MD #023: Starting The Forge Cold
MD #023: Starting The Forge Cold
Summary: Admiral Fencer reviews the next major joint operation - Cold Forge.
Date: 02/05/2017 (OOC Date)
Related Logs: None
Penta Petra Niko Robin 
Mara Adeliza Dropkickst 
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.
16/11/2028

So now that the Orion is back and licking its proverbial bruises, with Deck working madly to repair the planes, and Petra back to living out of the Map room, the Arpay fleet returned and, after a quick exchange and an offer to refill Robin's own mug, a call is placed down to the CAG's office and the Marine Commander to 'do us a favor and be up here before Fencer arrives and wonders why we don't have our act together, thanks, then goes back to regarding the map, "Welll, we didn't blow the ship up…"

Penta walks in a moment later. By the look of it, whatever the hell happened on Bominaire (probably the rifle butt to the face), Penta looks bruised. Well, at least it didn't break his nose…or the rest of his face?

"Thank you," Robin mutters in that distinguished accent when her mug is returned to her. She blows across the surface of the coffee, squinting before she takes a sip. "Congratulations Commander. We haven't blown up the ship…yet." She looks over when Major Penta arrives and sips her coffee again.

Fencer comes to Orion. Nothing has changed. Its his eternal nod to the Colonials and their ancestors, as well as to Orion Command Staff issuing orders to their own fleet. He's an official messenger and a job he doesn't seem to mind. Spirit of cooperation and such. When he arrives at the Map Room, he's already holding a mug of coffee. The nice part about being an Admiral is that you can walk into the Rec Room and get a mug and keep going. But he's in his digital blues of the Arpay Fleet, sidearm on his hip per normal. Stepping inside, he lifts his mug in salute to Robin first. "Admiral Io. Good to see you again. We really should get drinks sometime. I hear Piraeus has a good bar." Fencer has yet to set foot on the planet. The guy looks to the others with a nod before walking around to the other side of the table, leaving Robin to stand at the 'head' of it. "Thank you for showing up on short notice." The guy gets down to business quickly. "I've already heard some rumors about Bominaire. We're landing the Diplomatic Corps as briefed, but we are not extracting anyone from the planet. I won't go into why, but that's just the way our two commands have decided based on preliminary reports." He sips the mug and puts it down. "Whatever happened, fine. We can't delay any longer and right now we've got an opportunity to make our intents still work. Orders directly from Caprica." He looks over, "Can someone dim the lights?"

Adeliza has arrived.

Petra mmms softly at the review from Fencer and does a good job of stifling the wince, but hey, the man said 'whatever', so he sure as hell isn't going to comment on that. instead he reaches over to tap the lighting control to dim the lights down for a projection, and takes a step back from the table closer to Robin to shoot her a look, then take a sip of his coffee, before adding, "We'll be ready to head out shortly. All depends on the where and when and how, Admiral."

Somehow the CAG ends up on flight duty during scheduled meetings, sending Major Heron instead. But today Niko himself is on the hook, though he shows up in his flight suit rather than his blues. At least he manages to show up ahead of Fencer. A quick nod of acknowledgement to the Orion command staff and he vectors toward a seat. "Admiral, Commander." Then he goes quite to listen to the Arpay Admiral.

Penta can't really stifle his wince at Fencer's review. That shot was probably aimed at him, huh? Well, wouldn't be the first time. But he's quiet, listening intently to the briefing.

When Fencer arrives, Robin lifts her mug in turn. A coffee salute is sacred and must be respected. "Aye. And you. Right. Charlie's if it's still what it used to be. Let's make sure to do that." She gives him a brief nod, not a very chatty person herself about 90% of the time. She purses her lips at the topic of Bominaire and glances sidelong at Petra. "Thank you Commander," she offers briefly after he dims the lights. She nods to the CAG when he shows up but doesn't interrupt.

Mara is sitting kind of away from the main group of Officers. She's got her datapad out, but her fingers are still. She watches Fencer, Petra, Robin. Listens to what's being said, but as usual, shows absolutely no emotion, no indication of thoughts. The dark little Lieutenant just clings to her shadows, sipping on her coffee and listening intently to what's being said.

Sitting just behind the rest of the tactical crew, Adeliza, for once, is making like a shadow on the wall and not making a sound as she listens to the reports and watches the department heads and admirals interact. Both hands in front of her press her clipboard to her thighs, fingers curled under the front edge of her clipboard.

"Consider it a platonic date, Admiral," he tells Robin with a smirk. There's a nod to Petra for dimming the lights and he opens the briefcase with thumbprints again. The pad comes out one more time, palm and retinal scans to get access. "Operation Cold Forge. This tasking isn't coming from Colonial or Arpay Fleet. This comes directly from the Diplomatic Corps." He says it as he taps through the myriad of menus to bring up something. "Everyone key up your tablets. The informaiton will be digitally passed to your tablets. Ten foot range." He slides the tablet out to the center of the table as a planet holograms up, slightly slewing with the movement. The gesture seems easily practiced from Admiral Fencer. "The planet is Calumet. This is at our eleven oclock across the galaxy at damned near the same orbit point from the core, so time dilation is effectively nil. This planet is at the furthest march of the Skath to this quadrant and their only foray down this path. Fluke, they found the planet. About the same time you all found the us, the Skath were approaching this location. Our Diplomatic Corps tried to convince them to evacuate and it ended in a massive civil war on the planet. About two-thirds wanted Arpay help, the more powerful third said no and hubris killed their provinces and countries. They decimated their ability to fight and then tried to stand against a Skath invasion party." He lifts the mug to sip, clearly familiar with the planet. "Strategically, we left it alone but about a year ago we landed some Diplomatic Corps and got involved on the low end, feeling it out. It's a clusterfuck, but we've got real people there trying to fight it off. If we hit the Skath back hard, they won't be able to get response forces out there for about five or six years at best estimates along their comm lines." He looks at all of them, letting that settle. A real chance to fight and bolster defenses.

"You're breaking my heart Admiral," Robin quips back dryly. She grabs her tablet from the table where she deposited on the way in. It should be turned on at all times, but she checks just in case so it's ready for the transfer over a local wireless protocol. She watches the display while tucking her pad under in against her hip. Calumet. It feels like that could have been them if they hadn't had their own circumstances driving them out to the Rally Point. She doesn't interrupt Fencer or make any side commentary, instead giving the man space to finish his briefing.

Penta looks thoughtful as he listens after linking up his tablet. A chance to make up for Bominaire? Awesome. Or a chance to *really* frak things up. Not so awesome. Then he processes. Civil war…This could be, er, fascinating and not in a good way.

Petra takes a deep breath and keys his tablet up when prompted to, but his eyes are focuses on Fencer and his descriptions, even if he does glance down at the datapad occassionally to make sure he's getting it all. Something said makes his brow furrow, but for the moment, he's holding questions, knowing that will be in a moment. Squinting and focusing past the map to try and consider the progression and how much time that would leave them for an evacuation.

Adeliza pulls her clipboard out from behind her clipboard and taps it a couple times to make sure it's receiving the intel, but then focuses her attention on Admiral Fencer; a brief smirk for Robin's response. She reaches up and tucks her hair behind her ear, tilting her head slightly as she listens. As he wraps up, her gaze shifts to Penta and Niko, before going to Petra, then back to Fencer.

Niko pulls his datapad from the thigh pocket of his flight suit, fingers tapping into 'receive' config as he listens to Fencer's verbal briefing. The CAG's expression speaks of some choice comments on the state of the target planet, but for once the man holds his tongue. "What sort of numbers are we looking at, sir?" he asks when the Arpay allows a pause.
<Public> Latif says, "Happy May Day?"

Fencer watches the reactions across the table before he says anything else. The man keeps going. "The Diplomatic Corps has high confidence that they have a resistance party worth meeting, but communications out there are a bitch. There's a pulsar out there on the other side of a vapor cloud that fucks badly with space based communications. Getting any kind of information from the surface is hard as hell, but the local star throws enough ion against the solid iron core to trap radio comms within the atmosphere. Once in, its easy. Getting radio out is much harder. So here's what we've got:" Fencer reaches for a menu on the hologram and bring up a menu to hit a set of coordinates on the planet. "Calumet was taken down about twenty years ago. There are still strong resistance forces across the generational gap, but big portions of the planet are capitulating due to the Lines, 'Clerics', getting involved. Point of fact, they are constructing a regen facility on the planet but have none in orbit. Commo outside the atmo prevents it. Now, they are causing unholy mayhem across the planet but there are people killing them. And they need guns and ammo." He taps the hologram. "The City of Vejas." Vay-has. "The country that held this city was in one of the countries that just got wiped when the Skath landed. They never had the opportunity to raid the arms bunker beneath the city's outskirts. The regional resistance has been trying to get the stores out of there, but they are out of time." He touches a menu and another option. Pictures of tanks and artillery and anti-aircraft equipment flash across the hologram. "The Skath are leveling the cities to turn it into another Bominaire. This is what they do. They are about five weeks from discovering the bunker for sure. About three from first Skath recon elements clearing the area."

Petra looks down at his tablet again when Fencer goes into more detail, dragging his fingertips across the screen to zero in on a detail, then zoom back out, "So we're not concerned with immediate reprisal from a Skath fleet this time. In fact, unless we get very unlucky, we should not be attractig capital ship company once we deal with whatever is in orbit, if I'm hearing you correctly? Unless they get someone away to scream for help, that is."

Robin taps her datapad to bring it to life again, the screen brightness automatically adjusting to the dim ambient light a moment after it turns on. She taps out a few notes in shorthand as Fencer continues. "What difficulties were they running into before that prevented them from getting to it? Are those things our forces will also have to deal with?" She never heard that shoe drop.

Shifting her clipboard in the crook of her elbow so that she can balance her tablet on it and write some notes on her clipboard next to it, Adeliza listens to the questions. With pen still between her fingers, she reaches up, her hand making it's habitual circuit around her ear and then her hand is poised to continue writing.

Fencer looks to Petra and gives a slow nod. "Their closest commo station is closer to the core. Commo jumping isn't easy and has its limits. They can't get anything out there anytime soon. But if we time this well and can pull off our strike fast, we can jump the fleets to the commo station and hit it before the distress call has fully parsed and can be retransmitted. No guarantees on that, though." A careful opportunity. "It could buy the planet decades." Maybe, by his tone. He's careful about hopes in the room. To Robin, he looks over, "No difficulties except lack of manpower to move it. The planet has a unique element that they've mined. It is a highly fluid metal that has IR masking qualities. They've been draping the gear as they move it out, but they lack the manpower supposedly." He lifts a finger with the mug. "This is all via broken communication from the Diplomatic Corps. We've got zero confirmation on this, but our people on the ground seem set on it. In their words, they need help 'right fucking now.'" He looks back to the planet hologram and uses his finger to cut away part of the surface of the planet, fingers splaying to throw the rest away. The map comes up clearly and he throws it to the table. The guy pulls his tablet off as the orange hologram takes up the terrain features of a largely blasted city, skyscrapers running for tens of miles. It looks like an overbuilt Caprica. "The exit to the bunker has dozens of roads leading off of it, which branch strategically through a mountain range that spreads. If the intel is correct, and they have the support, they can get these pieces of equipment out and evac it to points across the whole continent. Supposedly there were three whole armored divisions down there." He looks back at them. "Supposedly." He reaches for the mug again and sips it. "Bunker outlines to defensive areas are in your tablets. There are three primary entrances, if this is all accurate. The tough angle is that we have no way to prove it. Yet. If this is real, it represents a very serious point to blunt Skath advancement and draw forces off the discovery of the colonies. If this is legitimate, we can make this their flashpoint. It could buy the Colonies a decade, maybe more." He looks across the eyes on him. "Ready for fleet recommendations?"

Niko's finger tips tap along the edge of his pad as he scans the data, his expression unusually pensive. It's clear he has questions, but the CAG doesn't give voice to them yet. He merely nods his own readiness when Fencer is ready to present recommendations, glancing side to side to see how the other Fleet officers are taking to this proposal.

Petra mmms softly at Fencer's answer and falls quiet again. This time, he's just absorbing, listening to the other questions being asked and the answers the Admiral's answers. When he asks if they are ready for recommendations, Petra stops and glances at Robin, then looks at each of the other faces for a second, then offers, "What does the Diplomatic Corps need accomplished to help their mission? Im going to assume eliminating the ressurrection center is going to be a high value target."

Fencer looks over to Petra, "That's in the tasking, bet your ass." He sips his mug and looks to the hologram of the city, reaching his free hand out. He points his fingers down and draws them up into a point. The terrain hologram zooms further out, the topographic map at such fine detail that individual houses and smaller outbuildings are still represented by little dots. Reaching out, he taps a location of flat terrain in a river valley just at the outskirts of the city. "Orders are to covertly insert a Marine recon element here three weeks from last Friday. They will make contact and confirm. The DC member on the ground knows that the resistance has a limited time to prove the bunker and resistance forces. Two hours later a Raptor jumps inner atmo, confirms what it can, then jumps back out." He looks back. "If it is confirmed, we are a go for Cold Forge." He pulls back the map to the solar system level. "Four carrier strike groups will jump in here, at the edge, spearheaded by BSG-114. We assemble then jump in. We then flash jump to Calumet and take out the forty-six Skath ships in orbit. It'll be a knife fight but we kill everything. Orion's Air Wing will support the Marine defensive line at the bunker while Arpay wings will be taking out airborne and strategic targets on Calumet. Questions?"

Petra phews softly, muttering to Robin, "46. This is gonna be a hell of a fireworks show…" He lifts his datapad a bit to indicate it when he asks, "I'll assume we have our division of prioritized targets already called out, so our CAG and Marine Commander can walk downstairs and immediately start planning out their assaults?

Robin pretty much has Triad-face, that is her expression is rather inscrutable past saying she's absorbing the information with a thoughtful look. "Indeed. The fireteams are going to have their work cut out for them." She pulls her datapad up again and steps forward to rest it on the ledge of the table while she taps in a few more notes more rapidly. She's read reports of what Skath do to worlds. It's one of the many many things she did in preparation for the larger mission, preparations which have been going on in her life and mind for the past twenty two years, so she doesn't sound as surprised by the number.

"That's why we've got a large tasking on this, Petra. In the words of one of your Aerilonians, we ain't making corn flakes. We're building warriors and supplying them on a world. We need video. We need something we can show to every other planet out there. Humans fighting the Skath. Most of these planets used to look like the Colonies at one point. The need to remember. And they need the Erfriki legend to show them the way." Even if its a losing battle. They are fighting for the Colonies halfway across the galaxy. "But yes, if Cold Forge is a Go, and these plans are accurate, we'll want you air-dropping Marines across three primary LZ's. Your Rhinos can drop combat loaded supplies for them. Air Wing?" He looks back to the solar map. "Yeah, they are in there. There's some token short-range air defense systems, but most of the support is going to be hitting targets in your zone. Dropping buildings on assault paths, hitting the regen facility, and fighting off waves of Skath Raiders." Looking back to Robin, he nods slowly. "Yeah. I can't tell you people how to do it, just issue recommendations, Admiral. This will count. Fleet Command agrees, we need videotape now. We need the people in this galaxy to see the Erfriki fighting and killing." He shifts a bit and swills the mug. "By the way, nobody is quite sure how to resolve this, but Calumet speaks a heavily accent version of Colonial. Alphabet looks close, too. You all might need some new patches on the uniforms. Unless you're Colonial Erfriki. I'll leave it to you, though." No, he isn't touching the how or why. Colonies run their own people. But the guy reaches for his tablet to pull it back closer.

Niko doesn't seem phased by the numbers, and landing on putting a recon team down? That's the Marines' problem. But he still looks a little concerned. "How does the interference around this planet effect craft in atmo or near orbit? Are we gonna be able to navigate and communicate?"

"Low orbit is scratchy but you can get some commo through. Orbit to planet is going to be another story. You need a real high powered transmitter to get outbound into orbit," Fencer tells Niko.

Petra clears his throat to Niko with a nod, "Since we are not going to be fighting a short window of the Skath fleet returning and crushing us under its weight, we have a little flexibility of trying a few solutions out…after we destroy their orbital forces."

The CAG hears Fencer's answer, and it is about as bad as he was expecting. There's a quick nod for Petra's qualifications, but Niko is distracted as he is already making his own notes on his data pad. "Yes sir. May need to task Raptors just to relay comms traffic, but we'll deal with it." And with that question answered, he's satisified with trying to sift through the new data on his pad for the rest.

Petra nods slowly at Niko, "If you come up with any interesting relay solutions, let us know. We may give you one of the CIC Comms Officers to experiment with to try things out, before we jump, if you end up with time. It sounds like the first bit is going to be a straight up fleet and air wing slug fest, however." He pauses, and looks down at his datapad, then glances at Mara, before looking back at Niko, "Let me know if you find yourself lacking something you cant make arrangements for."

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