects." "If Starfleet has that kind of technology why hasn't it been issued to us before?" Niala asked. The blood tests they relied upon now were by no means fool-proof, and the changelings had developed a few ways of beating them. It was Maruu who answered. "As long as the changelings don't know about it they can't develop a counter for it. And in the meantime those trying to infiltrate our highest levels continue to waste their energy worrying about the blood test." She reached up and injected Ben. A shudder passed through Ben's body and his eyes lost focus for a few seconds. He had already been injected for the meeting with the admirals, and so had grabbed hold of his chair to prevent himself from stumbling. Luckily the feeling passed quickly "Obviously the existence of this compound is classified." He continued as Maruu moved on to inject the rest of the officers. "As is everything else you're going to hear at this meeting. When Maruu had finished her task, proving their were no changelings present, she was beamed away, and Ben resumed his seat and began the briefing. "As I'm sure you've seen in Fedcomm, we are winning the war against the Dominion, but the margin is smaller than Command would like the general population to think. Few of our victories have had any long term strategic value, and our casualty rate is high. Command feels a large scale decisive strike is needed to ensure the tide doesn't turn in favor of the Dominion." As he spoke he typed in commands to bring up a tactical map of the Gamma quadrant in the center of the table. "Sometime in the next few days Starfleet will launch Operation Marathon. It is absolutely essential that no word of this operation reaches the enemy. You will not be able give your staff any of the details we discuss here. Also, from the moment we leave dock we will be running silent. The computer will block all transmissions sent without voice authorization from me." Ben typed in a few more commands and 13 green dots appeared on the map each with a small number beside it. "When Marathon commences, each of these targets will be attacked. I can't give you the exact fleet deployment, but the number next to each target indicates the strength of the battle group assigned to it." Ben paused a moment to give the other officers a chance to analyze the map. "Upon engagement the Dominion ships will follow standard procedure and signal unengaged ships within their operational radius to assist." Ben changed the map again. "That should cause a realignment in Dominion lines similar to this." "I don't understand." Jeff questioned. "We'll be outnumbered at every target. That doesn't seem like a decisive strike to me." "They don't." Catherine answered him flatly. "It's a diversion. The redeployment opens up a path to the primary targets." Ben smiled. "Very good, Lieutenant." Three red dots appeared on the map. "It's essential that we capture these three systems if we are to win the war, and the Dominion knows it. Under normal circumstances they are too well defended for an assault, but when the bulk of our forces attack they will be undermanned, and their potential reinforcements will be tied-up in battle elsewhere." "A decent plan, but there's one problem." Mav pointed out. "A green cadet who majored in strategy could see our real goal from a mile away. Our deployment makes it obvious. And when they see it, they'll make sure those systems aren't left vulnerable, even if it means sacrificing a few of the less important targets." "That's where we come in." Ben replied. "Jem'Hadar are excellent warriors, but they're training focuses on unit tactics, not fleet strategy, and the average Vorta is almost useless once the battle begins. Strategic decisions are made by a small number of specially bred Vorta, overseen by a Founder, kept well behind the battle lines to ensure their safety. The first Dominion war was planned almost entirely by a single Vorta, with assistance from the Cardassian and Breen leadership." "Because of their distance from the front," Ben continued. "And the comparatively weak comm range of their vessels, this leadership group relies on subspace relays for information on the battle situation, as well as to send orders. When we liberated Kendi VII four days ago, a native was able to provide us with a map of these arrays." Ben tapped a few more keys and five blue dots appeared on the screen. "These five arrays are the only ones close enough for the Dominion ships to signal without disengaging. Our job is to destroy them." Almost every eye in the room widened. The PATRIOT was a tough ship, but she wasn't designed to operate behind enemy lines. "The code name for this mission is Eon." Ben stated, suppressing a smile. The mission would be dangerous and difficult, but he had planned most of the details himself, and was proud of his work. "Until the end of this operation is finished the PATRIOT will be referred to as EON ALPHA. Our transponder signal has already been modified. As far as anyone outside our crew is concerned the PATRIOT will never have left dry dock." Ben paused and pointed at the map to a system just outside Dominion space. "We will rendezvous with two of the new PHANTOM class ships here. We will know them as EON BETA and GAMMA. The PHANTOM's have the most advanced anti-sensor technology available to Starfleet, but the Dominion ships can see right through our own cloaking device, so these particular ships have been modified to extend an anti-sensor web between them. As long as we stay in that web we'll be invisible to the enemy." "We'll be starting our attack at the same time as the first wave, we'll need their distraction. All five arrays must be destroyed before the Dominion can spot, and counterman our strategy. Intelligence estimates they may be able to do so in as little as eleven minutes. That means we have about 2 minutes to destroy each array." "What about travel time?" Jeff asked. "The targets aren't exactly close together." "We'll be travelling at maximum sustainable transwarp, so each jump will only take a few seconds." Ben replied. "If everything goes well we jump in, destroy the array, and jump out all within the time limit. They have weak shields, but heavy armor, so we'll be directing all our weapons fire at them. The PHANTOMs will keep the defending ships from eating us up." "What if everything doesn't go well?" Tanith wondered aloud. "We're on a strict timetable, so if we haven't destroyed the array after 2 minutes, we still jump, but we have to leave someone behind. We'll come back and pick them up when all the arrays are destroyed." Ben answered flatly. "Lt. Corwin, that will be your fighters. We're short on time, so we won't deploy them unless we have to, but I need you to drill them until we can get fully unloaded in less than thirty seconds, understood?" "Yes, Sir." Tanith replied. "You'll be in charge of the Marine fighters as well." Mav opened his mouth, but Ben didn't give him a chance to protest. "I know that's irregular, Colonel, but you'll be busy enough without them. Two of the installations are land based. Orbital bombardment is plan A, but if that fails you'll need to beam down, finish the job, and survive until we get back." He handed the marine a holocrystal. "This contains intelligence's best guess as to the layout of the installations, as well as an algorithm to randomize corridors and damage from the attack. I want you drilling your marines in this program hard, they'll need it. You'll want two teams, one for each installation." "Understood." Mav answered looking a bit unhappy. "Lt. Stirling," Ben continued. "I need someone familiar with the mission details on each team, so you'll be accompanying the second marine team. For the rest of this mission you'll report to Colonel Maverick." "Yes, Sir." The hybrid was pleased with the assignment. Despite the danger,she knew she would feel useless on the ship. "Ensign Tam," Ben now turned toward the bajoran officer. "Things are going to get tense in the next few days. Keep an eye on crew morale, and once the battle begins I'm sure Ensign Dugan will appreciate your help in sickbay." "Yes, Sir." "Are there anymore questions?" Ben's query was met by silence. "Good. We'll leave in an hour. I suggest you inform you staff that if they have messages to send they do so before then. Dismissed." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NRPG: We're going to try something a little different this mission. Since the bulk of the plot will take place in 10-15 minutes this should be fairly fast paced, but we've got a lot of way points to hit, so it should still take quite a few posts. I'll get into more of what I have planned to make that go smoothly when we start the operation, but for now the ship is travelling to the Gamma quadrant, and everyone should have preparations to write. If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, let me know I'll help. I'll be writing the start of the operation sometime next week, or sooner if no one is posting, so let me know if you have something you want to make sure you get out before then. Erik Walz Captain Benjamin Kenta Commanding Officer USS PATRIOT 5781-A & Lt. Seloron Junior ACT Instructor Starfleet Academy, Earth From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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