Planning the Jailbreak

Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2026 @ 10:25pm by Lonian Royal Sovereignty & Captain Gary Taylor & Commander Kyle Reece & Captain Samuel Woolheater

Mission: Season 6: Episode 7: Crossroads of Destiny
Location: XO Captain Gary Taylor's Office
Timeline: Directly following "Emergency Discussion"
2942 words - 5.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Gary's office was noticeably quieter than the conference room. The bustle of senior staff had given way to the steady hum of the ship as the door slid closed behind the last of them. Outside, officers hurried to their assignments. Inside, only three remained.

Gary, Kyle and Samuel.

The holographic display from the briefing now hovered above the desk, the highlighted region on the planet slowly rotating in silence. Sam stood at the holotable and then set his PaDD down nearby. He still hadn't sat down. He studied the terrain. The Forests, mountain ridges, waterways. The possible avenues of approach, observation points. Even...extraction routes.

Finally, he broke the silence. "So..." His eyes never left the map. "If diplomacy succeeds..." He looked toward Gary. "...this becomes an escort mission."

A beat.

"If diplomacy fails..." His gaze returned to the display. "...it becomes a rescue." He zoomed the map inward. "Either way..." Another tap. The LCARS display beeped happily as it processed the tactical data relayed from the main bridge, "...the first objective is exactly the same." He circled the shielded region. "Intelligence" Sam folded his arms across his chest while looking at the map, "We need to get some." He looked between the two senior officers. "Marines don't get into a fight they don't understand." Another tap on the LCARS console. "We know...well...we think we know where the signal probably is. That doesn't worry me. Commander Rin can get us a lock in 5 minutes. It's the stuff we don't know that scares the shit out of me."

Gary looked at the map they had up and saw several circles where they had pinpointed surface to air missiles. Also a landing strip but no discernible way into the prison. "As you said Sam, we need Intel. We say landing strip but no way to enter the prison, so I would think the only way in is by transporter. Also look at those surface to air missiles. I'm betting there are more, we just haven't picked them out because of the interference and rotating shield frequencies."

Sam nodded once. "Exactly."

He reached forward, spreading the tactical overlays apart until the prison compound occupied nearly the entire holographic display. New sensor returns flickered into existence every few seconds, uncertainty circles slowly shrinking as the ship's computers refined their solutions. The computer began to find the most likely emplacements for additional firepower and circled them in yellow.

"The good news..." he said, pointing toward the clusters of anti-air batteries hidden beneath the forest canopy, "...is that we're finding them."

Another touch brought up the projected shield envelope. "The bad news is we're only finding the ones that want to be found." His finger traced a route toward the landing strip before stopping short.

"We could drone pilot a shuttle down with fighter escort. That's what they're ready for and its what they expect. A smash and grab. It's also likely that they will have thought about our transporter tech and have a countermeasure for that too. We need to know what that it. Or the extraction team becomes the new prisoners." Sam sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before continuing. "I don't like assumptions. We assume that's the only landing firld. We assume transporters are the only way inside. We assume these are all the missile sites." He looked between Gary and Kyle. "Assumptions get people killed."

He zoomed the image toward the heart of the prison. "What I'd like before we launch anybody is a target package." A few icons appeared one after another. "Shield generators. Power distribution. Transport inhibitor nodes, if they're using them. Command and control. Sensor arrays. Communications. Guard concentrations. Quick reaction forces. Patrol patterns. Anything that tells us how these people fight." He tapped the largest concentration of prisoners now forming in the northeast quadrant. "And positive identification on our people. If this turns kinetic, I don't want to be wondering which building they're in."

Sam leaned forward onto the table and used his right arm and hand to circle a few spots where tree growth was especially thick. He said, "Our mission isn't to capture a prison or win a firefight. Our mission is to bring our people home. If we spend longer than we absolutely have to inside that compound, we've already started doing the enemy's work for them. And as far as these go...the five clusters of trees...let's use some of the hi resolution sensor packages and figure out how they have fortified this installation."

He paused, not satisfied with the lack of Intel and looked at the XO and the Chief of Security, "What's our plan if transporters don't come back on line? If we're wrong about the inhibitor network...or they change frequencies...or somebody throws a switch we didn't know existed..." He looked around the room. "We have to assume that this isn't the Lonian's first rodeo and that they are prepped and ready to hold an attacking force at bay."

Kyle had been quiet so far, running calculations and simulations in his mind, working the problem bit by bit. Finally, he spoke evenly. We find the main power facility for the entire region that the prison sits in, and neutralize it, then, between the ship's phasers and our starfighters, we could easily clear the entire forest within minutes. Once that's done, if the Lonians are still not willing to give us our people back, then we burn a hole into the roof of the place, and send in our team, Security and Marine alike, even the Romulans. Between the three groups, there is nothing that could stand in their way."

Sam considered Kyle's proposal for a long moment before nodding slowly. "I like the sequencing. Blind them. Create confusion. Exploit the window before they recover." He looked back to the display. "But I don't think we've got all the stakeholders in this room yet."

"As you said Sam, this isn't the Lonian's first rodeo and it's not ours either. We need to plan and plan well for every contingency and I believe Kyle's plan does that. However, we do have to consider that the prison has a back up power source to come on after the main power is disrupted. That's our window, to get into the prison, neutralize the guards and get our people back and with Security, Marines and Romulans all working hand in hand we can do it."

Woolheater nodded. "No doubt. But this'll cost us. And I'm so tired of picking up young people inside bodybags. The Colonel will have my hide if we take on too much."

He cocked his head. One could almost see the wheels turning. Then Sam said, "I'd like S'hib in here."

Sam enlarged the prison's central infrastructure again. "We've been looking at this through Marine and Security eyes. I'd like another perspective before we commit ourselves. I'm aware of the...tension...between him and the Colonel. But he's passionate. He's dedicated. I've seen that side of him firsthand." Sam stared at the display for another moment.

"And maybe we don't just ask him what he thinks." His eyes narrowed slightly. "Maybe we ask him how he'd get inside."

He glanced toward Gary and Kyle. "Not order him. Ask him."

A beat.

"If S'hib thinks he can find a way into that prison without announcing himself to three dozen surface-to-air batteries and half the Lonian military, I want to hear it." Sam gestured toward the prisoner concentrations.

"And if he can actually get inside..." His finger touched the northeastern cluster. "...we have eyes on the ground. Somebody who can identify our people, find out what they're facing, and tell them we're coming."

He folded his arms again and looked at the XO and the CoS. "Guys...he wants to be useful. She was his wife. They have a child."

There was no humor in Sam's expression now.

"If anybody in this room thinks I'm going to tell that man to sit on his hands while we decide how to bring her home, they don't know me very well." Then, finally, the faintest trace of a grin. "Besides..." He looked between Gary and Kyle. "...if either of you knows somebody better qualified to be an annoying, brilliant bastard behind enemy lines, I'm listening."

Kyle considered the options for a few beats, then offered. "If we do send S'hib down there unannounced, he will need someone with infiltration skills." He looked Gary in the eyes. "Send my brother, Nicholas. He is a trained and experienced infiltration specialist, after all."

Gary listened as Sam made his points for having S'hib in the meeting as well as asking him to some planet Intel. He wanted Naxea safely returned as well as the other members of the crew who were abducted. S'hib, Naxea's ex husband. Gary had no problems asking S'hib to be here or go planet side. He also knew S'hib's ability and talents as a security officer, He had been Lia's right hand. So he was capable of doing great things. "Contact him Sam and ask him here also ask Nicholas Reece here as well so we can go over the details of what we want them to look for."

Woolheater nodded. "Aye, sir."

He picked up his PaDD and opened the communications channel.

=/\= Woolheater to Lieutenant S'hib and Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Reece. Report to Captain Taylor's office. We've got work for you. =/\=

He closed the channel and set the PaDD back beside the holotable. While they waited, Sam began stripping information from the display. The projected weapons ranges disappeared first, followed by the proposed shuttle approaches and the dozen or so hypothetical routes they had been kicking around. What remained was simpler.

The prison. There it sat, looking formidable and intimidating. Somewhere inside were people who belonged aboard the Elysium.

The shield envelope. A problem for the ship, the Air Wing and anyone hoping to use a transporter.

The suspected anti-air positions. Some they could see. Others they couldn't. The Elysium and all those fancy sensor suites would keep looking, but Sam wasn't about to bet somebody's life on finding every last one.

And finally, the slowly tightening uncertainty circles surrounding their people. That was the part of the display Sam kept coming back to.

By the time Reece and S'hib arrived, Woolheater had reduced the entire tactical picture to those few essentials. He gave them barely enough time to enter before enlarging the eastern side of the prison complex.

"Phase One."

Two words changed the character of the room.

"We don't attack anything." Sam looked first at S'hib and then at Reece. "If you two can get into that prison by infiltration, deception, bribery or selling somebody a fuckin' vacuum cleaner, I don't particularly care. How you get through the door is your problem. You're the experts."

He pointed toward the prison. "What I care about is once you're in, how are we going to get you and all our people back out. I know that its asking a lot. I know its a one-way ticket if we're wrong. But, I don't think we're wrong. And once we start this, we need guys on the inside to corral, coerce and cock things up."

Sam brought up a blank column beside the tactical map and began populating it. "First priority: our people. Positive identification, location and condition. We need to know where they're being held, how they're being moved and what stands between them and an exit."

Another line appeared. "Second: the shield and transporter interference. Where it comes from, how it's controlled and whether there are holes we can exploit without announcing ourselves."

A third line displayed. "Third: defenses. Guards. Patrols. Quick reaction forces. Weapons emplacements. Anything down there capable of turning an extraction into a firefight."

Then a fourth. "And finally..., we need a way out." Sam stepped back from the display. "While you're doing that, Marine Teams Alpha and Bravo begin preparing for insertion. The ship keeps watching. The Air Wing gets ready. Nobody crosses the line until we know enough to give them a fighting chance."

His expression hardened slightly. "I'm not sending a rescue force into that compound until I can tell them how they're coming home."

Sam looked between S'hib and Nicholas. "Command and control stays aboard Elysium. XO will brief the Commodore and once you're inside, maintaining contact with the ship matters almost as much as everything else I've just said. What you find changes what we do next."

He paused. Then Sam folded his arms across his chest. His jaw muscles clenched and he looked at them again, "That's what I need." He gestured toward the prison floating between them. "How you get it..." A faint grin appeared beneath his beard. "...that's why we invited you two."

Sam looked from S'hib to Nicholas. "So. How do you get through the front door?"

As they talked, the map updated again. The uncertainties around the detained crew became small enough that it was clear which sections of the prison they were in. Most were in the northeastern quadrant, 12 of their 17 missing to be precise. One of the dots, representing Kerilia, was isolated from the larger group, but she wasn't too far away from them. In the southeast quadrant, four dots, their nametags identifying them as Naxea, Mattias, Damien, and Teevs. All four of them were isolated, suggesting they were being questioned, whereas the others (minus Kerilia) looked to be together, perhaps in a cell block.

Nicholas listened intently to the entire briefing. Memories of his last mission, and how it had failed, flashed through his mind. However, he locked all that fear and uncertainty up in a box and tucked it deep in the back of his mind. Finally, he stepped forward and pointed at a spot to the east of the prison. "If you beam us into this lake, we would be able to infiltrate the perimeter easier. The way the shield is set up, you can see that it isn't in contact with the water. That means, the energy barrier doesn't extend to the lake bottom. It would be a constant drain on the power if it were. We can swim in, under the shield, and be at the prison within a couple hours."

Sam followed Nicholas's finger toward the lake. For several seconds, he said nothing. Then he leaned closer to the holographic display. "That's interesting." He enlarged the lake and rotated the image until the projected shield envelope intersected with the shoreline. Nicholas was right about what the display appeared to show. The shield terminated at the surface. Or, at least, that was what the Elysium's sensors thought it did. Sam looked at Nicholas. "God damn...I like it. But I'm not giving you the assumption about the lake bottom for free."

He pointed toward the water. "Before I put the two of you in there, I want sensors looking straight down through that lake. Bathymetry. Shield harmonics. Energy bleed. Underwater sensors. Intake systems. Anything that tells us whether that gap is real or whether somebody deliberately built it to look real." His eyes returned to the map. "Brother...If it's clean..." Sam traced the route from the lake toward the prison with his finger "...then you've just given us an insertion point they may not be watching."

He looked toward S'hib, "Two men. Minimal equipment. No uniforms. Nothing you can't swim with, hide or abandon. You go in wet, get underneath that shield and stay invisible." Woolheater brought the prisoner locations back onto the display. "And once you're inside, don't try to be heroes. You're not there to rescue seventeen people by yourselves." His finger touched the northeastern cluster. "You find them. Know where they are and any medical emergencies. Sickbay will be standing by for casualties." Then the southeastern cluster. "You find these four." Finally, Kerilia's isolated marker. "And especially her."

Sam looked between Nicholas and S'hib. "We need locations. Conditions. Defenses. You find out what's keeping our transporters out and, if there's a way to quietly open a door for us from the inside, tell us where it is." He paused. "Then you stay alive long enough for us to come through it." Sam looked again at the lake. "Getting caught to get inside? That's a last resort. I know you are...emotionally invested. Clear your heads. Remember the mission. Let's go get our people. Anything else gentlemen?"

"Gentlemen." Gary said addressing the assembled group. "The time for talk is over the time for action and getting our people home is now. You all know the plan, let's get to it."

Nicholas nodded to Gary, then looked up at S'hib. "Hope you can swim, big guy."

Sam let the exchange hang for a moment before looking once more at the tactical display. Seventeen markers. He ran his fingers through his short cropped hair. Whatever happened next, that was the part that mattered. He reached across the holotable and collected his PaDD. "All right." His eyes moved first to Nicholas, then S'hib. "You know what we need."

Then he looked to Gary and gave the XO a single nod. "I'll get the Marines ready." There wasn't anything else to say. The XO had previously approved the plan.

Woolheater tucked the PaDD, now finished syncing up, beneath his arm and headed for the door. Behind him, the holographic image of the prison continued to turn slowly above the table, seventeen small points of light scattered across it. Sam didn't look back. "Let's bring them home." The doors opened, and Captain Samuel Woolheater stepped into the corridor.