Archive through May 19, 2005
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board:
New Rules:
Orbital Defense Platforms:
Archive through May 19, 2005
SPP: Well, I wasn't just refering to this situation but it just seemed logical to me that bases on a power grid could do that. But perhaps you're right. I do wonder if SVC would consider it. You don't sound to dead set against it. It might not be worth the bother and might open a can of "Fresh Player Idea Worms". 
RAYMOND FORD: SPP said that civilians were coming to the bases all around the planets in droves. I had hoped that the local police would have handled the situation better but I suppose they are just as worried about themselves...grrrr. I'm not sure what exactly to do. We may need to hold them at the casual shuttle bases for the moment. We need to scan ALL non-military personel for Klingon or other life signs. IF the drones begin hitting the planet then we need to move them inside I suppose, into the shuttle bay, under guard (one BP per 10 civilians). I'll have to see just how many people there are. The GWSs and GBDP-4 are NOT to allow ANY civilians inside. Period!
No moving any civilian without my specific order. I'm open to thoughts on the matter.
"Major Wile to Senior Gunner DeMaris" (currently at GWS-A?!?)
"There appear to be some unidentified units leading the drone waves... can you issue an estimate of the distance between the drone wave and the approximate position of the Unidentified objects?"
"specifically, is the range greater than 32 hexes?"
I wonder how allowing them in under the rule that all adults under 60 must be sedated would go over? Could we administer the drug fast enough?
Could we stun them in groups? 
I don't know, some of the adults over 60 can be quite a handful too. Especially if they go off their meds for awhile. And phasers on stun may only make them mad.
Loren Knight:
We should be able to use some or all of the trucks for moving civilians. The trucks have the virtue of being the only transport assets that we can spare. The shuttles are earmarked for other missions, the transporters need to be reserved for military use, and the GCVs would be sent right into harm's way if enemy ground forces show up.
As for where to move them to, there might be shelters operated by the local government. It's a fairly safe bet that there is at least one - and that the governor is there right now.
Even if there aren't shelters or if there is not enough space available in them, other places might be used for that purpose. Public places such as schools and hospitals, for example. Note that these won't provide much protection from a drone bombardment, but should be well away from the bases, which are logical targets for any follow-up attacks by the Klingons.
Bringing them into the ground bases involves too much risk. There is the risk to the civilians, should the Klingons launch an attack against the bases. There is also the security risk to the bases that you mentioned.
How much room is there in a ground base, anyway? I never imagined them being large enough to hold a significant part of a planetary population.
My advice: contact the governor and find out what civilian resources are available to deal with the situation. Use the trucks to speed things up since we don't want civilians wondering around in the open. A small portion of the HDB might have to be used for crowd control.
Hmmm... this gives me an idea for another little piece, but I don't have time to write it at the moment. Tomorrow, maybe, depending on how things work out.
Andy: I tend to agree with you (FWIW). I can't find any rule which PREVENTS lending between ground bases. You just need to solve line of sight issues (i.e. you can only lend to what you have a lock-on to).
Looking through the rules this isn't addressed. A base on a planet it has a 180 degree firing arc. It is not clear if that 180 degree arc includes adjacent hexsides, or even the same hexside. It is also not clear if a ground base on hexside A can fire at a target in the atmosphere above hexside B (one presumes it can fire at a target in the atmosphere above hexside A).
So it is sort of unclear (in the rules) whether a ground base has a lock-on to anything else on the planet actually. (Transporters are covered by their own rules, and needn't be discussed here). It is very clear what it can shoot at in space, but not planetside...
e.g. Can your GBDP on hexside A shoot at the Orion ship landed on hexside B? on hexside A?
This issue also comes up with EW lending, which needs a lock-on, and drone lock-on breaking, which also needs a lock-on. Can a GWS on hexside A break the targetting of drones in the atmosphere above hexside B? I can argue either way on that one.
Oh - and as a GWS is a base, does it get the (G24.???) exception which allows a base to self-lend ECCM?
Raymond Ford: You gave me an idea.
OK, use the trucks to do what they can do. The best thing is to get them off the bases.
Also, there are hard underground shelters. Get on the horn and find out which shelters have room. I will authorize use of the transporters to move the civilians there as soon as we are done deploying our own troops.
I don't see a need for transporters until there is an enemy troop threat so use them until I order otherwise or all the civilians are movedaway from the base.
Phaser Stun setting is authorized for use against civilians at all ground bases who physically resist.
"Sir, I just got things settled down here. The duty warrant officer has not reported in yet. We are currently putting all possible power into trying to resolve the sensor image, but nothing is helping yet. The bogies are probably using a combination of jamming and erratic maneuvers to prevent us from getting a good sensor image. All we can tell at this point is that there is definitely a bogie leading each group of drones, and that data is largely coming from the fact that the bogies frequently obscure the imagery of the drones. In a minute or two, if they continue closing like they have been, we'll have some better data, but for now that's the best we've got."
From Captain Stovell
To Batteries ACE,
Be advised of Col Loren's directive in regard civilians.
1.Civilains are not allowed inside the base perimeter. Use of force upto and including phasers set on stun authorized against any who physically resist.
2.Offer Civilians use of your truck and suggest that our bases are the least safe place to be as we are the likely target of any attack.
3.Transporters will be made available to transport Civilains to shelters. Mention maybe made that this will be the most convienient shelter for transportation not their comfort.
Captain Stovell watched the range of the icons labelled DBB swarm and DBD swarm.
"Make to all batteries Corporal Jones"
"Wait until the nominal range to the swarm is 95kk just in case we are reading the range short."
The board updates
There is a tingling sensation followed by a deep thrum Annaoplois's big gun was winding up. The batteries was about to go to war.
SPP,
I don't want to shoot without your say so but I think its time someone rolled a dice for the GBDP on turn zero.
Actually, since there are targets on 5 different hex side approaches to the planet, surely 3 dice would need to be rolled?
(Roll REAL well Paul!)
"Major Wile!" said the Yeoman at the commercial Communications workstation.
"Sir, the Civilian population is getting to the point of panic... rumors are begining to fly all over about the drones strike!"
Major Wile stepped over to the terminal, and scanned the transcript:
"Why should I take my family to shelter when this military installation clearly is better protected!"
"Ya, better protected is right! its a hardened structure with shields!"
"Besides, surely the soldiers are letting in their girlfriends and boy friends, so they can let me and my family in too!"
"I heard the Governor say that he heard Colonel Knight say that "the people have "been through this before" It just ainat true!"
"How could this Col Knight think that?!? the reality is that it ain't necessarily so. First, there are always people who do not really think something like this will happen, and thus they do not KNOW where the shelter is, but they KNOW where that base is."
"Yeah, shorty, I accessed the Commercial weather satilites and you can actually see the lines of ground cars, carts and people walking to the bases!"
"But I dont understand how Col Knight could be so wrong!!!! the planet was never subjected
to a drone strike previously!!!!
(comment inserted at this point in the transcript by Battalion Intelligence)(note: the governor was told of the Drones strike a zone +00:14, he informed his staff and rumors started being reported planet wide at zone +00:19. . . Battalion public information office was swamped with calls and inquiry's. Efforts to correct the record are continuing, but are not effective at this point.)
Memo to Command staff: the Klingons did not need to hit this planet with one when they first advanced, the Federation did not need to hit it with one when they came back, so this is the first occasion when Cassandra IV has been targeted with a drone strike.
Major Wile turned to Col Knight:
"Sir, we have a political problem developing... I think you need to get the Governor on the line and get this fixed...or we will have serious problems with crowd control".
Col Knight:
You might also consider Ordering Lt Trauger to take care of getting those civilians under cover... but I must respectfully ask you to consider the consequences of establishing a precedent for letting them in when a real Klingon invasion comes before you just tell him to bring them inside and put them in the barracks.
Due to the politics of the situation, I think getting in contact with the Governor is a reasonable thing to do... but we have to weigh the negative aspects of letting civilians into our ground defense bases during an attack with the possible negative effects that refusing might have on the civilian population.
Bottom line, the Governor might have to proclaim martial law and instill crowd control edicts."
In any event, it would be a political decision.
Are we ready for Turn #1?
S3 - Operations Ready to go.
Major Wile, reporting!.
(Shoot well, Guys!)
I say stun anyone within 100 yards of any base perimieter. Give them a warning first of course.
Major Ford:
Ahem.
YOU are the current RANKING officer of the Indigenous Battalion.
No "Command Relationship" that I am aware of was ever worked out by Colonel Balud and Colonel Knight.
While Colonel Knight IS the Ranking Federation officer, he is NOT the Ranking officer of the Planet's Indigenous Defense Force, Colonel Baluda was. So in Colonel Baluda's absence, YOU ARE.
Asking Colonel Knight to contact the planetary Government is asking him to contact "your boss", as if the Planetary Governor decides to do anything with the Indigenous forces, HE IS GOING TO TELL YOU TO DO IT (in Colonel Baluda's absence).
Colonel Knight:
The transporters are not available to move civilians as you just recently ordered them used to move additional ground personnel to the various bases. Remember, the Transporter repeaters in the satellites can only handle three transports at a time (R1.15H).
Steve Petrick:
General OOC question.
What is the relationship (if any) between the Federation forces on planet and the civil defense forces (assuming the planet has such)
I mean, in WW2 in england and the US there were Air Raid Wardens, and people responsible for seeing to it that the black out conditions were observed... athere were people that handled the air raid shelters and there were provision to evacuate certain classes of people (for example, in england children were evacuated to the west and north counties... and some were even sent as far as Canada...)
with a planetary population of 3+ million people I would guess that there should be some kind of procedures in place...and (again guessing) that there would be a group of governmental employees vested with the responsibility to see to the general welfare of the civilian population.
do we have any information on that part of the exercise?
An unused alert like on Major Wiles command board started winking insistantly:
activating the link, the officer inspected the text of the message and an uncharacteristic arching of his eye brow could have been seen if anyone had been paying attention.
Turning to Col Knight, Major Wile said:
"Col Knight, we are in receipt of a priority 1 distress alert from the Governor. Its going out on the Governmental channels..."
Col Knight, not having been previously warned of this developement continued his allocation of energy allocation, said "what does the governor want now!?!?"
"to put it mildly, the Governor has called
and demanded that you provide him an admin shuttle, and fighter escort, to take him and his family to safety." reported the Major.
"And he made it a sector wide priority alert?!?" asked Col knight in a voice that belied his disbelief.
"Yes SIr."
Scene: GWS-A
Activities were frantic as Senior Gunner DeMaris ordered, pushed, preasured and encouraged the staff of GWS-A to greater efforts to completed the process of identifying and classifiying the enemy threat to Cassandra IV and the4 29th PDU.
During Energy Allocation, the screens of the two GWS stations cleared, and they can now see that there are Gunboats in front of each drone stack, and that the Gunboats are leading the drone stacks by 13 hexes, i.e., the
drones are going to cross the 100 hex boundary in 25 impulses, the Gunboats are going to cross the boundary 13 impulses (they lose a hex of movement to the drones on Impulse #1, and assuming nothing causes them to change direction, will move 31 times to the drones 32 times). The drones are
moving warp 3.2, the Gunboats are moving at warp 3.14.
AThe Sensore and scanner techs work the boards with an intensity seldom seen during drills... and every one present knows that "this is the real thing!"
Senior Gunner DeMarris, now in receipt of the most recent tactical information available, activated the communication system, and Said:
"CC/ GWS-A reports..."
Jeff Wile: Are you getting roll playing e-mails from Petrick instructing you that this is happening? I don't know why the Governor would do such a thing since he is already at a safe facility. In fact, with in minutes of me talking to him he would have been in a safe place. This makes no sense.
Also, seeing as I wrote the history of Cassandra IV/ Noumea I would think that I would know if the citizenry had been through this before. Noumea was occupied for many years from early in the GW. There was a small defense force and a couple missle bases with slow drones. These were struck. It was not a drone bombardment mission but the planet WAS attacked. Natuarlly the Feds didn't strike the planet with drones but they did attack the Klingon ground bases directly. Actually the liberation of Noumea was supposed to be a feint attack but the Klingons got cought short handed as they were building up for another fleet action and for some reason replacement units were late. Mostly a matter of luck there happened to be a Troop transport tug in the region that was there on standby for another mission. When the opertunity for a quick recapture presented itself Rear Admiral Gurand pulled individual units from three fleets and the Troop Tug with it's escort DD+ and formed the Noumean Liberation Squadron ADHOC.
This attack drew Klingon forces away from several fleets in a similar way and that is when the main objective was launched. Just prior to reaching Noumea those forces turned back to participate in the main battle. Noumea was liberated and has been held since Y180. When a new Klingons push again threatened the Cassandra system we were assigned here in Y182 Jan.
Only the youngest population hasn't been through a planetary attack AND there has been virtually no imigration to Noumea (only a handful of people move here). On the other hand more than a million moved away. Those who remained were the typically the tough minded types who won't give up their homes.
I will admit there hasn't been a PDU of this stature ever on Noumea before so perhaps that's why the populous thinks it's safer. It's not.
"MAJOR WILE, I want to know how the citizens out there KNOW what I'm saying in here less than sixty seconds after I say it!"
"Further more, since I know the Governor is in his bunker under the mansion I believe the alert signal may be coming from Klingon spies. Get on it and find out."
SPP: I am aware that the transporters are unavailable for T1. That's why I mentioned that they were authorized for use AFTER we are done with them...i.e. T2 and on until I order otherwise during EA of a subsequent turn.
Loren Knight:
quote:Jeff Wile: Are you getting roll playing e-mails from Petrick instructing you that this is happening? I don't know why the Governor would do such a thing since he is already at a safe facility. In fact, with in minutes of me talking to him he would have been in a safe place. This makes no sense.
Yes.
Unknown - perhaps something is happening at the "safe facility"?
This is information that has been provided, we need to investigate more to determine what kind of sense it does make.
Ghost flight is still heading back to range 45 from planet. Do you want the fighter group to reform or stay split?
I cant address the drone strike history concerns on Cassandra IV, I just passed along (with just a little embrodery) some information that had been provided to me.
I should point out that the "rumor mill" as such has little or no constraints upon the posts or content.
the rumors, (such as were presented above) are, as most rumors, subject to wide variation. some of it can be flat wrong, some could be partially wrong, and some can be spot on accurate.
The "rumor mongers" would probably know the name of the Ranking Federation officer on planet. they would aslo be expected to know the name of the planetary governor.
all else would be mere speculation.
There is no leak.
just many fertile immaginations running amok.
It is also an indication that the general population is getting agitated... and that also would have political implications.
Perhaps it is time to have a discussion with the Governor?!?