Two Sides of One Coin

Posted on Thu Jun 30th, 2011 @ 2:01pm by Major Patrick Smith & Major Maxim Kamarov

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: Marine Command Center

Having seen him at the Staff meeting Captain Smith was quite interested in meeting the Marine CO. Trying to get his department gathered and running, and the training organised had meant he had little opportunity to introduce himself. Now that his pilots had their orders and were patrolling for real with the Divitians on board he had some spare time. That reminded him. He had received very little hard intel on any of the Divitian enemies or their ship capabilities. Patrick made a mental note to dig up some more information as he arrived at the Marine Barracks.

Smith had called Kamarov's Secretary earlier to make the appointment. After checking the padd in his hand for the directions he had taken off the computer he found his way to the office 10 minutes early. The secretary looked up at him. "Captain Smith I presume?"

"That's me. I'm a bit early but I can go for a walk and pop back in a few minutes if the Major is in another meeting."

INSIDE KAMAROV'S OFFICE

The decor of the office was starting to grate on Maxim's nerves, but thanks to getting Captain Fulton into the mix as detachment XO, the flow of paperwork had dropped considerably. The ebb of work had given the Russian a chance to relax....

=^=Major, Captain Smith is here to see you,=^=

Kamarov growled for a moment in Russian, then said "Show him in," The man who appeared at the door was a capable looking man in Marine green. He looked like he had a few things on his mind. Suddenly, it came to Max...Smith, the Startegic Ops officer! God, i hope he is not going to start howling about jursidctional crap! I am in no mood for a turf war.

"Come in, captain!" Maxim said genially. "I am Maxim Kamaorv, head honcho of Marines! You will be Captain Smith, strategic ops officer, yes?"

"Ah not quite sir. Captain Smith yes but I am CO of the embarked fighter wing. I believe you are the ranking Marine officer on the base," Smith replied. He wasn't surprised he had got mixed up. Most of the senior staff had yet to meet him properly.

Maxim grinned at his own mistake. "Forgive me, captain. I have been on the go for three days straight. As for being ranking Marine, as long as you don't step on your dick, you won't find me breathing down your neck demanding results. All I do ask is you keep the flyers flying and the ground crews safely. I don't think our departments will interact very much, to be honest. But if you need someone to talk to, I am always here, or in my quarters."

Kamarov suddenly snapped his fingers. "I do believe there is something you can do for me. As you well know, our Puller-class runabouts are relatively slow and present ripe targets for ground-based and orbital defense platforms. I would like to have you work with my flight crews or come up with ways of spoofing enemy defenses in place." He quickly found a padd and tossed it to Smith. "I had a couple rough ideas, but they do not measure up in simulations! Perhaps a real pilot would be better suited to the task?"

Smith Chuckled. "Forgiven Major. I've been pulling something similar trying to make sure no-one takes out one of the hangers when landing. Would make a bit of a mess. Compared to any of the fighters on the market the Pullers' are pretty slow." Smith looked at the padd for a moment before commenting on it. "Personally I would just assign fighters to make sure the runabouts had a clear run. People tend to ignore anything that doesn't shoot back. However giving the runabouts the ability to spoof enemy defences is definitely a good idea. Though I assume simply painting its underside blue like what happened in WW2 would work. Which one of these proved the most successful? And we can start with that one"

"Which puts me back to square one! There was story in old days about two fighters protecting transports as troops and VIP's left planetary surface, yes? What was it called, 'Empire Strikes...something! My children would know this better!"

"Well the first thing I always tell me pilots is the lower you fly the harder you are to detect." Smith walked over to the replica tor in the office and replicated a melon, a grape and an apple, before placing them on the table in a line. "It's still a bit like this, and sorry for the childish demonstration but its easier to explain and keep myself right like this. If your target has a clear line for its sensors to detect you it is much more likely to. If you hide something behind something bigger than it, in this case the grape behind the melon it becomes harder to detect. It just disappears or if flying through a canyon or trees it becomes like its landscape. Like a marine in camouflage gear. Thats something that will give your guys a bit of surprise."

Maxim nodded, carefully listening to the younger man's explanation. He had already decided to like the boy.

Patrick looked at the padd again and at the fruit on the table. "So what if... we can camouflage the runabouts as well. That would make it even harder."

"I am sure we could do a camoflauged paint scheme on the Pullers, but there is a downside; not all planets' atmospheric conditions are identical, nor are they all class-M. So, for now let's just work on detailing a few fighter elements to keep the Pullers safe until they land. It will give your boys something to practice in their new firing range!" Kamarov tossed another padd to Smith. "20 minutes away at Warp 4, heading 212, mark 033."

"Ah see I wasn't thinking of literal camouflage. But I think Ill let you know when I get the idea working in the simulations. However yea Ill assign whatever you need to escorting the Pullers, Valkyries as they work best in atmospheric conditions, and of course the bombers are always available to you. If any of your Pilots need some experience in low level flying send them directly to me. Ill fly the training for them." Looking down at the new range on the padd Smith made a few quick mental notes about the obstacles on it already forming simulations. "A nice range. Lots of asteroids to blast to smithereens. Thanks for that."

"A subject from my side then. Have you got any information on these Divitians and any enimes? I've gotten very little intel wise." Smith frowned a bit a slightly concerned look creeping onto his face.

"Nyet, nothing has come across my screens yet. Until I hear otherwise I am going to increase the Marine readiness level to Condition-3. I think you're boys should be at Plus-2 on the launchers with backups on Plus-5." Maxim looked at Smith hard, his eyes making his instructions orders. "It was good to meet you. I'll let Ops know that we are increasing readiness levels. One more thing, spread out the patrol drones and give the orbital combat satellites new tasking orders for Condition-3. Don't want our own ADA to shoot you down!"

"Aye aye sir. I'll keep your posted on the runabouts." Standing back up Smith saluted before turning and leaving the room. He had a lot of work to do. Excellent.

Marine Captain Patrick Smith
Commander of the Air Group

&


Major Maxim Kamarov
3rd Marines CO
Starbase 900