Steve Petrick:

After reviewing the archives (most, not all yet) there was a section where Lt Fant promised to load any admin shuttles with type VI drones as shatter packs as fast as we could get shuttles to them.

I would request (subject to confirmation by Col Knight and Major Wells) that all available adminshuttles (those not engaged in urgent military related tasks) be ordered to the fighter hangers ASAP to assist with the preparations.

I would also request, that Star Fleet Command be notified ASAP that we are under attack, and include in the message that further details will follow (something along the lines of "Drone Bombardment, 429th PDU, Caledonia. This is no drill" would suffice, IWT!).

How is the civilian evacuation from the Governors estate going? It is a high priority target, and leaving the civilians unprotected is not a military necessity at this time.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 07:07 pm: Edit

Jeff: Thanks for reposting. That is helpful.

SPP: You can be sure I didn't forget the transporter repeaters. I'm just not back in this quite yet. I will be.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Alan:

If they were detached, I would have gone with that. It is just one of the funny things about this. The battalion is largely "detached" because it is spread all over the planet (one phaser-4 base at the North Pole, a second at Australia, the third in South America, for example), but you really cannot refer to each unit as "detachments" because this is normal deployment for such a battalion.

There is also, of course, the question of whether or not there is an "Air Force". Certainly there is an "Army", but largely the PDUs are more formally Marine units operating sort of like MEUs, except that their role is "Coastal Defense". So you can think of the typical PDU as like the detachment of the First Marine Defense Battalion that was deployed on Wake Island.

In any case, what I am getting at is that the fighters are not an "Air Force Attachment" to the PDU, they are PART of the PDU, and thus probably Marine Pilots versus Air Force Pilots, and perhaps section is a more familiar Marine Term (I honestly do not know).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 07:29 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

For what it is worth, the warning of the Drone Strike came from Star Fleet. Getgen got it first because he was the SDO, i.e., it came in after normal business hours for the battalion. The strike is not on your own scanners yet.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 08:36 pm: Edit

That would explain why it isnt at the 101 hex range point yet... and since it is (at a guess) on ballistic targeting... I have to ask this.

Why not scramble the fighters now, and send them off to intercept the drone wave BEFORE it gets to the 101 hex range so they could use their phaser gatlings (with the nice feature that they do not require reloading after each shot) to "weed out" the drone wave as much as possible before it gets to the planet?

If that would be too much of a risk, could they not be at the 101 hex range entry point, and start killing drones on the way back to the planet?

And if that is still too much of a risk, what about waiting at the 15 hex range from the planet so they could get 1-2 turns of shots in while still within safe distance of the planet and the phaser VI's?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 09:13 pm: Edit

Sure. Why not. And while you are at it, try to see things from my evil twisted point of view. You CAN send the fighters to intercept the drones. You can intercept them pretty far away (but obviously not on the turns they were launched by the bombardment platform, of course).

Just get Colonel Knight to give the order to Major Harding.

Make sure the drone loadouts of the fighters are defined, and whether or not they are carrying any pods on their pod rails.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Hav the Colonel's people call the major's people and they'll do lunch.

Are we mirror-universe Feds?

Can I kill someone to improve my position in heirarchy?

By David Keyser (Riov_Tafv) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 09:35 pm: Edit

That's right, send out the fighters to start killing drones out beyond range 100. Just watch the F5L, F5, and F5G kill the fighters away from any support and have that much of an easier time conducting the raid. Or come in from a different angle for the raid.

On a brighter note the Permanent Latrine Orderly reports that all latrines are functioning perfectly.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 09:44 pm: Edit

I won't be ordering the fighters for a long range intercept. In fact, I won't order fighter launch until I get the first reading on the drones. The last thing we need is drones getting past the fighters and them not being able to catch up.

A single load out may well not be enough to counter the strike. Drone bombardment can consist of a LOT of units. Litterally hundreds.

I want the fighters to be able to reload and repair.

Some of the drones may be multi-warhead and that could quickly spell the end of our squadron.

Orders to come shortly. And yes, there would have been breifings on many possible attacks including Drone Bombardment. By the time the drones come into scanner range we should be at WS-3.

By Stewart W Frazier (Frazikar) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:04 pm: Edit

Reminder: Ground bases have an TacIntel A range of 50, the GWS (once powered) of 75 [with S5 being double the above]. This means the inbound drones can be track individually from 100, 150 once the GWSs come online.

[Fighters and manned shuttles are 35, MRS/EWF are 50]

BTW, drone speed is 20 at this time, is it not?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:25 pm: Edit

Aside from the combat situation that is developing, we have some long standing questions that havent been answered from 2003 yet.

The G1G "fly by" had some drones lanched by the Def Sats. Capt Tenhoff requested shuttles to expedite reloading the Def Sats.

I may have missed it, but I did not find Col Knights order releasing the shuttles for the reload missions. (although I do note that Col Knight released 3 Admin Shuttles to cooperate with Col Baluda's troops to "scan" for Klingon infiltrators on a random basis over a 3 day period... no acknowledgement from SPP on the results of that mission.

I also note that Capt tenhoff asked about the presence of "spare" def sats to which SPP said there "might be one or two"... is there time to get one or both into place before the drone wave "shows up"?!?!

There is also the question of the replacement fighters for the 2nd squadron that was lost in convoy to Cassandra IV/Caledonia, Nomea system... any chance the AUX CVL is in range and launched the 2nd squadron?

And while we are at it, I still dont recall seeing Col Knights final drone / equipment lists for what the 429th PDU actually has available.

It would be helpful to have that information.

Prior information indicated that trafic in system would be 1 small freighter or small free trader per month... do we know what is in system this week? anything arriving "coincidently" with the drone strike?

Was there an emergency signal sent to Star Fleet?

Any response? Do we know how long we will "have to hold out" until Star Fleet can help?

Any reports of sabatoge on planet? did any personnel fail to report to duty stations?

Has extra security been posted to the fighter hanger module? (real important...if any Klingons are on planet... a "cheap" victory would be to trash the fighters before they launch so they cant deal with the incomeing drones...)

I guess I have lots of questions.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:47 pm: Edit

Col Knight did pose an interesting dilema...since we "know" the drone strike is headed "our way" because Star Fleet told us it was... yet we will not go to WS-3 until the drones are within scanner range...

It would seem to me that if we know the drones are coming...we should go to WS now so that the early warning station can begin its 150 hex scanning now in hopes that ew can detect both the drones and any support ships that are in the area...IIRC the drone bombardment ships can launch from as far as 2,500 hexes (assuming speed 32) so the slower speed 20 drones might be launched closer...say 1,600 hexes?

And if David Keyser knows what he is talking about, we should be able to detect the F5Q squadron that he says is there. (assuming he didnt just "make it up" )

I guess I just dont see what benefit we gain by keeping the lower WS when we know that we are being targeted?!?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:05 pm: Edit

Memo
To :Lieutenant Andrew Palmer, Battalion Signals Officer.
From: Major Wile, Battalion Operations Officer, S3 429 PDU.
CC: Col Knight, Major Harding, Captain Wells.

Lt. Open Hailing Frequencies, Col Knight will very likely want to know what traffic is in the area, and what Star Fleet Assets are in communications range.

And Get an Acknowledgement from SFHQ to our last readiness status report.

I want initial contacts reported immediately, and hourly lists of all stations, ships and shuttles answering the hails.

Thank you.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:10 pm: Edit

Memo
To:SPACE WARNING AND ELECTRONIC SUPPORT COMPANY:
Captain David Kass, Commanding. 429th PDU.
From: Major Wile, Battalion Operations Officer, S3 429 PDU.
CC: Col Knight, Major Harding, Captain Wells.
Re: Drone Raid, Incoming.

Captain Kass. Status report please? Any contacts reported? are all your systems operational, and if not, what assistance do you need to rectify any short comings?

Thank you.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:15 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick-

Who orders the civilian evacuation or more accurately, who orders the civilians to the (relative) safety of the air raid shelters (space raid?!?)

Would that be Col Knights call? or are we providing information to Col Baluda? or does the planetary Governor decide?

My concern is that we wait too long and not give people enough time to make it to the shelters...

for example waiting until the drones are at the 35 hex range gives them just over 1 game turn...which is to say not much notice.

just curious.

By David Keyser (Riov_Tafv) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:27 pm: Edit

Jeff,

Listening to the guy who cleans the toilets can be dangerous. I don't know that the bombardment is prelude to a raid. But what I would do is time the arrival of a raiding force to just after the drone wave is detected. Preferably on a different vector. Give you a choice, split your forces so I have a better chance of destroying the defenders peicemeal or concentrating at the planet and I would then try to slide over closer to the drone wave so you have more things to shoot at.

But I am just a grunt and wouldn't presume to tell an officer what to do, sir.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Jeff, you're getting ahead of things. I need to prepare my papers and review. I've been hella busy with various ADB projects and SPP has sprung this on all of us, me included. Which is fine and he has given us a week to prepare but I think I can have a good jumping of point for you all soon enough.

GENERAL NOTE TO ALL OBSERVERS AND STAFF: The Star system we are in is the Cassandra short for Cassandra's Star. The planet we are in is indeed the fourth planet in this star system but it has its own name, NOMEA (after the fateful island in the pacific that gained such notoriety during WW2). The people refer to themselves as Nomeans and the NG is the Nomea National Guard. Starfleet, however, tends to still refer to this planet as Cassandra IV. A fact that bothers the local inhabitants. The odd thing is that as brutal as the Klingons were they at least called the planet by its proper name.

The local defenses maintained a considerable resistance during the entire Klingon occupation and even gained a bit of respect. After the Klingons were forced to leave the system by the returning Star Fleet many tales of the resistance quickly spread through the Federation. These tales might have been the straws that tipped the scales of bureaucracy to assign the 429th to Nomea. Protecting Nomea is also a matter of Federation moral.

Doubtless the Klingons have heard of this and realize that breaking this moral is worth some effort.

===================
I will have a detailed description of the first moments during the party when the alert signal comes in probably by tomorrow. I need time to get back into the tactical situation. I hardly recall the complete deployment.

I am also in the middle of several projects, a CL style short story, RPG Tholians, a novel and a script (back burner). Not to mention remodeling a clients Kitchen and two baths while I wrap up the last week on a huge 70' x 22' redwood deck refinish. Did I mention I have a son who just turned six?

However, I should be full capable of keeping up so long as SPP moves things along at not too quick a pace.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:44 pm: Edit

Jeff, your first call should be to me at the Governors mansion. I will inform the Governor and have you connect me up with Col. Baluda.

Contacting all bases is good. Ground troops will remain on standby until such time we detect any ships in the area. Ground troops just die in Drone Raids if we get them out and about.

We will be imediately calling in for any ship in the area to assist.

What I want most is info on the speed and number of drones incoming and type when in T.I. range. OF course any ship detected and I will be imediately notified, any ship... but that goes without saying, of course.

By Paul Stovell (Pauls) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 05:21 am: Edit

"Captain Stovell here", "Yes that will be fine".
"Excuse me Mrs Jonhson, Mr Hendrick and Ms Hendrich such a fascinating discussion on Nomean art but afraid duty calls"

"Oh must you really go?" says Ms Hendrich.
Closely followed by
"Is it something we should know about" from Mrs Johnson.

"I'm not at liberty to say but I expect an announcement will be made shortly."

Out of character.
I'm assuming there is a order of priority on the transporters and the initial alert will either have an expected time to transport or his Vulcan mind will have calculated the time and he will continue his conversation as time permits.

By Paul Stovell (Pauls) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 05:32 am: Edit

Out of character

re Drone Bombardment defense contingency plan.
Altered after the loss of our second squadron.

Things to consider.
Targeting drones on our fighters.
Use of starfish, multiwarhead drones
Use of amoured drones.
Use of waypoints to "switch drones on", attack a different hexside.

The Drone Bombardment mission could be general harassment or have a more focused objective such as taking our a particular GWS station, writing down our fighters or destroying our defsats for example.

SPP a question is there anyway of targeting IIIXX drones so that they can accept planetary ground bases as targets? I think it might be possible that if set for size class 5 and passing within 5
hexs of the planet they will accept ground bases as a target. Or if that isn't legal perhaps a multiwarhead version could have its submunitions do the same if the bus targeted the planet and the submunitions were set to deploy at range 5 with size class 5?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 09:21 am: Edit

Col Knight, with all due respect, I must point out that this is an emergency alert, when the majority of our officers are away from their posts, apparently no fighters manned and ready and we have no detailed information of the enemy strike.

SPP has graciously granted us a week (excuse me, 6 1/2 days left) to prepare the defenses.

IMO there are some things that should be done immediately, ordering a full alert being just the most obvious.

Other things that leap to mind would be a request (by you, actually) for a status on all duty stations manned and ready... I note the 'Permanent Latrine Orderly' has reported in... should there be any concern that NONE of the phaser IV batteries have reported? (please note that Captian Stoval was apparently attending the ball, so obviously couldnt have been at his duty station with the firing battery... one would have to ask who caught the duty at the GBPB's (since there are 3 of them).

Also I dont beleive any word has been received from Fighter Command.

I may be getting ahead of myself, but... this will be a very short scenario if key defense posts dont come onto line at the point where they are needed.

It should also be noted that Robert Cole may not be the only member of the 429th not able to participate (for the story line, it could be explained as a medical emergency, campassionate leave off planet, or recent detachement or what ever...

I would suggest that a spot promotion to fill the slot is in order - I have a certain PLO that is available and apparently willing "to do his bit" in upholding the honor of the "fighting 429th".

There may be other officers not available to answer the call to duty for various reasons, we should have a role call or a request for people answering the alert as they check in... and there are no doubt new people who are available and willing to participate now, but dont have an assigned role yet.

We need to know which posts are not manned and ready, and we need to know it ASAP.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 10:56 am: Edit

Jeff Wile:

Uh, YOU are at the party with Colonel Knight, as are MOST of the officers.

Your "beeper/pager/whatever is used in the future" went off, the same as Colonel Knight's, and the XO's and the Intell Officer's when Lt Getgen sent the flash (probably Captain Kass' went off shortly after, Lt Getgen basically being "inside the loop and deciding to give his Company Commander a "heads up" on the information).

All of you got the same Fax.

As for the rest:

"Aside from the combat situation that is developing, we have some long standing questions that havent been answered from 2003 yet.

"The G1G "fly by" had some drones lanched by the Def Sats. Capt Tenhoff requested shuttles to expedite reloading the Def Sats."

"I may have missed it, but I did not find Col Knight's order releasing the shuttles for the reload missions. (although I do note that Col Knight released 3 Admin Shuttles to cooperate with Col Baluda's troops to "scan" for Klingon infiltrators on a random basis over a 3 day period... no acknowledgement from SPP on the results of that mission."

REPLY: Actually there were two. I pretty much told you guys that while you would go through the effort, you would not find them. And I have told you the party is a week after the G1G flyby event. It would obviously take a lot less than a day to reload the DefSats, so I am simply assuming that you guys did manage to get that done (hence, a week has passed allowing various things to have been done, like the initial heavy effort to definitely find whether or not Klingons have been landed has had to be reduced to a low level else you would exhaust your men and training would suffer).

"I also note that Capt tenhoff asked about the presence of "spare" def sats to which SPP said there "might be one or two"... is there time to get one or both into place before the drone wave "shows up"?!?!"

RESPONSE: The spare DefSats are the "maintenance float" for when a DefSat has to be replaced because its on-board systems have failed, and to restore the system if one is destroyed by enemy action. And there is not enough time to get one broken out of storage, warmed up, placed, and synchronized.

"There is also the question of the replacement fighters for the 2nd squadron that was lost in convoy to Cassandra IV/Caledonia, Nomea system... any chance the AUX CVL is in range and launched the 2nd squadron?"

RESPONSE: Nope. And if there was I would have been advising you that the replacements were inbound with a due date.

"And while we are at it, I still dont recall seeing Col Knight's final drone / equipment lists for what the 429th PDU actually has available."

RESPONSE: You have to get that from him, and he has to get it approved by me.

"It would be helpful to have that information.

"Prior information indicated that trafic in system would be 1 small freighter or small free trader per month... do we know what is in system this week? anything arriving "coincidently" with the drone strike?"

RESPONSE: At this juncture, I had considered mentioning that a freighter was in orbit, and on receipt of the warning had boosted to warp and was departing as rapidly as its little engines could manage, but decided ultimately not to muddy the waters.

"Was there an emergency signal sent to Star Fleet?'

RESPONSE: Why would there be one? Starfleet told YOU the drones were inbound. Are you panicking already?

"Any response? Do we know how long we will "have to hold out" until Star Fleet can help?"

RESPONSE: You are on your own. This is going to be over one way or another before anything from Starfleet can get there.

"Any reports of sabatoge on planet? did any personnel fail to report to duty stations?"

RESPONSE: No reports of sabotage in the week since the G1 flyby. No one has failed to report in that week, and I would think it too early at this juncture to know if anyone is going to fail to report this time. Remember, while you guys have a week to work on things, this is all going to be resolved in one evening (judged from the Governor's Estate, one morning elsewhere on the planet, one afternoon some place else, etc.).

"Has extra security been posted to the fighter hanger module? (real important...if any Klingons are on planet... a "cheap" victory would be to trash the fighters before they launch so they cant deal with the incomeing drones...)"

Uhm . . . there are TWO Small Fighter Ground Bases each with half the squadron. Have you gotten Colonel Knight to approve extra security? Did you recommend it and badger him to do it? It is his call on where additional troops will be deployed, but remember the battalion only has so many troops. Colonel Baluda has some, but he may want to keep his troops under his own control, or perhaps guard the Governor and other person's of interest.

"I guess I have lots of questions."

RESPONSE: And so it goes.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 11:00 am: Edit

Stewart Frazier:

Last time I checked the archives, the year was 182. Since the data for the Battalion as noted in a recent post on its organization listed FAST drones, I would tend to think that the incoming drones are also fast.

If the fighters are sent to intercept, ASAP, they will be able to make intercept at around 300 hexes.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 11:10 am: Edit

Colonel Knight:

in re: Multi-warhead drones among the bombardment drones.

Ahem.

Uhm.

Well, you see sir . . .

See, these are "bombardment drones". That means that they have been launched under "Wild Boar" programming (FD5.255). Under such programming, they will ignore anything, including things that are attacking them, until they reach their final "WayPoint".

While it is possible that some of them might be ordered to go active some distance from the planet, it is unlikely that there would be exceptional numbers of multi-warhead drones active in such a formation.

Possible, yes, but unlikely.

There is also the problem that . . . well . . . the fighters only carry so many drones, and are not likely to be able to be reloaded before the bombardment ends. Even if you do send the fighters to interecept, all you will really gain is the ability to use their phaser-Gs multiple times on the drones before they reach the planet. Because whether they intercept close, or far, they probably are not going to be able to land and reload their drone rails in time to take off again. And trying will just mean that their phaser-Gs will not be available to defend the planet (cannot fire them while the fighter is parked at a ready rack).

But it is your call, sir. I do not know what Major Harding will recommend. And of course Major Wile may have his own ideas. And then there is Major Wells. Of course, Colonel Baluda may have some concerns about how you are going to defend "his" planet.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 11:25 am: Edit

Paul Stovell:

The rules on Small Ground Bases are quite clear. The only drones that can be targeted on them are those LAUNCHED at a certain range (R1.14C2). So none of the bombardment drones can be specifically targeted on any of the ground bases.

That having been said, and while I would NEVER allow such a thing in a scenario (except perhaps a scenario specifically involving something like this) because it would be a rules violation that would promptly be abused by certain Kzintis (okay, Klingons too . . . yea, and those Orions . . . well, I am sure some Feds would get involved also), for purposes of "dramatic action", there is going to be a chance that something will be hit. That some one WILL be killed (or wounded, perhaps badly).