The Line in the Stars (IC) [PG/14]

[Lisky]

Command Center

Knight nodded at Naz, as he absorbed the data that he'd be given... he paused to rethink the overall strategy he'd take.  "i hope you understand that i'm used to thinking out loud, during similar sessions" Knight paused, and looked Romulus square in the eye and cocking his head slightly to the side "rather than making snide remarks, critiquing an idea, and explaining why you feel a different approach will lead to far better team cohesion... you of all people should understand the need for a team to have cohesion, and a lack of friction when things come into a combat scenario, Sargent" he added extra emphasis on the rank to make sure the point got across

"personal issues aside, we should be getting back to the planning session... i'm done trying to work out contingencies with you people" Knight said with a sigh

[ShadesFox]

Command Center

Aaron growls quite audibly, "There shall be LESS confrontation in my meeting please."

After spending a second considering many things he says, "A few things to remember here. Knight, Mother is an extremely advanced ship. My understanding is that, in combat ability, this 'gun boat' can fight toe to toe with the latest ISF cruisers. However, there are many considerations that we may miss. Having a distraction option would be nice, but it has to be a good distraction option that won't give away our presence if it isn't needed. My idea for such a thing is to see if one of those cloakable probes can be rigged so that it can be triggered to give the impression that there is small ISF fleet that just showed up at the edge of the solar system. One that would be a credible threat to the in system forces, encouraging them to take up a defensive position around the space station. This would fill the requirements out rather nicely, though I am not heart set on this plan if you can think of a better one."

Aaron looked around for reactions. Here he thought that his experience dealing with inflated egos was not going to be useful outside of academia.

[Azlan]

Alexis stepped in the middle of everybody and with a over exaggerated sigh added her own input, "what a bunch of children you are, I mean seriously... enough snide remarks and condescending tones.  If you can't participate in this discussion like professional adults, then you can spend time in the brig for annoying me."

Mother shook her head, "be at ease daughter, you cannot bark at everyone and make them change, they have to be willing to do so."

Alexis muttered to herself and stepped out of the middle of the room.  Mother patted her on the back and smiled reassuringly at her daughter.  

After Aaron spoke, she switched her gaze back to the others, "as you can see Mr. Whitehaven, my scanning capability is quite impressive.  This three dimensional, fully detailed holographic field is not a rendering, but realtime and realspace.  I can focus on a planet and rotate the view all around it, even obtaining full detail on the side opposite the ship's facing... a traditional sensor block for your limited systems.  This scanning suite provides details down to quantum level, and just about every modality you can imagine.  In fact, our scanner capability is so advanced, that directed, active scanning... let alone combat scanning posture... is so powerful we will overload the systems of these poor pirate craft.  It will scramble computer targeting systems and scanners, acting like ECM and sensor jammers without having to employ ECM.  This will render long range weapons fire ineffective as they will be reduced to manual gunsights."

She paused to bring up a large three dimensional view of a pirate battleship in realtime, "speaking of which, statistics for the Sovereign class battleship show her to have a mean acceleration of 2.25 G with very poor inertial dampening.  She possesses positive G sections, but no actual artificial gravity.  Her 202.8 million metric ton mass means that she cannot maintain steady 2.25 G acceleration for long without depleting her plasma fuel stores or leave her without enough reaction mass for maneuvering.  Her armor is a conventional.  The outer layer is an homogeneous plate of beryllium-copper-nickel alloy, with an extremely hard ceramic... amorphous silicon nitride... ablative covering, effective against either kinetic impact and high energy neutrons of fusion warhead explosions as beryllium is a powerful neutron reflector.  The second layer is a metal matrix composite of boron fibers, single crystal fibers, in a titanium alloy matrix, strong, elastic and relatively lightweight.  The whole external layer is effective against the hard ray radiations, X and gamma rays, of nuclear explosions.  The boron, being a neutron absorber, enhances the anti neutron protection.  This outer double layer is followed by a multi-cellular metal foam, that acts either as an 'energy distributor' on the inner layer of protection, and as a room space to allow the expansion of plasma bolts eventually able to pierce the outer armor, weakening their terminal effect.  The inner layer is a sandwich of titanium alloy bonded with three intermediate layers, the first made of corundum crystals in a ceramic matrix, the middle one of boron single crystal fibers in an organic matrix, and the last of polymeric fiber composite.  This inner armor is extremely effective, due to his combination of outer hardness/stiffness and inner strength and elasticity, against the kinetic and explosive secondary effects of plasma weapons and outer layer's ablation."

Mother paused, not realizing that computer information dumps can likely cause organic brains to cease functioning, before continuing, "the ship's weapons are rather deadly if they hit.  The load out is as follows, sixteen heavy pulse bolters - Ten turret mounted/six spinal mounted, six heavy plasma cannons - three front/three rear, two Lightbringer Series 4 super heavy spinal lasers, two Zeus Series Mass Driver Cannons - category 3 with twenty megaton yield, twelve light pulse bolters in single turrets, eight twin heavy railgun turrets and twelve quad pulse cannon turrets.  Now my scans show that the mass drivers are largely non-functional, but all other weapons are fully functional.  The design holds sixty fighters and twenty-four space assault craft.  Due to automation, her crew compliment is around 2,220."

Loki yawns, "I thought it was amazing that my pirate friends were able to scape together the Defiance a similar era dreadnaught.  Where could these pirates get four of these ancient monstrosities?  The cost of maintenance would be ridiculous."

Mother continues, "the fighters are all old, and the weapons can do very little to me, but 240 fighters will start to hurt after a few hours.  Now as for fighting the battleships, if we have to, I can outmaneuver them, but they can put a very high volume of firepower at short and medium range.  They are worthless at long range against us, as they will be reduced to visual gunsights, making the spinal lasers useless unless they are very very lucky.  The armor is twenty-eight meters thick and it will take a minute of concentrated hyper graviton beam fire to penetrate.  The hyper graviton beam has three times the effective range of their ancient spinal lasers and our targeting is spot on at extreme ranges.  Though it is wise for me to consider, that I've never been hit with a very high powered free electron laser or pure ion laser, so my armor has not adapted to it.  A hit by one would likely inflict critical damage, but it wouldn't be fatal.  It would take a while for me to self repair."

Ixiah stretched and yawned wide, "wow, that was dull... uh let me think... we shouldn't need a distraction, we can out run anything they have and Mother can open a jump point in an atmosphere..."

The orange vixen cringed as if remembering some sharp nasty pain, "oh no, I don't ever want to do that again!"

 
       

[Lisky]

Command Center

Knight let all the new information sink in while completely destroying his idea of what tactics would be needed to maintain the advantage, he knew the pirate ships were slow, but hadn't expected the ability to keep an eye on them while planet side...

turning to the Acadian, Knight said politely "thank you, that was surprisingly informative, and i'll have to re-evaluate much of what i expected... i'm sorry i wasted time thinking i was dealing with tech at a somewhat comparable to level of top of the line standard issue ISF gear... though, if your sensors are that fine tuned, any chance you've detected any signs of mid or high level pirate activity in or around our objective's location?"

[ShadesFox]

Aaron nods, "Right, so avoid atmospheric jumps.  Apparently Mother can fend off 240 fighters for a few hours.  On the other hand, we do not want to tempt fate and get Mother shot by the capital ships."

Aaron thought for a second, "Though now that you mention it, the logistics of keeping that many capital ships is concerning.  I suppose that there is some major benefactor behind them.  Maybe a pirate prince that heard rumor of Matron or an Acadian?  Either way it sounds like a recipe for nasty.  Though, now to hammer out other details."

Aaron thinks for a second, "The chain of command, we'll just go by pay grade.  Saioko second, though I suspect that any action that takes me out will be combat so that means it would more likely be Knight, Nazareth, Nova, Romulus.  Though again, if things get down to Nova, Romulus would most definitely be the one actually in charge.  Next up is the issue of Ixiah and Loki.  They need to be assigned to someone at all times, preferably someone conscious at the moment.  To that end the order goes me, Saioko, Nova, Knight, Nazareth, Romulus.  The main mission for the person watching Ixiah or Loki is to keep them safe."

Aaron looks around for a bit before continuing, "With this worked out, it should be fine to start approaching the planet.  Also, Knight, if you are going to keep planning, talk with Mother more to figure out the extent of her abilities.  She is fully atmospheric and can land, so the current plan is to land next to Matron.  Of course, this is all dependent on what we end up finding from a more detailed probe of the planet."

[Lisky]

Knight said "yes sir, though i think my long chat with mother can wait until we're on our way to the planet,...  for now, i've got no complaints about the insertion plan, though once near or in orbit around the 3rd planet, we are going to need a proper planning session focusing on the ground mission... for now, all i'd like to add is that we should launch the probes once we're in the appropriate range, and start collecting as much information as we can before we arrive..."

Knight paused and started running through a mental checklist of everything he'd need to know, particularly in the areas of weapons, overall performance and handling... Turning to mother he asked "um... ma'am, once we're done here, where would you like to meet so we can have our little discussion? actually, thinking on the command structure, if Sai... Captain Natsume is officially second in command, she should probably be involved too, unless she hasn't been telling me all that she's been up to, i doubt she's all that informed about this ship either..."  Knight started feeling a little bit more relaxed as things calmed down... he let his thoughts drift for a moment, and it took all his self control to not break into a snicker as he remembered how he and Saioko had entered the meeting...

[Azlan]

Captain Natsume examined the display field nodding appreciatively, "wow, your scanning systems are a bit more advanced then mine... my... my designs."  The cat gave the vixen a goofy sort of smile.

Mother returned a warm smile, "Yes, I am glad you approve.  Tell me were you built or grown?"

"Wha... what??!  What kind of question is that?"  Saioko said with the most confused expression she could muster.

The orange vixen waved it off nonchalantly, "nothing, nothing just being whimsical.  Carry on."

"Uh, right.  So I am the second most senior officer, yes, I should be involved in more planning then.  So as Er... Lieutenant Whitehaven has asked, do we have any ground based scans of our objective site and the planet?"

Alexis nodded and changed the holographic field to show the third planet.  This world was reasonably temperate, with a slightly dryer hydrosphere than the fourth planet.  Both were about Earth-sized (used as a frame of reference for players not characters) planets and possessed standard breathable atmospheres. 

The scan statistics for the objective planet showed that it was moderately inhabited by anthros of various species.  There was one militarized settlement with a shuttle and aerospace field, likely pirates.  This is on the opposite side of the planet from the objective point.  The objective appeared to be clear of hostiles and remained somewhat hidden.  The area itself possessed a single small outpost of what appears to be pirates at a range of 15 kilometers.

Mother zoomed in on the crash site, "this is our objective.  Matron is an old style star cruiser.  She is ten time my length, but our basic designs are similar except she has a quad wing design and I have petals."

[Lisky]

Command Center

Only half listening to the conversation between Mother and Saioko, Knight got very close to the display, and observe the area.  He mentally started seeing where things could go wrong... Taking a second to look over the display again, he turned back toward Mother and asked "i'm curious as to what your primary armaments are, you mentioned grav beams, but i'm not all that familiar with those type weapons... any chance you could give me a quick run down on their range and capabilities, and specifically, are they line of sight weapons, or can you curve the beam once fired...  if you can curve the beams, then landing the ship, and keeping us alert would be fine.  but if they are line of sight weapons, why would we land our greatest asset?  it would seem safer to keep Mother in orbit, as she could keep things clear for the ground team for several thousand kilometer in any direction, rather than threats that appear once they are over the horizon..."

[Azlan]

Command Center

Mother gave Knight a curious look, "hmmm, curving a graviton stream... I don't think I can do that with a standard graviton weapon, let alone a hyper graviton weapon.  It relies on weak force mediation rather then mass like a particle beam, but it is essentially a particle beam... basically.  I have a hyper graviton beam, two hyper graviton blasters, and two gravitic torpedo launchers.  Gravitic torpedoes rely on the shearing effects of a gravity wave to inflict damage.  And before you ask, no they are not guided, but I can curve them around gravity wells.  My beam weapon has an effective range of around 5 million kilometers, it theoretically has an infinite range.  The blasters are effective to 1 million kilometers, the torpedoes dissipate at this range as well."

Saioko thought for a moment, "orbital bombardment support would be nice, but a discharge of these type of weapons will be detected even by the primitive pirate sensors.  Mother can't use sensor jammers, that would put them on alert if their systems suddenly were being interfered with.  The ISF fighters will be detected by ground stations, so we can't put them in the air."

[Lisky]

Command Center

Knight looked around the table, trying to gauge the other's reaction to this tidbit of information... "So, if i'm hearing this right, we need to neutralize that small post by the sight before we can land the ship... and that's so that the pirates don't know were here... we have to do it fast so they don't get off a message, and yet we can't use the fighters or this ship because the use of the weapons on either would give us away to the sensors elsewhere... "

looking back to Rom, Knight hoped the wolverine was paying attention to what he was about to say "that's leaving 1 real option that i can really see then... deploy a strike team via pods, once they neutralize the outpost, then land mother near the sight and work from there...  the only reason i say we have to land mother later is because from a visual standpoint, something as large as this ship entering the atmosphere would be picked up visually from a rather incredible distance... and the ionized air around the entry point could give us away to near by sensors...  meaning we'll have to enter on the opposite side of the planet relative to the pirate fleet... if we time this with the rotation of the planet, we should be able to drop Mother right on our objective, but we need that small outpost quiet to do that... um...anyone have any comments, concerns or other ideas?"

[ShadesFox]

"Must we kill them?  It seems like the moment we kill someone a timer starts limiting how long we have on site.  What are they even doing out there?"

[Lisky]

Knight looked at Arron and said with a smirk "it seems you misunderstood me, i never said the word kill, we just can't have them communicating, if we can get a mass spectrum jammer within range, that would work fine... actually judging by the quality of the gear i've seen so far, if they go out of communication without shots being fired, it wouldn't be anything too unusual... i just don't know if we can ensure a total, mass spectrum jam from this ship... it might be better to place a device near the facility... i know that jammers with the capabilities we'd need are pretty much standard EW packaging for the stea...
um, i'm not going to finish that thought, lets just say, it's fairly common gear for special forces teams operating behind enemy lines... "

asking mother "do you think you could block all communications from that facility for the entire time we're planet side?... if not, do you have a special forces style mass spectrum jammer we could place near that facility via assault team delivered by the pods? if we have to go with that option, they could either hoof it to the objective, or, we could just wait for them to return via the pods...

[Azlan]

Saioko gave Knight a cross look, "don't go talking about stealth LAMs, that's one of those well known secrets of ISIS."

Mother chuckled when asked about jamming sensors, as Alexis nearly collapsed with laughter, "no, I cannot jam the sensors of that outpost, I would completely fry their systems beyond repair if I tried.  I do have jammer units though."

[ShadesFox]

Aaron shrugs, "To be honest, I'm not sure how well keeping secrets on this ship would work.  Personally I've been liberal about letting folk into my mind.  Information wants to be free!"

Going back on subject Aaron adds, "Okay, so any attempt to jam their systems from Mother will result in their systems melting.  I was hoping to be in and out with nary peep, but it seems like the small pirate outpost must be dealt with.  Perhaps sniff out regular com traffic, fry the outpost's sensors, then fake the regular traffic while holding the outpost prisoner?  It seems like the only question here is how big that outpost is."

[Lushin]

Romulus finally spoke up after Aaron spoke.
"My men and I will take care of it. Just let us know when their circuits are fried"
Romulus then looked at Mother.
"Try not to fry things too much. I'd like to have Hacker see if he can find anything usefully from their computers"

[Lisky]

Command Center

Knight looked at Romulus, then to Aaron and asked "uh, sir, if Romulus is leading the strike team, is that going to put me in charge of security for you and the other non-coms? even if the sensors on this ship are powerful enough for a threat analysis to the level we're getting... are we 100% sure the sight is secure?... Searching Matron is going to take hours, if not days, and we're going to need to divide up into smaller teams to perform a search like that... how do we want to do that? and also, what kind of forces will i have at my disposal if Romulus is taking the special forces team?"

[ShadesFox]

Aaron points to the Matron crash site on the map, "Or, the crash site is right here.  Mother said it was there five minutes ago.  Maybe you should stop thinking about Saioko's tail all the time."  The last bit had a particularly mischievous simile on his face.

"Also, Mother has some sort of armed drones.  If mother permits, I think it would be best to have the drones watch the prisoners then have you watch the drones.  I've not asked Mother about the capabilities of these drones, but I would rather have Romulus dealing with the more complex tasks and making decisions rather then a drone."

"And a final detail, we are not non-coms.  Well, Romulus is an non-com.  Most the rest of us are non-line officers, but we are still commissioned officers."

[Lisky]

Command Center

Kight grinned at Aaron's comment about Saioko, then replied "actually, when i said non-coms, i meant non-combatants... as in, not troops, and probably not having much in the way of combat experience...  and i was talking about searching the inside of matron... sorry for causing the confusion sir... anyways... if you want the bots to do the work around the pirate compound compound, that does change a lot... it means that someone will have to monitor that situation until the compound is secured and locked down... if you need me to, i can start getting a plan worked up for that raid with mother, or whoever else can give me a full run down on capabilities, equipment, and anything else i might think of once i get working..."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Nazareth had been only watching from the sidelines for some times, even though a few things were said that worried him. However, he seemed to suddenly decide to remind everyone he existed with his huge voice. "Mother can probably give you the information you require, Lieutenant Whitehaven, though of course a full brief could probably wait until at least after this meeting, we're just working on how to get in and out of the system. The ground forces should have ample time to draw up a full tactical plan once we're closer to the target..." At the same time Nazareth said this, he was accessing Mother's mindlink again. Here, he tried to send a mental message straight to Aaron.
   Mother, Major Brown. I am beginning to have some concerns. I recommend we start to wrap this meeting up, ASAP, and I request to speak with you alone, sir.

[Lushin]

Romulus looked at Nazareth.
"I'm hopeing your squad will either be in the air offering support. I think we may need some close air support with these pirates. I'd rather not go out there with out it personally. It's up to you though they are your squad"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Nazareth returned Romulus' gaze. "If the pirates get their own flyers into the air, I'll need my men to cover me. But, if they have none or we ground them ahead of time, jam their aerial sensors, and neutralize any anti-air defenses they may have, then I'm sure I can arrange a few flybys, or even a choas-cover like we did back in our last operation. We'll see when we get there."

[Lushin]

Romulus nods at Nazareth.
"Understood"
Romulus then looked to Aaron.
"I'll be with my men getting for the assault*
Romulus turned and headed towards the Special Forces area.

[ShadesFox]

"Very well then Romulus.  I'll let you know when we have the details of when we arrive and how many people are there and what they have."

Aaron sends a message to Naz, For future references, you weren't sending a message to me, but rather broadcasting for a anyone psychic to pick up.  If you wish to meet with me in private that will be fine.

"It looks like we have our plan in place, pending more details.  Everyone is dismissed to tend to what ever they wish."

((Techmaster may auto Aaron where ever he wishes for the private meeting))

[Azlan]

Mother switched the view to that of the 'outpost' of the pirates.  It consisted of three prefabricated steel arch buildings and one obvious communications station.  There appears to be a single short concrete area on which is parked three conventional military VTOL jets and four combat helicopters.  The conventional craft pose little threat to the aerospace fighters and none to Mother.  

The view is close-in enough to notice that the various peoples staffing this post are all dressed in forest camouflage, most carry a rifle style weapon, and all carry a sidearm.  In an interesting coincidence, at the center of the viewing area and looking up directly in line with the 'camera angle' is an ermine carrying a rocket launcher.  

Saioko's eyes darted between Nazareth and Aaron and she narrowed them in a curious way, trying to figure something out by the look of it.

She sent a direct message to Knight, being sure not to broadcast a wide message, Eric, the reptile pilot is meeting privately with Aaron.  I can't read the fox's thoughts he is psychically capable.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Nazareth only walked over to his pilot's chair and brought up his own viewscreen with some tactical displays, though they were only for making the show that he was doing something. Really, he was just waiting for everyone to leave (except Aaron and Mother, of course).

[Lisky]

Command Center

Knight took a moment to ask mother "do you think i could grab a bite to eat, and maybe get a shower or something before we start hashing out the assault on that facility?"

he waited for mothers response, then headed toward the Mess Hall, or at least, where he thought it was.

[Azlan]

Command Center


Mother gestured to Aaron, "it is largely his decision what all of you can do.  The rooms, eating area and rec/training areas are provided for the use of everyone on board.  Main Engineering and the weapons engineering are off limits without escort.  The drop pod deck, the flight deck and special forces area are accessible to everyone, unless your command structure restricts otherwise."

Saioko watched the others leave and busied herself examining all the interesting systems in the command center, finally taking up a chair near the holounit and accessing the computer.  She began setting up reports and other administrative duties, and did not appear to be leaving the command center.

[ShadesFox]

Aaron looks at Knight before he leaves, "Well, yes.  I did say that you may tend to what ever you wish."

Since Naz and Saioko did not seem to be leaving the command center he thought he would ask Mother a few things he had just thought of, "I had a few thoughts recently, mostly our escape from the planet should things go wrong.  What would happen if you were on the ground and the drop pods tried to return?  Or what if you were in the atmosphere when they tried to return?  Who ever is watching the prisoners needs to be in a position to get to you quickly if we need to flee."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

In Engineer

Nova smiles and blows to the engineer fox, "Please forgive this wandering kitten, I felt I must meet you, and come to know the rhythm of the ship.   I wouldn't never left this door way, and invaded your domain anymore than this without your premission.  I would ask if you would come and meet me then you are free.  Please, Know I would like to be your friend." 

The catgirl straightens and smiles again at the fox and turns to leave the engineer alone.   She knows to heads for the Command Center and Major Brown to report for duty.

The command center

Mara, the kitten, jumps up in the console that Saioko is working on, and looks at the panel and than the new catgirl.  "Wh'cha doing?" asks the kitten as she looks at Saioko...

PBH

[Azlan]

Command Center


Mother cupped her hands in front of her and drew them apart, revealing a small exterior shot of her hull, "when I have landed, there are conventional landing gear which will keep my underside off the ground.  If the pods attempt a return, they are capable of doing so easily if I am either on the ground or in atmosphere, they are very maneuverable.  I can't be traveling above 11.2 kilometers a second as that is their top speed, though they generally cruise in atmosphere at about 680.58 meters a second."

Saioko is extremely surprised to find out that the kitten is capable of speech, "I was working on some reports, crew status, supply levels, duty rosters and such."

Saioko's eyes give a barely visible flash, changing from blue to red for a fraction of a second, "so what are you exactly?  Kittens do not talk if they are not anthro, but they also don't tend to have power signatures."



Engineering


The golden fox gives the feline a lopsided grin and pushes her glasses up her muzzle, back into the right spot.   

"Sure thing Nova, I'd love to give you some technology pointers and advice."