Briefing the Cure Part I
Posted on Wed Apr 30th, 2025 @ 7:28am by Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & Staff Warrant Officer Rommie
Edited on on Wed Apr 30th, 2025 @ 9:23pm
1,634 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: The Snake Pit - Deck 9 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD009 1930 hrs
Neil glanced at his displays, frowning at the collected data. They didn’t know nearly enough about species 626 to suit him, but that didn’t matter. He had the rough location of the portal…dimensional rift…whatever the science types wanted to call it.
It would have to be enough.
He’d mapped out insertion points for the fire teams with Rommie and calculated the number of drones they’d need to help cover the entire area. Surveillance and weapons drones would be deploy like chess pieces as the Cure went in, seeking 626D and trying to find the rift. Given the 626D’s trans-dimensional primary makeup, he wasn't sure how effective their weapons would be. There were too many unknowns, but they were committed. He'd voiced his concerns and now it was time to shut up and solider.
Tyler had even released him to suit up.
The MARVEL suits were the only force multipliers they were likely to have, though Neil was deploying drones for support and flank surveillance. His face was bathed in the lighting given off by his holo displays and he frowned. He had heaping amounts of faith in the Cure, but this was still a tall order.
Rommie looked glanced over at him and said, “Colonel. Are these contingencies correct?
Distracted, Neil said “Damn skippy.”
The AI processed those words for context and said, “Um. Yessir. Full security lockdown on the sensor backups with access only to yourself and the Commodore. In the advent of your death, I am to brief General Sobell with full quarantine recommendations per aggressive species guidelines. You want to include the proximity-homing minefield and unmanned, Space to Surface ML battery emplacements?”
“If Fleet would go for it, I’d glass the planet if S626D gets loose,” Neil half-groused to himself. “But the Admiralty would have apoplexy and the Federation Council would have kittens.”
Rommie could only agree, though she had a working algorithm for empathy, she didn’t quite get the vehemency she was detecting in the Colonel’s voice print and bio-readings.
Hands on his hips, Neil stretched and cracked his neck.
It was time to brief the Cure.
Neil stood behind the Snake Pit's Ops table and brought up the three dimensional render he’d worked with Jayna and the Science, showing the Silences system and their home world as a golf ball sized orb. The rest of the Cure were clustered around the commons area, talking in small groups until the lights dimmed, leaving the table illuminated.
Clearing his throat he said, “Alright people. Are you prepared to receive a Frag Order?”
It really wasn’t a question, but he’d gotten their attention. “Right. This is planet Wren IX. . Home world of the Silence who've gotten their collective genitalia in knots. Despite their best efforts, an unknown aggressive species has found them tasty. Complicating matters, the Silence's particular protective skill set doesn't work on them. They've called on the Pioneer bail them out before Species 626-Delta eats their lunch. The Commodore has handed the heavy lifting to the Cure.”
He reached out and gestured the orb closer, causing it to fill most of the view to hang revolving before them like a jewel. Reaching out, Neil tapped the orb and it flickered, then brought up large geographical features of the planet and a menacing pinpoint of crimson began strobing.
“This spot,” Neil continued, “Is the supposed location of the dimensional rift from where S626D invaded. That’s their bridge head.” Neil tapped the crimson glow and it zoomed in further, then flicked it with his finger and the image cracked. The cracks spread out around the glowing rift and flowed out several kilometers revealing an underground chain of tunnels, chambers and spaces that spiderwebbed out. The area's closer to the surface were in in green, but within a few hundred meters flowed to amber and then red, which pulsed ominously.
As the image revolved in front of them, part of the image fuzzed and appeared to have static twitches near the rift while the crack further out was steadier. “Sensor show this network of caves and tunnels below the city where species 626D has infested are. Unsurprisingly, our sensor feeds are fuzzed by something in the natural geophysical make-up so we're going to have to go find this Rift."
“The Cure’s mission is to make them egress this planet and dimension expeditiously.” Tapping the image again, the Pioneer appeared around the planet as it shrunk slightly. "The Cure will insert via transporter in MARVEL-EAS suits. Once fully deployed recon will kick off, finding us a path to this Rift. We have no idea of the numbers, but the entities are somehow growing or making shells to inhabit physically. They appear to be based on modified insects, combat capabilities unknown. Since they've attacked the Silence, we can expect the same so make sure your heads are screwed on tight."
He had their attention and would have been very disappointed if any of them had been wool gathering. “Formations will be loose, combat control localized as we patrol to find their bridgehead.”
Stepping back, Neil said, “Lots to cover, but I’m going to break down my rules for an operation like this so you know my thinking. The first thing is, you plan missions backwards. Know how you’re going to get home before you even think of saddling up. In this case, we’ll have multiple exfil options. Once we get that rift closed, Pioneer will drill a well through with phaser fire and we’ll set up pattern enhancers so the squishier science team can beam out directly. Any wounded will beam out then or be evacuated via Hawkeye if something really goes wrong. Speaking of the Hawkeye, Shayla. I want you to deploy and have it on ready, stand-by. Once you have it locked up, feel free to inhabit one of the drones for arty support
“As mentioned before, and coming next in the list is Ops Order. Simply put, the Cure is on a seek/herding mission, with the goal of driving the entities back through their rift. Method comes next and that’s where overlapping, overwhelming use of weapons fire to encourage them to shake it off and get to running. If they run. Jury is still out on that.”
He’d begun ticking off fingers as he went and he held up another. “Supply. We’ll be in Suits and carrying full load outs of ammunition and ordinance. Once into the caverns, we’ll be deploying both sentry and artillery drones to cover cleared areas and make sure they don’t somehow flank us or get away. He gestured and representations of the SM-215 snake and AM-60 spider drones popped into view. “As you know, we’ve been putting together as many of the sentry drone as we can. We’ll be deploying three hundred and fifty of those and eight of the spiders to cover our backs and make sure we have containment.”
Neil ticked off another finger and said, “Next. Communications. Since species 626D doesn’t have starships or any sort of atmospheric artillery, Pioneer will be on station above the area and Ed and I’ll be in our CnC suits. ” Miranda will be maintaining communication with the Pioneer with an ear toward the science and security team to make sure everyone moves together and doesn't get cut off. Ed and I will be tracking most of the that, but there is no such thing as too much redundancy. Especially when we get into contact with 626D."
With all of his fingers closed into a fist, Neil said, “That’s covers this frag orders. You all will have sectors assigned. After that, Team Leaders will deploy you as they see fit. This one isn’t that complicated.” As he spoke, overlays of three distinct sector’s on the 3D model appeared, shaded green, gold and blue. “Ed, you assign elements to each colored area. That’s their piece of the pie. I’ll be suited up with Jayna, functioning as the ready reserve. As their perimeter collapses, the elements will support each other and we'll get the science team ushered in to close the rift. If they can’t,…well we’ll figure that part out as needed.”
Neil left the render going and looked everyone over, then folded his arms. Once we have them pushed back to wherever they come from, I expect full containment to include two-two marine roving patrols looking for strays."
“There are too many unknowns to plan out formations, so use your best practices and rely on your training." Looking around the room he said, "As we enter the warrens, we'll deploy into teams spreading out to cover main avenues. Team one will have the point while Team moves to flank positions. Lieutenant Mira and I will be the quick response force, but getting to you might take minutes. We'll be mapping as we go.
Then he smiled wolfishly, "Initially, I project that this is going to be a bug hunt. No stand up fight, until they wake up and we're in the middle of their warren. That doesn't make it any less dangerous so watch your own and each other's asses."
After a few heartbeats, Neil asked, “Questions?”
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Staff Warrant Officer Rommie;
Artificial Intelligence, The Cure;
USS Pioneer;
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