MD #294: Marine Op Planning Calumet
Marine Op Planning Calumet
Summary: A few select Marines gather in the map room with Adeliza to go over plans for an upcoming mission. Lleufer leads the way to outline their mission and discuss options of approach and gear. Palermo and Maxwell have input.
Date: 27/01/2018 (OOC Date)
Related Logs: Recent Calumet logs
Lleufer Adeliza Palermo Maxwell 
Map Room, Deck 2, Battlestar Orion
Dominating the room is the large bottom-lit map table in the very center. Ten feet across and eight feet the other way, the table can gather a large number of people around it while still accommodating enlisted and support personnel in the small riser seating behind the table. The table has the most updated holographic capability and can project the largest displays on the ship. The risers to the sides are done in single-piece desk sections that run the width of the seating area and have large LCD touch displays built into them along with communications ports for headphones. At the head of the room are two very large LED touch displays that can have almost anything put on them, including projections of what is on the map table. In the rear of the room is a large, locked case that holds updated maps and table models.
Tue Aug 14 22:44:22 2049

Lleufer has arrived carrying a map tube and a folio with papers in it. His dataslate is actually clipped to his duty belt as the Gunnery Sergeant lays things down on the big table. A glance around and Ynyr goes to set up the coffee pot to make a freh carafe. Soon as he has it going, he steps back to the big table, the hatch left open for the others he's expecting to attend. The map is removed from the tube and spread out, then set with magnets in the corners to hold it flat.

Palermo moves through the hatch, quick time, catching the scent and sound of a fresh pot of coffee set to brewing and aims a quick grin at the MaA, "I was going to volunteer to do that if no one else had it going, Gunny. Thanks," said in a voice that conveys absolute appreciation of the application of caffeine. She has her datapad with her and moves to the other side of the big map table, eyeing the map that Lleu is positioning with magnets.

"Then we should be glad of Ynyr beating you here," Adeliza says as she enters hard on the heels of her cousin. She smirks lightly to the tall Marine, and turns her gaze to Lleufer. "You don't want to taste Beanpole's coffee. It makes the Commander's fuel oil taste like ambrosia." Her usual data pad and cliboard with paper under her arm. She walks to the side of where Lleufer has set up his map, and sets it down to wait patiently and see what is proposed.

The map is of course the terrain of the area where the tower is located on Calumet that they are going to hit. The Master-at-Arms glances up as Palermo enters and Lleufer smiles, "Fresh coffee makes meetings better." The folio he's brought is opened and he begins to sort copies of the intel they have so that each person may have copies for this session. Soon as that's ready, Lleu steps over to wait his turn to pour himself a cup of coffee, always taking his black. Adliza gets a warm smile out of the Gunny, "Duly noted. Would you like a cup, sir?" He can bring her one before they get started.

Glancing up as Adeliza arrives, Palermo's answering grin lights up her face, "Now now, that's not entirely.. inaccurate," she confesses with a laugh. "I make decent instant marine go juice, that's true. But sometimes my actual mechanics for the brewing of real coffee is a fail, Gunny."

At Lleufer's offer, Adeliza smiles. "I'm fine for now, thank you, Gunny. I may help myself later." She grins to Palermo, and tucks her hair behind her ear. The map is familiar, and she glances to it, before she takes te copy of the intel that was handed over towards her by Ynyr.

Lleufer sips his own coffee, cautiously because it's hot, then sets it aside and makes sure each of them get the pages he sorted out. "As you can see here by this map, our mission objective is right here." Yynr taps the peak with the tower on the top of it. "We are going to be flown in by raptor, dropped and have to hike in. I haven't confirmed yet with the CAG where precisely the LZ is to be, but I'd really like it to be here, if he thinks a Raptor pilot could get us into the valley up here." Lleufer taps deep cleft between the two peaks slightly to the north-west of the tower. "If we could get inserted there under the cover of darkness, we can move up using the rugged landscape to conceal our approach /without/ having to move through the city. The key is to get in as stealthfully as we can, then GTFO fast. Our extraction point is not yet determined though I am going to -request- it to be as close as possible without, again having to make us get too close into the suburbs. Worse case scenerio though, we may be able to gain cover and maybe even local help if we have to hide ourselves in among the locals. I am hoping it won't come to that." That for an intro, without yet jumping into the meat of the mission itself.

"Gunny, what's the time elapse between when we were here and the start of the mission clock?" Palermo wonders as she frowns down at the map, studying the terrain and the mission objective, it's proximity to local population centers and the elevation they'll be legging it through. She swipes through the recon photos and eyes the quonset-style hut that serves as some sort of barracks and storage. "The info packet suggests we'll be squaring off against 2-4 Skath walkers and 6-10 loyal humans for guard and patrol duty. Quiet insertion and remote detonation," she reiterates to clarify, "make sure they don't squawk the attack and call down reinforcements."

The Gunnery Sergeant turns his head to look at Palermo at her question, "From the time we hit the LZ, to the time we reach the tower, we can take as long as we need within reason. I can work that out with the CAG once I verify where our insertion point will be, and where we'll be taken out. The critical parts are how /close/ we can get before we may be detected, and how long it takes us to do our job, and get back out. Once they are aware of us, Skath air support may arrive within fifteen minutes. It /should/ take them about an hour to send in any ground forces to the area - unless there are surprises of course. The IDEAL scenerio of course would be to get in entirely undetected, blow it, and then get out without their ever spotting us. But that's probably unrealistic. If they spot us on our way in, things will get a lot more difficult, fast."

Looking up from the maps, a startled half smile forms on Palermo's face, "Unrealistic. That's more or less what we do, isn't it? The unrealistic and survive it anyway," she notes and leans forward again to eye the map. "Once the insertion point is agreed on, and the hike is made, we'll do another visual recon of the target location to make sure that our data hasn't changed," she won't call it 'wrong' but errs on the side of caution. "Once we bring the tower down, we're going to have to leg it again to the extraction point, of which we have more than one plotted?"

Lleufer's Arpay eyes twinkle with his amusement at Palermo's quip, "Aye, pray and hope the unniverse favors us, as it has seemed to do a number of times in the past. But, we can't count on it and have to be prepared for the worst." There's a glance to the JTACCO before Ynyr continues, "Now, with our EOD personnel on loan to Pitchfork, we'll have to take our Heavy Weapons specialist to help do the deed. /If/ we can get in close enough, we can use grenades but more likely Maxwell is going to have to take down the tower with an RPG, while the rest of us are keeping the Skath walkers, any clerics and knights at bay for however long it takes for him to bring it down." Palermo then gets a negative movement of his head, "No, only one extraction point by Raptor. It'll be too hot once the alarm is raised. If we can't reach it fast enough, they'll have to take off without us. Due to the atmospheric interference with radio, there's not much chance of our being picked up if we miss that raptor. We'd be on our own to link up with the local resistance, instead." The Gunny doesn't sound /too/ worried about that last option however, having some faith they'd be able to do that if needbe.

"So, no missing the extraction window, got it," Palermo replies as she makes a BIG note of that on her copy of the mission briefing. "With or without EOD, we're going to have to make the approach. If we can figure out when they have a shift change, if they do that, maybe we can hijack one of their vehicles so we can roll in under cover. Less legging it, I mean. Better yet if we could deliver Max into the perimeter of the compound without getting him shot at, then exfil at speed before ditching the vehicle and making for the extraction point."

Ynyr considers Palermo's suggestion, "That is possible. -If- we could get a vehicle but that's a big if. -If- we could though, we may be able to leave satchel charges on timers at the bunker below before we went up the switchback." Lleuver frowns, "But that would depend on us being able to rely on getting a hold of a vehicle. And they'd see us coming a good way off before we arrived so they might have plenty of time to radio for confirmation. My initital idea is rather different." The Gunny taps the valley cleft he suggested the Raptor use for the LZ, "My idea is we'd come in from the north west and use the land to conceal our approach, then come up the steep ascent. But that also requires some equipment to help us climb. Be real hard for them to see us though until we were up at the top. Either way, we have a perimeter chain link fence topped with razor wire to get through. Which is why I though we may need to depend on our Heavy Weapons specialist because Maxwell can fire RPG's at the tower from outside of the fence if he has a good line of sight. Otherwise we have to ram the gate or cut through it to get in."

Maxwell makes his way to the map room. He is sweating and muttering to himself. He steps into the room cautiously. He has a cup of coffee in his hand… his one stop before making full speed to the map room. He offers a nod as he enters and he says. "Sorry for the delay Gunny, my guard shift replacement… he broke his leg… and his hand and arm." he shakes his head. "Showing off some newly created Pyramid move… in the corridor." he takes a deep breath. "A trip fall and a flight and a half of stairs later… he is regretting his showing off I bet." he sets down his mug. "Palermo." he says with a nod of his head. He then straightens up and gives the ongoing discussion his full attention.

"In advance, I'm volunteering to drive if it comes to that," Palermo notes with a brief glimpse of that grin, despite how serious her expression actually is, "just had to say it, Gunny," said as she glances up from the plans and nods at Knight. "Gunny is giving us the over view of how we're going to tackle this thing on Calumet. You get to shoot a building with a RPG."

Maxwell look over the plans and he tilts his head for a moment and he shakes his head. "Why shoot it with one when you can shoot it with three?" he asks. "Lower corners and then one hit high on the side, vibration will collapse the lower structure where it is weakened and it will all come tumbling down." he says. "Effectiveness is sadly based on what the structure is made of… but it's a fickle thing… heavier materials actually work against themselves once you compromise the structure." he explains. "Do we have any close up shots of the building itself?" he asks.

The Master-at-Arms grimaces at the news of a Marine having fallen down the stairs and gotten so seriously injured while not even on an op. BUT hey, at least it wasn't an MP so it's not his personal problem. Lleufer picks up his cup of coffee and takes a drink from it before he says, "Glad it wasn't you, Knight." He sets his cup down and hands over some papers to aid in the briefing, "As our EOD people have been temporarily assigned to Pitchfork, you are key to this mission as our Heavy Weapons specialist. We were discussing options on how to get you in close enough. Either by taking a vehicle up the switchback, or my preference being to ascend the peak from the steepest side to stay concealed as long as possible until we reach the top. Once they know we are there, we have a /very/ limited time to complete the mission and GTFO before we'll miss our exfil window." Maxwell gets a nod from Ynyr, "Probably going to take you at least three hits to be sure it comes down /and/ be certain it's so uttery destroyed that they can't simply put it back up." Lleu frowns, "Negative, no close up shots. I gather, no one from the local resistance has been able to get up there."

Palermo casts a long look at Knight as he speaks, beginning to slowly nod along as he explains the three shot idea. "So our mission is to get in without being detected, leg it through that terrain to an over watch position, then guard Knight while he's taking the shots, then leg it back out and make it to the extraction site - intact - without being detected. In short. Local resistance can't assist or is it to dangerous to try to establish the link?"

Max looks at the building in the image and he says. "You know… RPG is just not enough." he is really thinking now. "Looks at this and there." he points. "There are mounts for the tower on the building." he says. "That means the wall are reinforced… likely with metal rebar." he takes a deep breath. "We would have to hit it, pin-point, five or six times with something like an RPG to be sure the tower comes down." he then thinks. "We could use a Trident, FGM-681, it is fire and forget and we can shoot it from a couple mile away… it will hit either direct or top down." he looks at the scale of the image. "I'd fire two… one top down to penetrate and weaken the structure and then a direct, broadside of the tower side." he muses. "I bet a bottle and day pass that all you would have after that second hit is a pile of concrete and steel."

Ynyr looks to Maxwell, "I can request it, but the problem is whether or not that is something the local Resistance has and uses. If they don't, we aren't going to be cleared to have it." Lleufer looks to Palermo to explain to them both, "The point in our going in is that we /prove/ our willingness to help the Resistance. So their General has given us a list of targets to work on taking out. Without their help, and to gain their trust to work with us. Nor can we simply do an air strike, because we have to pull this off without the Skath being aware of Colonials being in the area. So, it makes things tricky. Skath Raiders get the alert and fly in, we can't exactly blow them out of the sky with our vipers to keep them off of our Raptor. Because that would tip them off for certain that the Orion must be in the area. So, my Arpay mods must be concealed and no ship patches." The usual, there.

"So we're really setting an example of what they could do, with the tools they have, if they were willing to do the crazy stuff that we're planning," Palermo remarks with a slow nod. "So we can't use any weaponry or munitions that they don't have access to, because it'll tip the Skath off that they have outside help. So," and she skims one hand slowly over her face as she thinks, "smarter not harder."

Max nods and he looks back at the image and he says. "Well, I have the prelim data, I'll go over it in my head a few times and see if there is something that I can think of to give us an edge…" he takes a deep breath. Never easy… if it was easy, they would send regular army to do it.

Lleufer gives them both a nod and starts to gather up his extra papers to put them back into the folio. "I'm willing to take your ideas and consider them, and pass up equipment requests to be vetted by Command. I'll be meeting with the CAG shortly to finalize where precisely our LZ's will be for insertion and exfil. There will be a finalized briefing right before mission launch. If you have any problems or questions, bring'm to my office as soon as possible. We are set to go on Tuesday. Until then, that's all I have for today. I thank you for coming." Maxwell's last thought has hit the nail on the head.

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