Away Team Briefing

Posted on Wed Jun 15th, 2022 @ 6:37am by Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Lieutenant JG Nerinath zh'Rhilror [Lalor] & Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Lieutenant Etrara Khalten & Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly & Captain David Tonelly [Reece] & Lieutenant JG Ryan Kade III & Lieutenant JG Damien Blackford & Lieutenant Myne Redal & Captain Samuel Woolheater & Staff Sergeant Colton Renth & Commander Kyle Reece & Captain Mattias Richardson [Reece] & Lieutenant JG T'Kek [Naxea] & Lieutenant JG Heather De La Rosa {Kelea-Salik} & Ensign BF 345078 (john Snow.) [Sthilg] & Chief Warrant Officer Man'darr [Naxea] & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa [Taylor] & Senior Chief Petty Officer Emily Charles {Kelea-Salik} & Gunnery Sergeant Luxa Gami [Naxea] & Staff Sergeant Liam "Swede" Reece [Reece]

Mission: Season 5: Episode 4: Reef
Location: Deck 2, Meeting Room 3
Timeline: MD1 10h00
3809 words - 7.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The following message was sent to the following members of the crew:

[[Please present yourselves in Meeting room 3 at 10h00 on deck 2. Away Team briefing will commence then.]]

Lieutenant Etrara Khalten appeared to be the first into the meeting room. Possibly that might have been because she was thirty minutes early but she wanted a quiet space in which to work on her ideas to improve security on board the ship. She was still trying to clear her mind completely of Emily’s memories and was finding that her concentration had suffered. She growled at herself and continued her work.

Ten minutes later the doors opened to reveal Emily and Heather, the two having come straight from Sickbay to the briefing. Emily took a seat next to Etrara, with Heather sitting opposite. “Morning Etrara” she smiled warmly.

For some reason Etrara’s heart jumped when she saw Emily and she put her PaDD down, since she had retained Emily’s memories she had felt closer to her. Etrara made up her mind to ask her if she would like to have dinner sometime. “Hello Emily” she said smiling broadly.

Heather stifled a yawn, she was still getting used to 2 month old Cody’s nighttime routine even though Fernando was helping too. “Good morning Lieutenant” she smiled at Etrara.

“Sleeping problems?” Said Etrara.

Heather nodded. “Kind of, I have a 2 month old whose waking me up every few hours overnight.” She smiled.

A few moments later the doors hissed open, and Fernando came in, he had come from the armory after checking all weapons were secure and accounted for. Seeing Heather, Emily and an unfamiliar lieutenant, Fernando flashed a smile saying, " Good morning Heather, Emily, Lieutenant," as he slid into the chair next to Heather, kissing her as he did.

Heather smiled as Fernando sat down next to her. “Was Cody okay when you dropped him off at nursery?” She’d been on the early shift leaving Fernando to take care of her usual routine with Cody.

Fernando nodded "Cody was gurgling and cooing happily when I dropped him off. I assured him that his mother would be home to love him when he came home from the nursery." Fernando paused before going on, "He seemed quite pleased to hear that."

Heather grinned. “Thank you for that, as much as he tires me out I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Fernando took Heather's hand and squeezes it gently. "Cody is our child and I will do everything I can to help you in caring for him. It's part of what husbands do to help their wives."

The doors slid open and several men entered, singly talking about other things. Kyle and his younger brother, Liam were discussing their family. "You know she's gonna kick ass on her finals," Liam said.

"Oh, I know. Alexandria has always been the smartest of all of us," Kyle replied. "Mark my words, she's going to be head UFP Diplomat by the time she's forty...maybe younger." He chuckled softly as they discussed their baby sister and only girl of the Reece children.

"Oh, without a doubt!" Liam exclaimed enthusiastically. "I 2ouldnt be surprised if she makes it all the way to the Presidency."

As the brother moved to their seats, the doors stayed open as two more men entered. "...and you actually said, 'Oi, shithead!', before you hit him?" David asked as he chuckled softly.

Mattias, now in his Starfleet uniform with diplomatic purple piping, replied with a grin. "Well, yeah, he was about to skewer the woman I love. It just rolled out as I started to swing the punch."

David shook his head ruefully. "We certainly do tend to go primal when our loves are in danger," he stated as Baeryn came to his mind.

"Yes, sir, we certainly do!" Mattias agreed.

Both men greeted the others as they sat down.

With a slight zipping sound in materialised Snow " Good morning everyone. " He said in his artificial voice.

Lia entered and stood looking at the crew assembled there, "Good day happy campers, and here we all are at the start of another crazy adventure."

Samuel slipped in through the back set of doors. Not on purpose, mind you. They were just the closest ones to the turbolift. There were already a dozen people here. Not wishing to interrupt any of them, he quietly took a seat saying "Good morning" to the person next to him.

The large form of Chief Man'darr entered the room with Gunny Gami in tow. "I still can't believe the Colonel chose me for this mission. I hate submergence suits almost as much as I hate EVA suits," Man'darr grumbled loudly.

"Oh come on, big guy," Gami chuckled, elbowing Man'darr playfully. "Who else is going to lift anything heavy in our way. Gotta give those muscles of yours a workout."

Man'darr however, wasn't in much if a playful mood, not since Commander Vaii had left the ship. He felt betrayed and a failure at her leaving and not staying and talking to him about what was troubling her. "Not now, Gami," he grumbled, keeping his frustration in check as he didn't want to risk an outburst that would ruin his friendship with Gami.

"Sure thing," she replied as she took a seat at one of the chairs next to a vulcan in medical blue uniform with the rank of ensign who was also sitting. T'Kek was his name she suspected.

Man'darr sat down next to the new Marine lieutenant and CO of 2nd Platoon. "Greetings, lieutenant," he stated with a nod.

Samuel looked at Man'darr, the hulking frame of the guy and said, "Chief". Sam scanned the room and tried his best to put names and faces together. He cheated and used a PaDD which he discreetly checked from time to time. But, he was doing better.

The hissed open and Renth walked chugging straight black coffee out of a large thermos the lack of sleep from his flashbacks/ nightmare coupled with sanding the night watch was really sating to take a toll on him, he made his to a quite semi-dark corner and sat down, periodaticly chugging more coffee.

Sam nodded to Renth. The coffee that Renth was chugging looked good. Sam wished he had thought of that. Both Sam and Colt were night shift - like - dead of night - night shift. It was OK though. Adrenaline for a first away mission was Woolheater's very own private brew at the moment. The room was filling up.

Colton nodded back at Sam, too tired to come up with a proper unique insult, to hurl at the Lieuteant

Dr. Taylor entered the room wearing her usual clothes. A white medical overcoat with a rod of asclepius and very formal business casual clothing below her overcoat. She wasn't Starfleet, but she was medical. She read the mission brief. "Now this is ominous. In some ways, this will be more dangerous than an EVA."

Lieutenant Kade glanced across the others in the room as he made his way towards the nearest breach in the crowd, quietly standing at attention as he awaited orders.

Damien walked into the briefing room, making sure his uniform was in place, and his rank pips secure on his collar. He really didn't want a repeat of when the CO and XO had performed their last inspection, and he'd turned up late, wearing a crumpled uniform, and no rank pips. Satisfied with his appearance, he walked in, smiled at the other arrivals, before making his way to an empty space, waiting for the briefing to begin.

Myne made her way into the room quietly and silently as it not wanting to be seen. Choosing a corner at best or someone to hide behid she behind, she made sure to have at least a good view of Phoenix and Gary before the meeting began.

Phoenix walked in with Gary right behind her and glanced around. "Okay everyone take your seats please."

Then she stepped up to the viewscreen and waved her hand across it. A list appeared on it. Divided into 4 groups.

Group 1
Commander Gary Taylor*
Lieutenant JG Myne Redal
1st Lieutenant Samuel Woolheater
Ensign Heather De La Rosa
Captain Mattias Richardson
Chief Warrant Officer Man'darr

Group 2
Commander Aurelia Taylor*
Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly
Staff Sergeant Colton Renth
Dr. Katherine Taylor
Gunnery Sergeant Luxa Gami
Lieutenant Nevada McKay

Group 3
Lieutenant Etrara Khalten*
Captain David Tonelly
Lieutenant JG Damien Blackford
Lieutenant JG Nerinath zh'Rhilror
Ensign BF 345078 (john Snow.)
Sergeant Liam "Swede" Reece

Group 4
Lieutenant Commander S'hib*
Lieutenant JG Ryan Kade III
Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa
Captain Kyle Reece
Ensign T'Kek
Chief Petty Officer Emily Charles

"These are your away team groups." She announced. "You will be leaving very shortly." She paused. "The USS Jefferson is a Steamrunner class and has a crew compliment of a hundred and eighty five or so. Your job, will be to beam down to the Jefferson, and commence rescue operations, Transport Enhancers are a must and staying in close contact with your teammates is also imperative. Our scans show the Jefferson is in the ocean, but resting on a sea shelf, 450 meters below the surface. It is currently stable."

Katherine spoke. "Four hundred and fifty meters below the surface. That's more than six hundred and fifty PSI at the site." The doctor noted. Katherine pondered this."Additionally Humans can usually withstand only fourty to fifty-eight PSI. Any more and it's instantly fatal." Katherine noted. "i hope our suits hold up, even with your technology. A suit breach will kill someone instantly in this environment I'm afraid." The doctor advised.

Doctor, will there be different effects for different species at that depth?” Asked Etrara.

"Usually, on Earth. Only some of the most hearty life forms in the oceans can survive at these depths. Mainly deap sea fish, sea anemones, and whales. I hope the pressure regulators on our sutis work as advertised. Nitorgen Narcosis is not a pleasant thing. Basically the oxygen, nitrogen mix we breathe takes a different form under pressure. It's also called Nitrogen Intoxication and very romantically 'the rapture of the deep.' Basically, you get drunk of the stuff you're breathing." Dr. Taylor noted. "Captain. I recommend we have the rest of sickbay keep a sharp eye on each of our vitals. We don't want anyone singing Garth Brook's 'I've got friends in low places' under the sea." She looked at Etara. "I'd say with your hybrid Klingon Physiology. You'd hold out fine with Nitrogen Narcosis. But even you have your limits. Enough Narcosis and we'd all end up like a friday evening off your Starfleet Academy's campus. Then there is decompression sickness, also known as 'the bends.' It occurs when you've been under too long breathing compressed air. Nitrogen bubbles form in the blood stream and can block blood flow through the circulatory system. It's not a pleasant death, but choked to death when you're not choking on anything."

"I hate to bring even more bad news, to this discussion, but the pressure and the fact we will be underwater also changes to weapons performance, drastically reduces the effectiveness and range of ballistics, so my preferred weapon TR-116 b sniper riffle has greatly reduced range and stopping power, and the energy falloff of our phaser weapons will be increased. That's not taking into account, buoyancy, viscosity tables, tide changes, and the strength of ocean currents at those depths. Then the possibility of ionic interference with coms ger due to the interaction of salt water and the power systems of the Jefferson. Given the number thang that can go with this mission what exactly is plan B." Colton said looking over the Ballistics tables on his PADD

Woolheater said not looking in Colt's direction but to the group, "Well, this is a rescue OP. The Jefferson and her crew need evacuation and possible medical assistance. Is there any reason to expect a hostile environment?"

Colton looked at sam "it is good to be prepared, as for not being a reason to expect a hostile environment, I have to assume every environment we go into is hostile, and you seemed to ignore my concern of what the backup plan is should this one fail for any numbers of reasons. Turning back to the group, I'm a sniper during these types OPs my job is typical overwatch, so I need to know what the effect the environment has on the weapons so I can make the appointee tactical adjustments if I need to engage hostiles, a warrior trains for war but prays for peace." Colton said before casting annoyed looked in Sam's direction.

Katherine spoke. "Respectfully, I would not fight in this environment. The Klingons have a saying about 'fighting in a burning house. Even with the suits.. the less we spend down here.. the better."

"I agree but we may not have a choice, we humans have many sayings one is which is better have and not need than need and not have, putting the weapon concerns aside for a moment as you just reiterated there are many things with this mission that can go wrong, so again I ask what is our plan B for this operation, for that matter how many suits do we have surly not enough for the entire crew Jefferson so how do we plan to get them out of harms way exactly," Colton replied stating to show signs of annoyance ~this is why is hate working with the fleet, they just don't understand marines and what our job is~ he thought to himself

David spoke up. "As someone who has worked for a few decades at the bottom of the Earth's oceans, building habitats, I can say that our current submersible suits are very well adapted to the depth we need to go. I was personally using the previous generation suit on the edge of the Mariana Trench. The suits will hold." He took in a breath and let it out thoughtfully. "The real task will be to get us down there. The transporters won't be able to get us close enough. Now, we do have two Hunley's aboard, unfortunately, they crew three and have a max evac capacity of five. The Danubes could be modified for submersible duties, if we had the time, which we don't." He sat back, thinking through the problem. "What we could do...." he typed in a few command into his PADD, and an image appeared over the table. It showed Elysium's two Hunleys, with two cables each trailing from their hulls.

"What we could do, is modify the Hunleys to have two cables attached, one on the port side, the other on the starboard side. This cables, probably ten to fifteen meters long each, would be used by the teams, where we would hook onto the cables, and have the Hunleys pull us down to the Jefferson." He punched in a few more commands, and a simulation of the Hunleys and the Elysium's Danube class runabouts played, showing them flying in formation to the water's surface.

"We could swap out the mission specific capsules, that are on the Runabouts, and fit each one with a personnel capsule. The teams would be taken to the water in the Danubes, beam a few meters under the surface, attach the cables to the Hunleys, and move to the Jefferson. The Danubes could then stay on station, fuel depending, in case some one needs to be sent back in an emergency. Then, once we are on the Jefferson, the Hunleys could stay on station, for the same reason."

"Now, regarding weapons," he looked over at Colton. "There are submersible weapons for us on file that can be easily replicated. However, energy weapons just won't work in thee water. Torpedoes for the ships and balistic-style weapons for our defense, while in the water. Namely, harpoon rifles and needle guns. They've been used effectively on other marine worlds, and it's what I'll have you and the rest of my Marine outfitted with." David knew that news of him becoming the new MXO was still making its way through the ranks, he just hoped there wouldn't be any issues.

Lia now spoke up, "Couldn't we use our Delta Flyer as a transfer station in regards beaming people out? My idea is simple, the Hunley's could ferry between the Jefferson and the Delta. We then beam from the Delta to the Danube's, they then have a choice of flying or beaming to the Elysium. Unless there is some reason we can't do that, wouldn't that be quicker and easier?"

Emily looked around those gathered. “I have to admit I’ve never had to use a submersible suit before.”

Heather offered a smile. “Don’t worry they’re easy to use, I had to train to use them when I was in the Corps. Being a Marine Medic means you go where the troops go, seems I’m doing the same now even though I’m no longer in the Corps.”

Sam looked at Chief Man'darr and asked quietly, "They're going to have to make a custom environment suit for you huh Chief? I don't think you'll fit in the standard suits? Too tall I think you are? We'd have to use a can opener to get you out if we stuff you into a standard suit. Let's get with the Engineer and make sure you're taken care of ay?"

Man'darr grinned at the new Platoon CO. "Not to worry, lieutenant. They have one in my size, though I still hate them as much as I hate the EVA Suits."

Victor who was in Group Two nodded at the others as he had a tricorder strapped to his hip. “Good day,” he said as he looked at the others, “How may I help?”

Victor, Sam checked his cheat-sheet PaDD, ~Chief Engineer~ Sam thought to himself as he identified the new people who had arrived. Sam listened to all of the ideas that were being floated.

"Ok people, lets focus. Now about my idea, does anyone have any reason why we can't use it?" Lia waited for someone, anyone to answer her.

The brig officer turned towards his department head, a curious look on his face, "I'm not an engineer, ma'am, but would the Delta Flyer be capable of a twenty-four person emergency beam out? Or will that not be a problem?"

Turning to the Brig Officer Lia responded, "Lieutenant, we won't be beaming out twenty four people at once. We can transport smaller groups, to the two Danube class run-a-bouts. It would be up to those crews as to how many they transport and how many they fly to the Elysium, as the Danube's are bigger ships I think they could handle the situation better than the Delta." Leaning on the table in front of her Lia now scanned those before her, "Now that's one question answered, anyone else got another one?"

Woolheater offered, "Can we use some of those transporter pattern enhancers? If we bring those along, we could increase our odds for successfully getting any survivors off the Jefferson. If there is too much shielding or just a shitty signal that deep; the pattern enhancers might help?"

"Now that's forward thinking, do we have any idea of just how much shielding we might encounter?" Wanting to make sure her team knew just what to expect, Lia pushed on with her questions hoping a solid plan of action would emerge.

Phoenix struggled really to hold back a snap. She had NOT Missed this. She hated it when people started arguing.

So she took a deep breath, focused her gaze on the wall behind their heads and began to speak.

"All four teams will be outfitted with the submersion suits as a precaution. The Jefferson is mostly intact from our scans, and thus hopefully be safe enough for everyone to get in and out. Transport Enhancers are to be applied on the Jefferson also as a precaution. If the transport padds on the Jefferson are usable, you will be able to use them to beam to the smaller vessels as well. I am loathe to bring the Elysium in any closer than we are due to the unknown reason as to why the Jefferson went down. Commander Taylor's idea of using the shuttles will be viable, that said, I want all team members to be alert to the fact that, wile the Jefferson is stable currently we do not know how long that will last. You will now have 30 minutes to get outfitted and to the shuttles. And please keep in mind your comm channels need to remain open." She paused and a new image in front of them appeared. The Jefferson.

"Four entry points. Away team one and three, through the aft hatches, and teams two and four through the forward hatches. Also if the shuttles are still operational on the Jefferson, they have a type ten, a type 11 and two type 9's, they can be used also for short term." Now Phoenix let her gaze return to the group. "Go get suited up and ready to go." she said calmly. "And Come back in one piece."

Gary rose from his chair. "Sage advice Captain." He said with a grin before addressing his team. "Let's go people we have survivors to rescue." As the others ambled out, he hung back to talk to Phoenix. " I take it we're writing off the Jefferson." It was a statement not a question, as he continued. " Which means, we need to make sure computers are wiped clean or destroyed. So nothing can be salvaged from them."

"That is correct" she confirmed to her XO. "WE may be able to salvage it later but for now..."

Sam got to his feet. Next action was to brief the platoon and check in with the Colonel and the new MXO Captain Tonelly.

Dr. Taylor sighed and shook her head. 'Perhaps it is better just to be the calm, rational, quiet doctor here.' She thought to herself.

Colton got feet and prepped to head out to Marine county to get his gear together for this mission, a look of annoyance and concern on his face

S'hib having remained quiet for the entirety of the meeting walked the long way around the table, stopping briefly to let Commander Taylor and Captain Phoenix talk. "It's good to have you back Captain, we should talk after the mission is over... Commander." He added with a polite nod, excusing himself in a hurry as he clicked out of the meeting room.

Phoenix smiled at the Assistant Chief of Security and then watched him leave.