Bart: As an example, I created a character specifically to offer advice without having to take a decision myself.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 04:09 am: Edit

Of course I was sort of hoping that Steve Cole might join the fun as my wise mentor instructor from Command school that occasionally is the voice in the back of my mind.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 08:56 am: Edit

Keep Dreaming those big dreams!

Bart, we need a senior warrant officer/NCO to manage the Early warning station in David Kass' absence...

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 09:02 am: Edit

Loren:

OOC

Pick your starting points for the fighters AND the disposition of the shatterpacks and GAS... or SPP might do it for you... If we keep leaving things for SPP to choose, it will continue to get progressively more difficult for the 429th to survive...much less protect the planet effectively.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 09:44 am: Edit

Scene: Ground Warning Station #2, (Lt. Kasper Commanding).

In the "center chair" where the base commander usually sat, was a very scared and nervous Staff Sgt Yepson...who was currently thinking to himself "Man, I'm gonna catch h*ll for this one."

Captain Kass hadnt yet reported in to GWS#1, no instructions from Lt. Getgen, and Lt Kasper was reportedly in sick bay with some "vnutian" thing... the warrant officer who should have been on duty was still out on 48 hour leave and hadnt reported in.

Yepson had been running drills continuously (including the extra duty time) for the last week persuant to orders from the battalion S-3, Major Wile over Yepsons misidentification of the G1G instead of the Klingon cruiser that Yepson had thought it was.

As it was, Yepson was wearing Lt Kaspers communications link, and sitting at the Warrant officers terminal holding down both "stations" trying to keep the "big picture" in mind while directing the GWS#2 sensor and scanner efforts.

He had Senior special Sensors technitian Jorgenson at his normal terminal since he had the most experiance there, and didnt want yet annother person displaced... he looked over at the scanners workstation, and Lance Corporal minetti was going berzerk verifying one band looking for targets, then switching to another one when the first came up empty...he had been working feverishly for 15 minutes already...doing his best. the plotting table/terminal was being run by Yeoman Batterson. she had been pressed into service for Yepsons extra duty time to help man the stations... and it was good that she had with both Lt Kasper and the Warrant officer missing. The Yoemans normal duty station was being covered by one of the security guards who should have been outside in the hall providing internal security watch for the GWS#2... but Yepson had decided that he had to have the comm station covered...which cut the scurity by that much ...atleast Ktarski kept his side arm and phaser rifle near by.

Just as Yepson was inspecting his "command" Ktarski looked up from the Comm board and said "Sarge?!?! theres a Master Gunner DeMaris asking for you?!? should I put the call thru to your station?"

Yepson swallowed. and thought (Oh SH*T, DeMaris was Major Wile's 'Shadow' during active operations...I'm in it for sure...) "Yeah Kart, put him through... time to face the music."

Atleast 15 variations from Battalion regulations and standing orders... I'll be lucky if the courtmartial only sentences me to life at Hard labor on Titan..."Yes Master Gunner? GWS#2 at the ready, Sgt Yepson, reporting."

And Senior Gunner DeMaris said "...

By Frank DeMaris (Kemaris) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 10:40 am: Edit

"Yepson, switch this over to a private channel. Yepson, I'm sure you're as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger* right now, but your earlier report about not letting the Klingons devastate the planet just so we can narrow down the search for a Dagger Team was ... unacceptable. In the first place, it stated the obvious, which is what OP plans are for. Worse, you know it was obvious. I'm familiar with your record, boy, you should be better than you have been the last week. Now, where are all your officers? Kasper checked himself into the infirmary yesterday, but what about Getgen and Kass? For that matter, just how shorthanded are you?"

The Master Gunner's scowl deepened as he listened to the roster of missing personnel.

"So that's five people for a dozen duty stations? Very well, Yepson, carry on. We're shorthanded all over as we try to get people back in, but I'll see if we can't get some extra bodies over there to help you out. Keep your eye open. In case you didn't hear, reconnaissance had to beat feet without completing its mission, so we're counting on you. DeMaris out."

He turned back and sought out Major Wile.
"Sir, Yepson's problem is that he's desperately shorthanded right now. He's four steps down in the chain over there, and now he's running the show. In addition, he's had to juggle people to get duty stations covered, which put an inexpereinced person at comm. That's why that intel summary came through civilian channels, sir. Frankly, he's rattled, and worse, letting it show. Request permission to take Larson and transport over to the GWS to settle them down."

Major Wile considered for a moment, then replied "...

*Odd, isn't it, how expressions remain alive even when no one knows what they mean anymore. It's been centuries since anyone bothered with wallpaper, but the expression lives on.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 10:53 am: Edit

Major Wile took a breath, to give himself time to settle down...and respond professionally...

"Senior cheif, I need you here...get there, clean house , if you need to and put someone reliable in charge...wait a minute... this mornings duty roster listed a senior warrant officer available for duty...I think he came in on that freighter that blasted out of here a while ago... Barton Pyle was the name... track him down and have him report to you at GWS#2... if he looks good to you, leave him in charge and get your butt back to base. Got it top gun?"

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:06 am: Edit

Well, before wile I decided I was on this board often but was dealing with the Banshee situation and missed the opertunity to pick the drone arrival impulse but these last few days have had me working really dang hard far from home and I sure SPP will give me a bit of a break. Today is the last day of working away from the shop.

I get one more day of that lousey LA traffic. Yesterday was a gem. Took twenty minutes to move 1 mile on Supulvida because of a minor accident and looky loos. Now way to turn around, now way out that wouldn't take me way away from the goal which was to hurry and get to pick up my son at school. Anyway, that's enought of that.

Tonight I have to finish the drawings on two bath remodels and then I can look at Noumea's defenses. Both should be fairly easy.

Still, I should have got some intel by now. Why NO intel yet? Why won't Banshee flight respond?

By David Slatter (Davidas) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:24 am: Edit

Jammed? ... There are enemy scouts out there, and SPP maybe introducing an element not normally seen as SFB doesn't really cover fighter comminications over long distance.

By David Keyser (Riov_Tafv) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:38 am: Edit

What, jammed? With rassberry even????

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:59 am: Edit

Its more likely that SPP said what he meant.

You have to decide on the defense positions before he will release the information concerning the attacking forces and resolution of Banshee flight.

Pardon me for saying so, but I have observed that working with SPP is ***much*** easier when you give him what he wants when he wants it.

(And please believe me, I have tried repeatedly in very many ways... unfortunately he was too big for me coach. I just keep bouncing off...)

Then Again I could be entirely wrong in my assessment...wouldnt be the first time.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 12:15 pm: Edit

"Yeoman!" Major Wile said as he turned to face the communications post, call over to the Sick bay, and consult the civilian hospital facilities planet wide... I keep hearing how a number of our people and the National Guard personnel are "down" with this 'Venuvian Flu'... get me some hard numbers... is it annecdotal, pandemic or epidemic proportions... if its spreading fast make sure that they examine it carefully... the incubation period espeicially...if its on the order of 7 days incubation we might have gotten hit with a bio weapon a week ago when that G1G raided us... darn, I wish I'd thought to ask about that a week ago..."

"Any Questions?" asked the officer.

"No Sir, Right away sir!." as the young enlisted woman turned back to the communications board.

A bio weopon... I hope not... that really would put the governors undies in a bundle, thought Major wile as he went back to examine the Tactical Screens.

By Frank DeMaris (Kemaris) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 12:37 pm: Edit

Only one man would dare give me raspberry!

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Larson, get on the comm and find W.O. Barton Pyle. Have him report to me at GWS #2 on the double."

The Master Gunner strode out of the room, on his way to the transporters. Over 30 years of service, and 11 years of the current war, he'd seen a lot of people who couldn't handle themselves in action. He devoutly hoped he would not find out Yepson was one of them. He'd handled himself well in training and battle drills, but now he'd screwed up with the G1G and seemed to be preparing an even bigger screwup for the current emergency, one that might get a lot of civilians killed.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 01:12 pm: Edit

"Yeoman, when you get finished with the hospital, get a SITREP from Lt Raper and his tanks... They'll need to be in the barn before the drones strike to be sure that all of them survive...wouldnt want any casualties that could have been prevented." said Major Wile going down the check list again to make sure as many "bases" get covered as possible.

Too many command slots open or filled with junior warrant or enlisted ranks... could be a problem.

"Oh, and one more thing, find out who is incharge at GWS#1. Lt Getgen was on duty earlier, but I havent seen his codes on the battalion net lately... make sure he made it to his command ok." thank you.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 02:02 pm: Edit

Loren Knight:

It is not that you are out of contact with Banshee, it is that the Banshee situation was supposed to have (by this time) reached and passed a crisis point. In essence what I am trying to do is get that "incident" posted, the transmissions from and between and what happened out there, at least to a point.

The problem seems to be that in order to try to get Chris Fant and Richard Sherman to "role play" the incident, I have to keep giving them information, which causes them to then say something in the nature of: "Oh, that is what is happening, so we will do X", to which I respond in essence: "Uh . . . you do not know that yet, the Gunboat is acting under intelligent control . . . while it was two fighters and one character, there was no problem, I thought, with allowing that one person to go ahead and do a quick play out, but it would take much too much time to play out six fighters with three people involved (Fant and Sherman running fighters, and me trying to explain that the gunboat is not going to commit suicide, and every action by both sides has a counter action, and etc.). So I did a quick explanation of what I thought was going to happen, based on the capabilities of the fighters, the capabilities of the gunboat, the mission orders of the fighters, the mission orders of the gunboat, and when each would learn what about the other side.

I really honestly believed that was enough to allow Richard and Chris to send write up the scenes, perhaps interspersed between each other, and have something posted by this time.

So here we are.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:

perhaps you should have them fill out programed moves complete with firing choices.

If you try to role play it out it is going to spin out of control again...and I for one would like to see this resolved now instead of 2 years from now...

just my 2 cents worth.

edit

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 03:05 pm: Edit

"Major Wile?" said the Yeoman of the watch, "I have that report from sickbay, now."

"Go ahead" answered the officer.

"The Battalion Surgeon's chief Corpman said that it isnt a bio weapon. They aren't sure what it is, but its not an engineered virus. Its debilitating, but not fatal...said that whatever it is, it makes 'Montezuma's Revenge' look like a walk in the park." She stopped for a breath, and continued "Efforts are now trying to identify any common elements among the affected personnel... to see if they consummed anything in common... most likely culprit seems to be some smuggled ale that came from the freighter that stopped over a couple of days ago... but no confirmation yet."

"Thank you, Yeoman, good work." comment Major Wile. turning back to the command terminal, he updated the file.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 03:11 pm: Edit

To be clear, the problem is that the Banshee flight situation has to be resolved to a certain point before other things can move forward.

The fact of the matter is that Banshee is not going to get back in time to help, at least with the initial drone strike (if there is a drone strike, if there is more than one wave, etc.).

They have their own problems, and one or another their problems are pretty much going to be resolved before anything else happens.

Once Banshee is resolved, the flood gates open, but Banshee has to be resolved to a certain point first.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 03:25 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

That is the point. Once the other four Banshee Flight Fighters arrived, I looked at the situation, made a determination of what was what and the whichness of the why, briefly told Banshee's people what the what was, and then asked them to write up their encounter and message traffic within some guidelines. It was no longer a "sit down and play it our real quick" which it was when it was just Richard Sherman and his wingman.

But I have somehow never managed to get this point across to Chris or Richard, with the result that they keep trying to "game" the situation rather than "role play" it.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Per last E-Mails recieved from Chris and Richard, and no blame or fault to them, I have decided to drop the whole drone bombardment thing. It has proven completely unworkable. I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

I stress again, there is no fault accorded to Chris or Richard. I was simply too ambitious in trying to get this going.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 04:15 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:

Email headed your way at:rules@starfleetgames.com

thank you.

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 06:23 pm: Edit

SPP:

E-mail headed your way. Don't give up on us yet!!!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 06:36 pm: Edit

SPP: It's been NO waste of time. Timing was a bit off for me but was just getting to the point I could dig in.

There was two pieces of information I needed to lay out my plans. One of them you answer already, Banshee flight will NOT be around to help with other possible waves.

The second is the intel on the drones. If you wanted to e-mail me that info then inform me of when I can officially know it (probably when Banshee flight is resolved) then I can be working on my Turn 1 stuff and post it when the time is right.

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 06:45 pm: Edit

Deleted

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 07:09 pm: Edit

Deleted