| Blue Axe - Pt 1.1 - CIC |
| Summary: | Orion CIC leads the way to the Cylon homeworlds. |
| Date: | 25/11/2016 |
| Related Logs: | TBD |
    |
| Combat Information Center |
| The Combat Information Center is the tactical heart of the ship. This CIC is designed in a circular formation, the original Admiral apparently a fan of the classical set-up. Dead center are a set of large monitors suspended from the ceiling with DRADIS readings as well as other vital shipboard information. Under this is a small map table outlining current plots and positions. The table has a built-in phone as well as smaller displays relating to critical damage reports. Both port and starboard watch stations are set at all times, in two rows of tiers like stadium seating, one above the other. Each station has a purpose — Helm, Weapons, Communications, Electronic Warfare, Damage Control, and further tactical monitoring. More displays and banks of computer monitors line the walls. This area is heavily guarded by armed Marines at all hours of the day and night. |
| 12/06/2006 |
The ship has been quiet since lights out last night. Even this morning the ship seemed on edge but silent. Chapel services were full and ran three of them before finally having to close down for visits around the ship, leaving open worship. But in CIC its been fairly busy. Navigation has been running continual plot updates. Already having worked through six jumps since 0500, the ship is standing by and prepared to make the second to last jump. Everyone in here is well aware that once they make the next jump, they are committed. They'll have no more than thirty minutes to launch the attack or strategic level surprise will be gone. Forever. With it, if it isn't taken, is the possibility to turn the war on its ass.
At the center table, Jameson is staring at a memo in his hands while the speakers overhead announce from each department that they are standing by and ready. Last one? Gunnery.
"All guns manned and ready, sir."
Faulkner nods to Gloria. "Put us in Condition Two and notify the fleet we are beginning jump prep. Alert the crew we will begin relaying targeting information as soon as it becomes available."
The tension in the room is thick, but the Admiral doesn't seem to feel it. The guy seems to be pretty casual, despite being in his blues. He's also carrying an old sidearm from the first war, the gunbelt looking oddly out of place on the guy. But then again, every officer in this room has been told to arm.
Elias is at his post as acting Tactical Officer, beside the main plot, armed as ordered. He looks a bit less casual than the Admiral, his mouth grim and tight, his blues a bit rumpled. Perhaps it's just that he hasn't had much time for a smoke since the jumps began. And until the shooting starts, there's little for him to do but consider the plan and every contingency he can imagine.
Gloria is tense, but then she'd probably be more worried if she wasn't. Manning her usual station she, not being an officer, isn't armed, but she's surprisingly okay with that. When ordered to set Condition Two she does just that, then glues her eyes to her display again. Stay clear you fraking bastard, stay clear.
The CAG is standing near the Admiral, but not quite in his shadow. Robin's armed as ordered, her standard Colonial sitting in its holster. The CAG doesn't /look/ entirely nervous, but she's nearer to Elias' state than the Admiral. Her jaw is set. The squadrons already have their orders and are waiting on the word. For now, she waits and listens and thinks.
The Admiral finally puts down the note and leaves it sitting aside. Reaching inside his tunic, he removes a necklace and motions for Faulkner and Elias to do the same. Nuclear Keys. He punches a few buttons on the table and the safety plastic covers on the sides of the table slide back. These only ever come out for training. Training turns to the left. Jameson puts the key into his own slot and lifts his eyes to look at the others. "Right turn. Right turn. Nuclear release has been authorized. Three. Two. One." At zero he turns the key to the right. Faulkner at the same time. Assuming Elias turns his also, the red lights on their panels all flick green and strobe three times before going solid green. "Tubes are hot. Major Gray, open the missile tubes." The big strategic tubes up across the spine of the ship. There will be no mercy. "Navigation, commence jump in thirty seconds."
He looks back to the officers. "Thirty minutes from our arrival. That's it. As soon as we have the targets on video I want them assigned." He then pulls up the phone off the table and punches it up for intership. "Orion Actual. Jump in fifteen seconds. As soon as we arrive, pull all releases. You all know what you have to do. Don't wait for my permission. Kill 'em all. Actual, out." The phone is pushed back into the rocked and tapped with the fist. Two. One.
Jump.
It doesn't matter how often Gloria has been at her station during jump, she still find herself holding her breath. There's a muttered prayer as the keys are turned. Right turn. Frak. It's real again. Here we go. Not giving herself the comfort of closing her eyes throught the jarring of the jolt she instead forces herself to keep them open, staring straight at the screen infront of her.
Robin's eyes are drawn to the nuclear release process, hovering over the light as it turns from red to green. "Wing is standing by…" As they key in for the final jump, Robin braces herself internally, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watches the monitors and DRADIS readings.
The TACCO fishes out the nuclear key hanging around his neck, moving resolutely to join the CO and XO at the console. Elias' key slips into the slot and on signal, turns his to the right as well. No hesitation, no time for second thoughts. There's a quick nod to the Admiral, then he turns to relay the order. "Missile control, open all tubes, warm up the birds. Targeting, stand by for new targets."
Above them, the DRADIS screen is replaced with a camera feed from astrometrics. Its a long range telescope and when they arrive through the jump, the camera pans around the sky, settling on a distant glow.
"29 minutes, 47 seconds by lights speed from the Twin Rocks, Admiral," navigation calls. He doesn't look over, "Start the clock." His eyes are focused on the feed from the telescope.
The people in astrometric must be losing their minds trying to get it to look deep as fast as they can. They flip through a few lenses and the zoom comes quickly. Two red planets quickly become visible as they glow on the monitor. The zoom becomes better and more detail comes out. Dry, rocky planets with no oceans. Black mars on the surface look like probably structures built by the machines. Half the room is standing by, departments on the other end of their phones, waiting for the targeting information to come from a single TV monitor. Its being broadcast to every CIC in the fleet. "Holy shit," Faulkner breathes.
The specs looked like dirt on the lens. Zooming in, its not. Those are baststars and orbital platforms around the planets. "Two, four, six- I count twelve, sir. Twelve basestars we can see. Four orbital- oh my Gods, look, that's a shipyard." She aims a finger at the huge blob with basestar arms poking out of it. "Sir.."
Jameson is looking up. That's a lot of badguys. More than they anticipated. "Pass the targeting around. Now. Priority goes to those closes to us when we jump in. I want every ship in the fleet jumping in with rounds in the tubes and guns aimed." Which violates every peacetime protocol about jumps and weapons. "This is going to be a gunfight, no question. Elias-" he looks to the Major. "Strike package two missiles. When they leave the silos, I want the MIRVs separated and two of them shot at every single basestar. They're going to use the Raiders as a defensive screen to shoot down the nukes. When the nukes get in range of the raiders, cook them off. Fifty Megatons. Fry every single raider you can." He then looks over to Gloria. "Silo out two more and prep for firing. Shake and bake the warheads to five megatons each. Target every visible brainwashing facility we have got when we arrive. Do not wait for my authorization, just launch them." He is terse, but composed. "Colonel Io, good luck out there. Get them off the flightdecks as soon as we jump in. Just watch the nuclear warheads and stay out of our flak zones. Hit it." 28 minutes, fifteen seconds before they have no choice but to jump in there.
Well there's a thing. Gloria is, like just about everyone else, staring a-gog at what they are to face. She's not so distracted that she isn't listening though and gives a crisp, "Aye Sir," in reply to the Admiral. Her hands shake just a fraction as she starts tapping away at the controls infront of her and she forces herself to keep her breathing steady. There's just something about being given authority to fire nukes without any further input from the Brass that equal parts terrifying and exhillerating.
Elias turns to hear the Admiral's firing orders for the first nukes, and then gives a quick nod. "Yes sir." The TACCO moves to the missile control station and leans in, talking with the crewmen there to work out the firing solution and detonation details. It's only after that is done that the TACCO turns back to Jameson, adding a question once the CO is done with initial orders. "Sir. Recommend we target that shipyard with a nuke as well. Have it follow the first wave and try and slip it through before the raider screen can reform."
Robin nods to the Admiral. "Yes Sir." Io picks up her phone and starts to relay orders, filling in the squadron leads on the approach and the nuclear targets. "Affirmative. Launch as soon as we jump in, weapons hot. Keep your birds in order. We don't need any friendly nuclear fire." After some rough calculations, she relays a minimal safe distance to give them guidelines.
Jameson looks over to Elias and considers it. Hmm. "Good suggestions. Retarget away from the most distant basestar. Retarget for those shipyards, both of them." He deadpans the rest. "It'd be a real shame if their orbital shipyards… deorbited. Across their planet. Or maybe cracked the core." Gallows humor he has. "Notify the Marines that they need to execute our guests as soon as we come out the other side of the jump. We're going to be cutting our times short. We can't afford hesitation." The Admiral puts his hands behind him and stretches, leaning back. Bones and joints creak.
"Lou. I know that limbering. The answer is No."
"You're worse than my wife, Gillian."
"That's why she told me to look after you. You don't get to fly today."
"Killjoy."
"That is, in fact, my job."
Jameson looks over to the XO with lidded eyes and there's a shared, small smile between them. If they're all going to die, do it with a little class. Heads held high. Jameson looks back to the camera feed, eyeing the deployments of the ships. "There's their fleet headquarters. Right where Rance put it. Nav! When we arrive, after start the initial gunfight, aim our nose at their fleet headquarters. We'll use the bow guns on them." Because nothing says love like an explosive round measured in meters diameter.
Gloria flicks her eyes briefly to Elias as he mentions nuking the shipyard too, she's all for that, but then it's not her decision to make. Eyes back to her own console she confirms a query from the technicians at the tubes then splits her attention between her screen and the Admiral, incase he has anything else to add. The back and forth between CO and XO is largely ignored as irrelevant to her immediate task at hand, but it does help ease the mood a little.
Elias waits for Jameson to make the call on his suggestion, then goes to relay the decision. "Yes sir. Missile control, retargeting number twelve…" he leans down to coordinate with the fire control personnel, the banter between the commanders going on behind him ignored in favor of getting the targeting right. No pressure there. And as soon as that's done, he moves to the nav station. "Gunnery, firing solution for Cylon Fleet HQ to the helm. Make that your priority plot." There's the movement of the ship and planet to track, as well as the planetary rotation. Luckily they're not too worried about what else they might hit down there.
<FS3> Gloria rolls Ecm: Great Success.
Robin can't help but smile at Elias' suggestion and the shift in targeting. You take one of our shipyards down, we'll smack you right back you dirty greasy machine bastards, she thinks. The CO and XO going back and forth do take her attention for a split second, but she kicks her mind back to the task at hand rather easily. She keeps her phone in hand. "Standby…"
Minutes tick down. Targeting is handed out and reverified. The fleet steadily begins to confirm that they have everything assigned. Fifteen minutes left by the tiem everything is triplechecked. "Petty Officer Oates, put the fleet to Condition One. Start the jump clock. Sixty seconds." He then looks to Robin. "Time for you to fly." He then looks back up to the view on the screen. Such a peaceful little place. That's about to change. "Oates, give us a count and jump the fleet on zero." He picks up the phone and gets ready to start issuing orders once that jump is made.
"It will be my pleasure." Robin says to Admiral before picking up her phone to relay orders. After replacing the phone, she steps back to say, "Good hunting sirs." Something in her spurs a quick salute, obviously aimed to all of CIC, especially the rest of Command. With that, she turns to walk swiftly out of CIC, past the MPs and beyond.
Gloria had just about managed to relax a bit as the triple checks are carried out, nothing for her to do but remain alert until it comes time. And then, suddenly, it is time. That can't have been all they had? Oh well. A silent nod goes to Jameson, not wanting to speak unessarilly incase anyone else needs to say something urgently. She does confirm each step as she takes it, all per protocol. "Jump clock set to sixty seconds." "Thirty Seconds" "Fiften seconds." "Ten seconds." "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Mark." Then she pushes the button, there's that all too familiar lurge of space doing whatever it is to itself that it does when a ship, no, a fleet, all jump, and then the screens come alive again and it's all stations go. A quick check shows she's exactly where she wanted them to be, but she doesn't allow herself a smile, not yet. "Jump complete, fleet in position at waypoint Alpha, all firing lines clear." Not that she's looking up to double check mind, just trusting her instruments and letting Elias do his thing with the nukes before she can do her's.
Once the retargeting and gunnery issues are sorted, Elias returns to the main console to await the final jump. There's a small, strained smile for the CAG as she takes her leave. "Good luck, Colonel." The salute is returned, and then the TACCO returns his attention to the DRADIS display, awaiting the first pings once they've jumped into firing position. He grips the table as Gloria's count his zero, steadying himself for the jump. And as soon as he hears her report their position, he starts with the firing orders. "Missile control, launch! Gunnery, flak screen up! Secondary guns target the nearest Basestar, stand by for bombardment!"
Jameson reaches his free hand towards Gloria's station and gives her a huge thumbs up while he stares at DRADIS. Oh hell yes. Meanwhile the rest of the fleet jumps in with them, DRADIS flickering with it as the blue contacts build. Gloria put the whole fleet right in between the two planets and they can hit every target they wanted to from right where they are. They can next feel the engines come alive for maneuvering then then the next feeling cannot be mistaken. The whole ship shakes as the guns along the spine begin firing. DRADIS doesn't even have the targets yet and the gunners aren't waiting for it. Mark One Eyeball. Then the contacts begin to flood in. The whole screen begins to fill with red. Elias's words have barely left his mouth and a second later there's a secondary shudder, two of them, as missiles begin leaving. Fights on.
As soon as these orders are issued, the TACCO is on one of the CIC phones. This one is direct to the skinjob holding area in the wing barracks. "Execute," is all he says.
As the first two missles leave Gloria tracks them for a moemnt, the calls the techs in the tubes to let them know that their target information is updated and gives the command to launch them towards the planets' surface. SHe doesn't tell them what the targets are, it wouldn'tbe fair on them she figures. As for the TACCOs other call, well, she can only guess what thats about, and while there's an instinctive dislike, she limits it to a minor flinch. Strange times.