Council of War
| Location: Log_Location::ABS Destiny | IC Date: Log_IC_Date::2536/04/19 | OOC Date: Log_OOC_Date::2015/02/08 |
| Characters: Has Characters in Scene::Jacy, Has Characters in Scene::Ashley, Has Characters in Scene::James | ||
| Summary: Log_Short_Summary::The Alliance military machine plots... | ||
The holoprojector is getting good use. At first, Lt Commander Jacy, combat ops, touchs a stud (no, not Ashley) and up comes the Blue Sun system, all the planets and moons orbiting their various stars, time of course grossly exaggerated in this simulation until she slows it down at the present day. Bright purple markers spring up, indicating the positions of the Destiny and her support vessels. Then she checks the room and those calling in via remote secure video conferencing. "Admiral Ward? Lieutenant Commander Jacy standing in for Captain Wong, and this is Lieutenant Stratton standing in for Lieutenant Morris. Both have other duties, sir, but they will be with us for later briefings, sir." <English>
The screen flutters, bringing the view of Admiral Ward in. He can of course see all those gathered and whatever appears on their screens. "Very nice to hear from you Commander, what do you have so far?" he asks. He of course appears to be seated at his desk, the background indicating he is aboard the Jamenson Shelby. <English>
Ashley Stratton does happen to be a particular stud, however. Within his seat does the young man sit and though he does not look especially pleased about being within the room, or some other vague reason, he does come prepared to take notes. The man also wears just a t-shirt and jeans, with a badge around his neck and shoulder harness for a service pistol: short notice meeting for the man. He politely clears his throat absentmindedly. <English>
You test your Tactics:fleet_ops against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (39).
"Well, sir," Heather Jacy starts, "First off we have a small amount of intel already. Reaver ships have been sighted here, here, and over here...primarily around Miranda and its protostar." Pinpricks of red mottle the map, glowing and fading, glowing and fading. "I've had the AIs run sims first of all on the known Reaver movements, using them as boundary conditions for historically-based predictions of Reaver activity and aggression." This is Jacy's bread and butter. Color spreads across the map, red tinted masses advancing towards the Blue Sun system planets. This is Jacy's bread and butter, she knows her stuff. "Bear in mind, sir, these are simulations. AI speculation. The color coding on the map you see is probability distributions of Reaver attacks...not absolute certainties." <English>
James drums the fingers lightly on his desk, before taking up what looks to be his fountain pen. Twirling it idly, he views the screens. "I am partially aware of the Reaver situation. What of the insurgents on Deadwood? You are not fighting one enemy, Commander, but two. Keep in mind that forces sent from the core will take some time to arrive. Do you have any intelliegence on the strength and disposition of the Reaver forces? or the rebel forces? And what is the status of those rescued from the Temperance? Are there any critically injured? And what of the Temperance? Has it been located?" <English>
Heather is flat-footed. To the best of her knowledge and belief this briefing was to be on the Reavers only, and Ward's inclusion of the rebel forces and a request for a sitrep on the wounded comes as a surprise to her. But good officers think on their feet. Good officers get accurate and concise answers to Admirals, and if they don't have that information on their fingertips they better have a plan to get that information at their fingertips pretty damn quick. "Yes, sir. The Reaver disposition is derived from radiation signatures picked up by the Watchman DSEWP satellites and from a few survivors' reports from settles out on the edge of the Rim. These are fed as boundary conditions into the predictive AIs, with specified margins of error."
She squares her shoulders, typing furiously on her control pad. "The rebels were not part of this simulation, sir, but we are including them in the next stage of the AI predicts. The rebel forces on Deadwood are unknown in number. Aside from what they have from the Temperance, they are lightly armed fanatics. The Temperance itself could be anywhere within this area." A yellow polygon appears on screen, biased out towards the Rim and away from the Border planets. "We have DSEWP satellites and scouts quartering the area, sir, but we're keeping most of our scouts pulled back because of the Reaver threat, sir."
"We recovered thirteen of the twenty fighters of Roseles' Euterpe squadron that were onboard the Temperance, sir. All the pilots survived, although one was in critical condition for a while after a Reaver ship attacked the squadron. She's recovering, sir." <English>
James nods idly, seeming to want to get the overall picture. "I see. And what do you propose to be the next step? Presumably you will have to deal with the Reaver situation and the rebel situation. I've read the prelimenary reports on the Reaver's order of battle, there is a rather large signature that will need clarification.. class.. capability and such. Do you have any intelligence on Deadwood? Apart from numbers, logistics? Areas of interest? We will require detailed mission packages to launch strikes on any areas of note.. ammunition, fuel and supply depots..... But, I imagine that they will be distributed over a larger area than we can cover and so.... I wish to know how you are thinking of proceeding? Obviously enough I have a general plan but, you are the commander on the ground, as it were, so I am interested in hearing your input and position." <English>
"Yes, sir. I propose that we ignore Deadwood for now. They pose no significant threat to us on the ground. We have a no-fly zone over the entire planet, and if anything takes off we'll know it and plant a ship-to-ship missile on their heat signature," Heather Jacy takes a breath. "The Temperance is the exception to that rule. Right now they're running. They're likely still assessing what they've captured and figuring out what to do to best effect. We have our combat AIs simming their responses to our responses to their responses and so on, but all the sims are suggesting that we have a little time. My suggestion, sir, is to deal with the Reaver threat publically during that time window. It will lose them public support when it's seen that it's the Alliance saving the Rim from the Reavers, not the rebels. It saves us having to fight simultaneously on two fronts. And if for some reason the Temperance does show up when we go into battle with the Reavers, our battle plan is simple. Invite them to fight alongside us, then blow them out of the sky." <English>
James nods quietly, still twiddling his fountain pen. "I agree. And at the same time, we will kill two birds with one stone, as they say. We will hold back to allow the Reavers full advantage over Deadwood. They wanted independence, they can get a feel for what that means. This will also allow us to better evaluate their capabilities and it will buy us the time required to get our forces into position. The rebels must be made an example of, if we defeat the Reavers and, they are most likely to ignore our actions and go on with their pitiful tirade on how great it is to be independent. This will inspire other planets to follow suit." He pauses.
"The Temperance does not seem to be much of a threat, we have no intelligence suggesting it is anywhere near Deadwood, for all we know they are parading it around other Romany planets to show those gypsies the fruits of their labor... it seems to me they have left Deadwood out to dry, as it were. We are not dealing with small disgruntled groups, examples must be made. Allegiance to the Union of Allied Planets is paramount. We will not coddle those who want to break from the Union, and those that do... must see what their worlds would be like without us." <English>
"Yes, sir," Heather Jacy responds crisply. Well, there's not much else she can say when an Admiral speaks. And she doesn't look terribly upset, either. "I'll make sure that we don't over-commit forces to protect Deadwood, excepting a small force to conduct CSAR if any of our ships or crews happen to crash land on Deadwood." <English>
James nods firmly, "Continue your search and rescue operations. The rebels have not reached out to us for assistance, and so we will oblige them. We will still require information on both the rebels and reaver's dispositions. At this point, what sort of force do you think will be prudent to tackle the Reavers? Keeping in mind, Commander, I will expect a 3-1 advantage on our side, as is standard." <English>
"Well, sir, we're still assessing the enemy strength, and I don't want to move forces across to the Blue Sun system unnecessarily, leaving our flanks exposed." Jacy pauses a moment. "You'll get your three to one advantage, sir. We'll have a combination of fighters to soften their flanks and divert their attention and the heavy guns of the Destiny and other assets to punch through their screens. On Earth-That-Was, in one of the wars, one side used a matrix of heavy-armed bombers to go in over enemy territory. The enemy planes, this was before humans had reached space, sir, the enemy planes found it very hard to punch through the walls of the matrix. I think they called the bombers 'Flying Fortresses', sir." <English>
James chuckles, "You are a relatively small task force Commander. You will need more punch than you already have, far more. You cannot sustain fighter aircraft, and so I imagine you will require a carrier strike force. One carrier, three attached cruisers and several destroyers at the very least. You do have the advantage in that the Reavers lack any sort of longe range capability, via missles or gunfire... we should use that to our advantage, in addition to strike groups from our fighters to soften them up. This will be made easier if the Reavers are focused on Deadwood while we sneak in and strike while they are not looking." <English>
"Yes, sir." Heather Jacy glances at the time. "This teleconference is due to end in a few minutes, sir. I'd like to reconvene in twenty four hours with the latest assessments for your information, sir, and our updated recommendations." <English>
