Post by Captain_Quintus on Apr 4, 2016 6:59:49 GMT
Postby FSF Nefarious » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:51 am
Akena, with Julia a few steps behind him, entered the large conference room on the second deck of Deep Space 3. It was a large, rectangular room with a thirty plus person conference table situated neatly in the middle of the room, buffeted by floor to ceiling windows that revealed the nearly eighty starships floating in a holding pattern just outside. It had taken them longer than they’d expected to transport over and then find the conference room, and by the time they’d arrived the seats were all full. Akena frowned, slightly, but he and Julia made their way over to one of the windows and took their positions.
Looking around, Akena noticed the captains and squadron commanders for at least half a dozen groupings as well as several members of the brass. “What ever this is,” he said to Julia, “why do I get the feeling I am not going to like it?”
“Are they expanding the Squadron?” she asked, quietly. “I hardly recognize half of them. Unless they’re moving another set of squadrons into the sector.”
“Possibly, but I think those are people from other fleets too. I know they’ve been planning something big, but who knows. I saw one of the Defender-classes outside, so who knows. I didn’t know they’d even reactivated those.”
The room was filled with mumblings and whispers as the rest of room tried to ascertain the same things as Akena and Julia. Finally, a Commander Ha’Yeo took the podium.
Straightening her uniform, she cleared her throat. “Good morning,” she said in trill tones. “A reminder that this meeting is classified.”
She then moved out of the way and a five-pip that the duo recognized as Fleet Admiral Johnson Kimbree entered from a side door.
Akena lifted his brows again. “A Fleet Admiral... and Kimbree at that? Oh this can’t be good. No way they’d trot out the Barnstormer for something simple.”
Julia, busy pouring herself a glass of ice-water, shrugged. “I would not be surprised if they were doing a full mix-up of the admiralty command position, given our current situation.” She smirked. “Have you worked with him before?”
“I took one of his command classes at the academy,” Akena said with a frown. “He’s... well you know his reputation. Stormed the Fortress at Karek III during that whole episode and all that.”
Kimbree took a deep breath and a drink of water before opening a leather-bound document holder and placing it on the podium that had been erected, loosely, at the ‘head’ of the room. Tall, with wide shoulders and dark, curly black hair cut in a close military crop that had only begun to show the salt and pepper of age, Kimbree cut a strong figure.
“Good morning,” he said in surprisingly soft tones. “I am sure you’re all wondering why you’re here, and I am sure most of you have your theories.”
Smirking he paused for a moment to take another drink. “I’ve never been one for long lectures,” he said, causing Akena to roll his eyes and make a comment about that not being true. “And I think you all know the situation, since you’ve all been on lines. The war is not going as well as anyone would like. The President is being pushed by the Council as well.
“The Tzenkethi have pressed quicker and deeper than anyone thought they could, and our response was slow and overly cautious. That has started to change.
“Over the last month, we’ve begun a series of counter-offensive moves. Many of you have been involved in those actions. He’Yeo if you’d please.”
The lanky Albrian stood and walked over to the wall console, dimming the lights and bringing up a presentation on the larger wall screen opposite the windows displaying the current area of space and various fleet movements.
“Thank you,” he said with a nod. “As you can see, components of the third, fourth and fifth fleets have been actively harassing the Tzenkethi. They did move far quicker than we thought they could, in part because they over-extended their supply lines.”
Akena nodded, considering their last mission carefully.
“We’ve been doing hit and runs for several weeks now, which have been very successful. The Tzenkethi advance appears to have been halted and out intelligence reports reveal their beginning to fortify their positions.
“We don’t want to give them a chance to do that.”
Everyone in the room looked onward, curious as to what the Admiral was planning. He tapped a button on the podium and took another drink of water, changing the display to show a single system.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Tau Beta system. Many of you may remember it as one of the largest colonies to fall in the early stages of the war.”
Akena lifted his brows and glanced to Julia. “Why do I have a sinking feeling about this?”
Julia shook her head slightly. “If you’re thinking what I’m thinking...” She paused for a moment. “Well. I would not mind at all to see that world reclaimed. The lack of a possibility for a true defensive effort on Tau Beta was one of the great injustices of this war thus far. And their attack on an undefended world... the Tzenkethi have no honor,” she added.
“Honor,” he said lowly, “has little to do with it. But I agree...”
Kimbree continued, “The Tzenkethi are using it as their largest supply base in the region and have begun building a starbase in orbit. If they complete it, it will be very difficult to disrupt their supply lines and even harder to repatriot. For the past month, most of the actions you and the people under you have under taken, have been efforts to weaken their position in this area.
“Command and I believe that we must strike them hard and fast. To that end, I present Operation: Spring Offensive. It will be the largest single fleet action taken to this point in the war, and involve more ships than any fleet action taken since the Talarian War.”
“We’ll looks like we’ll have something for your biographers to write about after all Julia...” Akena said with sly grin.
“They’ve had plenty,” Julia replied demurely. “Especially the more slanderous ones. And it is not as if I have been absent for the rest of the war,” she added, a little testily. “Nor is it likely that my ship is going to be leading the efforts,” she pointed out.
“Your individual assignments will be forthcoming within the next twelve hours, but essentially our plan is to take the system by force land a ground force on the planet and send the Tzenkethi running with their tails between their legs.”
A rather amused laughter rolled across the room as Kimbree smirked before sobering. “This will not be easy, our best estimates, and that's if everything goes right, put our chances of success at less than 60%, but we don’t have any choice. This was never a fight we wanted, but by the stars its time we stopped sitting around and started fighting back.
“My father once told me to never start a fight, but if someone punched me, to make sure they wouldn’t do it again. Well I don’t know about any of you, but I am ready to give the sons-of-a-bitches a haymaker.”
A rather strident “aye” more likely to have come from a group of cadets than seasoned commanders filled the room and for the first time, many of them felt inspired by something coming from command.
“Now, I don’t have a lot of time, but I can take some questions...”
“How,” asked one of the junior tactical officers assigned to the 2nd, “are we planning to land a ground force on a planet that’s heavily patrolled in space? Our people aren’t going to stand a chance getting down there, and if we’re thinking they won’t have some sort of transport inhibitors...”
Kimbree nodded thoughtfully. “We have considered all of that, but given the large civilian population of the planet, we cannot bombard the planet from orbit alone, and the Tzenkethi know that. They’ve begun fortifying the planet. However, we have certain... operations in place that we believe will assist in landing our ground troops to the planet. Along those ends, at this moment 30 troop transports, carrying over 100,000 of ground troops are arriving. Some of them will be spread out to the other ships, who will be receiving special troop transport shuttles as well.”
“At the risk of sounding... pessimistic, are we sure that our civilians are still on Tau Beta? That they have not been removed to another world, or...” She left off the “or worse.” Julia didn’t like being the one to bring it up, but someone had to.
Kimbree nodded. “I cannot reveal more because of the sensitive nature of the situation, but we have been in contact with people within the civilian population.”
“So you’re running a resistance cell?” Akena said, almost without thinking.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that, Captain,” he said with a hand-wave before drinking another glass of water. “Is there anything else?”
Juno’s captain spoke up. “Another possibility that has not been mentioned here is the idea that they’re luring us in intentionally. Sure, they need a base in the Tau Beta system, but if they wanted our energies focused in that area while they launch a new attack in another... they’re sneaky bastards.”
“Another risk we have considered,” Kimbree said. “A small force will remain behind here to react to any movements by the Tzenkethi, we will also be dispatching a number of ships on patrols to intercept any small groups who splinter off from the Tzenkethi main force. We believe that they have committed a large portion of their fleet to the defense of Tau Beta and the surrounding systems, especially in light of the reported destruction of one of their flagships by the 23rd. Tactical Squadron a few days ago.”
Akena looked at Julia with a smug, cheshire grin. “Reported,” he said. “I can show them the holopics...”
“Shh,” she hushed him. “It’ll all come out soon enough. Besides, if they think we’ll always have all the glory, none of the other fleets will want to join in.”
Rather boyishly for the normally sober Captain, Akena grinned. “I expect a triumph...”
Julia rolled her eyes. As if a barbarian -- even one as victorious as he -- could possibly be granted a proper triumph.
After a few more questions, Kimbree cleared his throat. “Well, I am out of water and I am told I have another meeting to go to in five minutes. As I said, we will have formal orders for all of you out within the next twelve hours. We will depart for Tau Beta at 0300 tomorrow. Remember this briefing is classified.”
Akena, with Julia a few steps behind him, entered the large conference room on the second deck of Deep Space 3. It was a large, rectangular room with a thirty plus person conference table situated neatly in the middle of the room, buffeted by floor to ceiling windows that revealed the nearly eighty starships floating in a holding pattern just outside. It had taken them longer than they’d expected to transport over and then find the conference room, and by the time they’d arrived the seats were all full. Akena frowned, slightly, but he and Julia made their way over to one of the windows and took their positions.
Looking around, Akena noticed the captains and squadron commanders for at least half a dozen groupings as well as several members of the brass. “What ever this is,” he said to Julia, “why do I get the feeling I am not going to like it?”
“Are they expanding the Squadron?” she asked, quietly. “I hardly recognize half of them. Unless they’re moving another set of squadrons into the sector.”
“Possibly, but I think those are people from other fleets too. I know they’ve been planning something big, but who knows. I saw one of the Defender-classes outside, so who knows. I didn’t know they’d even reactivated those.”
The room was filled with mumblings and whispers as the rest of room tried to ascertain the same things as Akena and Julia. Finally, a Commander Ha’Yeo took the podium.
Straightening her uniform, she cleared her throat. “Good morning,” she said in trill tones. “A reminder that this meeting is classified.”
She then moved out of the way and a five-pip that the duo recognized as Fleet Admiral Johnson Kimbree entered from a side door.
Akena lifted his brows again. “A Fleet Admiral... and Kimbree at that? Oh this can’t be good. No way they’d trot out the Barnstormer for something simple.”
Julia, busy pouring herself a glass of ice-water, shrugged. “I would not be surprised if they were doing a full mix-up of the admiralty command position, given our current situation.” She smirked. “Have you worked with him before?”
“I took one of his command classes at the academy,” Akena said with a frown. “He’s... well you know his reputation. Stormed the Fortress at Karek III during that whole episode and all that.”
Kimbree took a deep breath and a drink of water before opening a leather-bound document holder and placing it on the podium that had been erected, loosely, at the ‘head’ of the room. Tall, with wide shoulders and dark, curly black hair cut in a close military crop that had only begun to show the salt and pepper of age, Kimbree cut a strong figure.
“Good morning,” he said in surprisingly soft tones. “I am sure you’re all wondering why you’re here, and I am sure most of you have your theories.”
Smirking he paused for a moment to take another drink. “I’ve never been one for long lectures,” he said, causing Akena to roll his eyes and make a comment about that not being true. “And I think you all know the situation, since you’ve all been on lines. The war is not going as well as anyone would like. The President is being pushed by the Council as well.
“The Tzenkethi have pressed quicker and deeper than anyone thought they could, and our response was slow and overly cautious. That has started to change.
“Over the last month, we’ve begun a series of counter-offensive moves. Many of you have been involved in those actions. He’Yeo if you’d please.”
The lanky Albrian stood and walked over to the wall console, dimming the lights and bringing up a presentation on the larger wall screen opposite the windows displaying the current area of space and various fleet movements.
“Thank you,” he said with a nod. “As you can see, components of the third, fourth and fifth fleets have been actively harassing the Tzenkethi. They did move far quicker than we thought they could, in part because they over-extended their supply lines.”
Akena nodded, considering their last mission carefully.
“We’ve been doing hit and runs for several weeks now, which have been very successful. The Tzenkethi advance appears to have been halted and out intelligence reports reveal their beginning to fortify their positions.
“We don’t want to give them a chance to do that.”
Everyone in the room looked onward, curious as to what the Admiral was planning. He tapped a button on the podium and took another drink of water, changing the display to show a single system.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Tau Beta system. Many of you may remember it as one of the largest colonies to fall in the early stages of the war.”
Akena lifted his brows and glanced to Julia. “Why do I have a sinking feeling about this?”
Julia shook her head slightly. “If you’re thinking what I’m thinking...” She paused for a moment. “Well. I would not mind at all to see that world reclaimed. The lack of a possibility for a true defensive effort on Tau Beta was one of the great injustices of this war thus far. And their attack on an undefended world... the Tzenkethi have no honor,” she added.
“Honor,” he said lowly, “has little to do with it. But I agree...”
Kimbree continued, “The Tzenkethi are using it as their largest supply base in the region and have begun building a starbase in orbit. If they complete it, it will be very difficult to disrupt their supply lines and even harder to repatriot. For the past month, most of the actions you and the people under you have under taken, have been efforts to weaken their position in this area.
“Command and I believe that we must strike them hard and fast. To that end, I present Operation: Spring Offensive. It will be the largest single fleet action taken to this point in the war, and involve more ships than any fleet action taken since the Talarian War.”
“We’ll looks like we’ll have something for your biographers to write about after all Julia...” Akena said with sly grin.
“They’ve had plenty,” Julia replied demurely. “Especially the more slanderous ones. And it is not as if I have been absent for the rest of the war,” she added, a little testily. “Nor is it likely that my ship is going to be leading the efforts,” she pointed out.
“Your individual assignments will be forthcoming within the next twelve hours, but essentially our plan is to take the system by force land a ground force on the planet and send the Tzenkethi running with their tails between their legs.”
A rather amused laughter rolled across the room as Kimbree smirked before sobering. “This will not be easy, our best estimates, and that's if everything goes right, put our chances of success at less than 60%, but we don’t have any choice. This was never a fight we wanted, but by the stars its time we stopped sitting around and started fighting back.
“My father once told me to never start a fight, but if someone punched me, to make sure they wouldn’t do it again. Well I don’t know about any of you, but I am ready to give the sons-of-a-bitches a haymaker.”
A rather strident “aye” more likely to have come from a group of cadets than seasoned commanders filled the room and for the first time, many of them felt inspired by something coming from command.
“Now, I don’t have a lot of time, but I can take some questions...”
“How,” asked one of the junior tactical officers assigned to the 2nd, “are we planning to land a ground force on a planet that’s heavily patrolled in space? Our people aren’t going to stand a chance getting down there, and if we’re thinking they won’t have some sort of transport inhibitors...”
Kimbree nodded thoughtfully. “We have considered all of that, but given the large civilian population of the planet, we cannot bombard the planet from orbit alone, and the Tzenkethi know that. They’ve begun fortifying the planet. However, we have certain... operations in place that we believe will assist in landing our ground troops to the planet. Along those ends, at this moment 30 troop transports, carrying over 100,000 of ground troops are arriving. Some of them will be spread out to the other ships, who will be receiving special troop transport shuttles as well.”
“At the risk of sounding... pessimistic, are we sure that our civilians are still on Tau Beta? That they have not been removed to another world, or...” She left off the “or worse.” Julia didn’t like being the one to bring it up, but someone had to.
Kimbree nodded. “I cannot reveal more because of the sensitive nature of the situation, but we have been in contact with people within the civilian population.”
“So you’re running a resistance cell?” Akena said, almost without thinking.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that, Captain,” he said with a hand-wave before drinking another glass of water. “Is there anything else?”
Juno’s captain spoke up. “Another possibility that has not been mentioned here is the idea that they’re luring us in intentionally. Sure, they need a base in the Tau Beta system, but if they wanted our energies focused in that area while they launch a new attack in another... they’re sneaky bastards.”
“Another risk we have considered,” Kimbree said. “A small force will remain behind here to react to any movements by the Tzenkethi, we will also be dispatching a number of ships on patrols to intercept any small groups who splinter off from the Tzenkethi main force. We believe that they have committed a large portion of their fleet to the defense of Tau Beta and the surrounding systems, especially in light of the reported destruction of one of their flagships by the 23rd. Tactical Squadron a few days ago.”
Akena looked at Julia with a smug, cheshire grin. “Reported,” he said. “I can show them the holopics...”
“Shh,” she hushed him. “It’ll all come out soon enough. Besides, if they think we’ll always have all the glory, none of the other fleets will want to join in.”
Rather boyishly for the normally sober Captain, Akena grinned. “I expect a triumph...”
Julia rolled her eyes. As if a barbarian -- even one as victorious as he -- could possibly be granted a proper triumph.
After a few more questions, Kimbree cleared his throat. “Well, I am out of water and I am told I have another meeting to go to in five minutes. As I said, we will have formal orders for all of you out within the next twelve hours. We will depart for Tau Beta at 0300 tomorrow. Remember this briefing is classified.”