Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

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Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

--Cruiser-class Darkvasser--
-Briefing Room-

A team briefing had been called for the Darkvasser's pilot teams. Eric sat in his seat, the first to arrive at the briefing room as usual. He casually looked through the files placed in front of his seat. Included were maps and blue prints of the satellite along with various mission objectives and checkpoints. At first glance, the bundle of papers made it seem like some complicated operation. But their mission was simple: break into Cluster-20 with guns blazing, and take control. However, they only had one shot at the surprise attack.

That said, Eric wasn't really sure why he bothered to look through the manilla folder, considering a digital copy of the mission plan would be provided in their LMF's. But it was a way to pass the time, and the lax military protocol on the ship usually meant there would be stragglers. This specific team also happened to be the most ragtag group of pilots he's ever worked with, with a mix of both gung-ho and absent-minded officers.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

-Breifing room, Darkvasser-

"...Late, again."

Devi sat at a forward corner of the block of 'theater' style seating that made up the briefing room. She, like Eric, had forgone going over the plans at the last minute prior to the pre-mission briefing. Heck, she'd already looked at the damned things probably more than anyone on the ship. It was her job, and duty as CO of Beta Team to be on the nose about the details and stratagem of what was about to 'go down'. Hell, she didn't waste any time suiting up into her pressure suit.

The Green 'baggy wet diving suit' looking getup vaguely accentuated her athletic figure, but just that.. That was how she liked it. The gloves were off of course, as she fliddled with an unlit Cigarette. Nothing like a hit of nicotine to take the edge off and get the blood flowing, so to speak. With ship-wide protocol in place, unfortunately it'd still have to remain unlit until they had taken the asteroid.

Or she was face to face with a Dominion puke and would put his eye out with the hot embers.

Whichever came first.

"So, did the chief finally get those Raptors back up to snuff? They were all running a bit sluggish in that last engagement, don't ya think?"
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

- Briefing Room, Darkvasser -

Leikar strode down the hallway towards the briefing room, his flight suit was slightly unzipped and his hair ruffled. Tucked under his right arm was the manilla briefing folder. He had been over it only once, that is all this operation called for, if it could be called an operation. The plan was a simple one at best and it hadn't required him to look through the briefing a second time.

Turning into the briefing room he was pleasantly surprised to see that he was not the first pilot to arrive to the briefing. The new crew and lax discipline grated on him slightly, he tried his best to always be prompt. Walking into the room he moved to take a seat behind his team leaders. He had caught the tail end of her question as he entered the room and although he didn't know if it was directed to him but as he had just come from the hangar he answered it anyways.

Rearranging the contents of his briefing Leikar never looked up as he coldly stated, "The chief says the Raptors will perform fine. Whatever it was that was dragging them down has been fixed." Taping his fingers against the manila envelope he reclined back into his chair and gave out a soft sigh, "Given this briefing we will need them to perform better than great, a resource satellite is a hell of a place to fight in."
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Devi turned in her seat to face the 31 year old pilot, her grey eyes matching his own cold stare. With a *WHAP* of the folder, she 'set' it down on the small fold out desk plate to her right before addressing the pilot.

"Ensign Rivers, you will address your superior officer as SIR, do you understand that solider!"

Her jaw set after the verbal lashing, lips paling as they pursed in frustration with Rivers. If it weren't for his sworn allegiance to the Protectorate's cause she'd already have disemboweled the pretentious punk 6 ways from the sabbath.. Judaism be damned.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar
- Briefing Room -

A deceptively quiet cough is heard from the back of the room as a massive silhouette fills the doorframe. Donovan Reinhart entered the room as quietly as he could, which was remarkable, considering his bulk. He nodded to the gathered occupants and noted them respectively. "Sir, Lieutenant, Ensign." The first with a salute to Devorah. He was pretty young compared to some of those here already, but he had learned very quickly what Beta-Lead expected in regards to discipline. Besides, even his unpleasant tenure in the Dominion Forces had drilled in to him obedience to superior officers, no matter how he disliked it.

He sat down slowly in the chair as it creaked, still not trusting the LP seats to his bulk. His pilot suit was immaculate and his rank pins shined, even though it fit more like an actual fitted wetsuit than a baggy one. He didn't notice the smudge of grease on his cheekbone, but ended up explaining it anyways. "Sir, while I was aiding zhe Chief earlier, he discovered zhat zhe main hydraulic pressure transfer block on a few of zhe MF's have developed micro-frectures along zhe central weld lines. Zhey are repaired and ready for launch, barring new descoveries." Donovan had worked hard to curb his "Deutch-hick" accent, although it was a somwhat slow process. He popped his orders folder open, reviewing a few notes he had taken in the margins. "Based on expected op time, even if zhey begin zhe micro-frecture process again, zhere should be no noticible loss of performance before zhe batteriez need to charge, sir."

He inwardly winced at how mangled his speech must still sound after 4 years of work. Hopefully it would make enough sense to get through. Besides, it sounded like the older ensign was getting a pretty severe dressing down, and he wanted no part of it. He ran a hand over his hair, double checking to make sure that it was all still pulled back properly. Bad form to show up sloppy.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar

- Breifing room -

following closely behind Donovan, Jane manage to go unnoticed when enterring the room, "Sir" she acknowledged Devorah, following with a salute after Donovan had finished his, not wishing to get into an argument with the Beta-team leader, she quickly took a seat next to him, listening to his report with detached interest, after he finished she added her part of the report.

"the 90mm machine guns are loaded and ready, however the chief is complaining that continued use of full auto is causing unneccessary wear on the barrels, revolving chamber and loading mechanisms. he says that whoever's responsible must restrict firing to short controlled bursts, or he'll quote 'resort to concussive maintenence on our craniums for wrecking his machines' unquote."
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

--Darkvasser--
-Briefing Room-

The next few moments went by rather quickly. Eric started to reply to Devorah when he was interrupted by Ens. Rivers' report. Soon after, Devorah more or less activated drill-sergeant mode to berate the man before the two subordinates walked in.

Eric remained silent as he listened to both reports, and let out an audible sigh when his own subordinate didn't bother to address him. But at least now he knew the Raptors were in working order. What they didn't need in battle was to find one of their machines broken down in the middle of combat.

Unwilling to butt-in on their conversation, Eric merely turned his attention back to the manilla folder and waited. They were still waiting for one other pilot, who happens to be the most absent-minded of all of them.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar

- Breifing room -

Max walked in to the briefing room, last, and prepared. In fact, so prepared, that he systematically ignored putting on his pilot suit (he was in street clothes) and left the plans in his room. "It was a stupid plan" he thought to himself.

Once in, he proceeded straight towards a seat, put his hands behind his head, placed his legs forward, and started to groan in that particular way people do when taking a nap. He kicked something when he put his legs up. It was Donovan's head. "Sorry," Max said with a straight face, as he went over to the next seat and proceeded to do exactly the same thing (minus the getting in someone's way, and switching seats.)
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar
- Briefing Room -

Donovan ground his teeth as he was "accidentally" kicked in the head as Max leaned back in his seat. Never mind that he was nearly as tall sitting down as most of these dumkopfs were standing. Never mind that Max's team leader was on the other side of the room. However, considering present company (and the person who had done the kicking), he decided to simply crack his neck and give his head a shake, as if avoiding a bug. There would be plenty of time after the mission to deal with it.

Mein Gott, who was he kidding? He and Max were same ranked, so the best he could really hope for was for Eric to deal with his squadling. At least Devorah had a sense of discipline.

There was always the thought of the physical training sessions, though.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Devi smirked slightly and turned to Donovan just as he was kicked upside the head by Max. She leered at the Alpha pilot as if eying the man before ripping his larnyx from his neck. With a bemused snort she addressed the 'Deutch' pilot.

"You ought to get that bug flying around behind you looked at.. At least it's not as bad as we had thought. Just gotta remember to take it easy on these things until we can secure some better supplies of metal. Hopefully that can come from this operation."

She then turned her gaze to Jane.

"And just whose Raptors were those weapons assigned to?"

She had an inkling that it could be Max.. she did like her squadmates don't get her wrong. When it came to Mr. Azzie, she seriously wanted to do the 'Cig + eye = pain' trick to the schmuck.

Badly.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

-Briefing Room-

Eric shifted his gaze for a second when Max walked in and more or less ignored everyone in the room. Turning back to his papers, his gaze shifted again when he heard a smack along with some half-assed mumble that sounded like an apology. He found his subordinate sitting on the other side of the room, dozing off.

"You're late..." Eric said before noticing that Max wasn't even in uniform, much less a pilot suit. "And unprepared at that. Get your act together or I'm tossing you out the airshaft next time."

With everyone present for the briefing, Eric got up to do his usual shtick. He cleared his throat, "So, I'm sure some of you have read through the plan and are familiar with the target. The objective is simple: we go into Cluster-20 and we take over. Not too hard to understand, right?

"The Tulsa will attack the main port to draw the enemy's attention. Our team will break in on the weak side through one of their seldom-used transport bays. Take a good look at the maps assigned and you can see the planned attack trajectory. The mission itself shouldn't be that hard to pull off unless we run into some fiesty Dominion troops. Our Raptors are also in tip-top shape as well..."

Eric stopped his condensed version of the information provided looked around, "Any questions or concerns?"
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

-Briefing Room-

Jane rolled her eyes as Max sat down like nothing had happened, despite having entered the room and kicked Donovan in the head. "Nice to see you could join us." she adressed Max snarkily before turning to face Devi

"yes Sir..." she began, flipping through her notes. "it says that the weapons in question were assigned to Ensign Rivers' and Lt J.G Stern's raptors,"

as soon as she'd finished, Eric stood up and began his condensed version of the mission briefing, something jane was thankful for, once he finished she realised that she'd forgot to adress him when she entered the room. I'll have to apologize afterwards. she told herself, when it came to question time she flicked through her notes again, before comming to the map of the complex.
"Sir? if i may?" she started before checking the map again. "the corridors in the satellite don't exactly allow much room to manoeuvre, which could be a problem should the Dominion have the pressence of mind to outfit their units with 120mm guns."
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar
- Briefing Room -

Donovan spoke up. "Lieutenant, are our loadouts pre-assigned, at least by team for this sortie? Or are we on preference this time?" He knew his personal preference, but mission requirements always took preference.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Devi nodded to Donovan's inquiry; looked over at Eric momentarily in an 'I'll take this' gaze, before continuing.

"I believe at this rate we're looking at using a heavy weapons loadout over small arms. The more damage we can cause the facility if we cannot take command, the better off our situation in the long run.

I think one 90 mm and 2 rocket launchers should prove adequate per team. Of course we will also issue mandatory plasma blades for this mission, as close combat is more or less bound to occur. This is where the speed and agility of the Raptor should come into it's own.

Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Zheng?"
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Eric nodded as Devorah finished, "Yep, that's exactly what we've been authorized to use. Keep in mind though that there are drawbacks to the plasma blades, no matter how effective they are. Until R&D sends along a reliable battery extender, we cannot risk draining our power in the middle of combat. Use them sparingly if you can."

Eric then turned to answer Jane's question, "We aren't as well-armored as the Pawn, but the alloy on our LMF's should be able to hold against 120mm shells on the short term. What we do need to avoid being hit by are enemy bazooka rounds. I'm sure you can imagine the sort of damage that could be done to a light-frame unit like the Raptor.

"However I doubt they would be stupid enough to risk damaging their own base to kill us. Cluster-20 is a very important strategic point after all, any damage done will delay their planned invasion."

He stopped and looked around. He wondered if there were any more questions, but he as fairly certain they were set to go. He cleared his throat again to issue some final instructions.

"If there aren't anymore questions, then head over to your battle stations pronto. The Tulsa will begin their initial wave soon. We will infiltrate from the weak side shortly afterwards. I don't want to late to the party."
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

With that said, Max quickly raised his hand and said, "Yeah, I think there is a hole or two in the plan, namely that the best results are likely going to end with us all dead. I ran a couple of simulations, and unless the entire Dominion garrison is manned entirely by gorillas, there is no way that this is a 6 frame mission. The pilots should know the base better than us, so who are we kidding? If one of us gets shot down, there is nothing stopping them from capturing and reverse engineering the Raptor. The more damage we ultimately do will convince that a bit more damage to the satellite is a fair trade..."

This went on for about a minute covering everything from static defense systems to the inclusion of demotion teams. When Max finished, the room went dead silent until he then inquired, "Well?"
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

- Darkvasser
- Briefing Room –

Leikar had remained quiet since his public rebuke by his superior officer. He hadn’t shown any outward emotion but inside he seethed with contempt of having a common riff-raff publically insult him. Instead of wallowing in his own anger he turned his attention to the briefing manual flipping through it once more, You may be able to speak to me as a equal, but I don’t have to think of you as one…. Calming down inwardly he sat and listened to the briefing when it started.

As the chorus of questions and answers finished and the briefing seemed to be wrapping up Leikar was about to speak up when Max gave his opinion of the plan. Shaking his head slightly in affirmation Leikar listened intently until Max stopped. Raising his pen Leiker spoke up for the first time, “Sir, our esteemed comrade is right. The risks are great yet I know a way which might bring our smaller number a greater chance of success. I can see why we are landing in the Transport bays, yet why don’t we land a unit near the waste disposal?” Shifting in his seat he rummaged through the contents of the manila envelope until he found an external picture of C-20. “Given the schematics that we know from pre-war workers, a raptor could cut up the waste disposal airlock and travel inside; a unit could move through single file in fact, it shouldn’t be too hard then for one to cut across to the main lateral ladder once exiting the waste dock. It would allow a team to flank whatever defense there was inside the node that would respond to the Transport Bay, or to hit their communications center. Either way it would be a further unexpected surprise.”
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Eric shook his head in awe after listening to what Max had to say. Max's talk was almost facepalm-worthy considering the factors he excluded. It was normal to prepare for the worse, but to already deem the mission a failure was rather extreme. However, Leikar's suggestion gave some food for thought...

"Well yeah, considering we're having twelve frames on the mission instead of six, of course the 'simulations' are gonna fail. Completely disregarded the inclusion of the Tulsa into the mission, and severely underrated the capabilities of our pilots and machines. Static defenses are not a threat...

"We're pros; we've done this before. Keep in mind that in our last mission our Raptors were sluggish and we still pulled it off without reinforcements. We've all been trained to deal with compromised missions as well. Worse comes to worst, activate your SDM-key before abandoning a downed unit; we'll pick you up quickly before the LMF self-destructs. We can ill afford to let the Dominion get their hands on the Raptor."

Eric stopped a bit as he thought about the waste disposal plan. It was a gutsy one and very difficult to pull off. It would be well-worth the element of surprise. However, the schematics also showed that the disposal unit was located in the outer-most external shell of C-20...

"It might be worth a shot, but the risk might be too great. Breaking through the waste disposal unit would require us to operate at least one of the Raptors in open space; no gravity. Even if we use the linear catapult to deploy the others, the space is not big enough to safely land our units inside such a small opening..."
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

Darkvassar
- Briefing Room -

Donovan looked back up from his notes. "Vell, sir, it sounds like it is much like zhe HAD runs during MF training. A bit more riding on a miss, but similar nonetheless." The High Altitude Drop tests were nervewracking, scary, and caused more than a few recruits to drop the program and go back to regular infantry. With the Moon's reduced gravity, the 3500 meter drop wasn't as bad as it would be on Earth, but the linear catapaults on the drop ships still sent the Frames plummeting downward at the target nets at extremely high speeds. The pilots had very little time to adjust their attitude and pitch before the Frame contacted the ground, and so the timing of firing the back thrusters as pseudo retro-rockets was pretty crucial. "Not zhat I'm suggesting zhis course of action in particular, but it is possible, and if it could help zhe mission go more smoothly..."
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The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Re: Stage 1: Perfect Timing [Lunar Protectorate]

"Yeah, Yeah. Point taken" Max proceed to put his hands back behind his head, still thinking it was a horrible plan, but for different reasons now. As far as he was concerned, it was an inefficient operation.
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