[sachmo]

Planning

2412.7

Chairman Sachmo looked up from his data pad.
“I trust everyone has had enough time?” he asked.
There were no negative responses.
He stood up and leaned forward slightly over the large choba wood table.
“Before we begin, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you. Each and every one of you has done an exemplary job, overcoming every obstacle, adapting to each new situation, and improvising when all else has failed. Without you, I fear the Society would be lost. You are a credit to our people, and we are in your debt.”
The assembled officers voiced their thanks as he sat back down in his chair.
“Let’s start with the Navy, shall we? Marcus?”
The Grand Admiral of the Remorhaz People’s Navy pushed a button on his datapad, and a holographic map of the known galaxy appeared in the middle of the table. Every ship in the fleet was represented on the map, as was every planet, base, and a plethora of other information. Also represented on the map were known enemy systems and ships. Currently, the only known enemy forces in Remorhaz Space were two Ukra-Tal cruisers parked just outside of the Yukra-Iolo wormhole.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our plan is simple. We want to take the war to the enemy.” As he spoke, an organizational chart replaced the galaxy map.
“We want to divide the navy into two separate fleets. Romulan Fleet will initially be based here on Remorhaz. To command this fleet, we’ve decided on Rear Admiral RJ Brennan.” He looked at the Chairman. “With your blessing, sir, we’d like to promote him to Admiral.”
The Chairman brought up Brennan’s service record on his datapad and quickly scanned it.
“Brennan took over at Bardron VI when Sakazawa was killed?” the chairman asked.
“That’s correct sir. He did an excellent job keeping the fleet together. I think he’s ready for this.” the admiral replied.
“Alright, I’ll authorize it.” the chairman replied.
“Ukra-Tal Fleet will be based initially on Highrock. We’d like to promote Gina Jager and give her command of the fleet.” He looked again to the Chairman.
The Chairman smiled. “Done.”
Urian nodded.
“I’ll submit a list of other promotions needed to fill out the staff ranks, and those lists will be appended as Brennan and Jager send in their personal recommendations.” he said.
He tapped his datapad again, and the galaxy map reappeared.
“Before we can mount any sort of offensive, we need to bring both fleets up to strength. Minimum requirements for each fleet will be ten minesweepers, two Space Marine brigades, two light carriers, and five light cruisers.”
“We currently have four brigades ready for deployment, sir” Commandant Hunter said. “We are still running through the mustering out process, but we should be ready for combat at any time.”
The Chairman nodded.
Urian continued.
“The first phase will be known as Operation Reconquest. The target will be the Yukra system.”
A detail map of the Yukra system appeared.
“Our plan is to isolate the system and seed the approaches with mines. At the same time, we will break through from Lenoltris with the bulk of Ukra-Tal fleet, and take as many planets as we can before they can mount a counterattack. We plan on staying once we get there, so we are going to want to bring a number of weapons platforms with us to set up on captured worlds. We need to be ready to repel a massive counter attack, because intelligence suggests that the Ukra-Tal have a significant advantage in ship strength over us.”
The galaxy map reappeared.
“We should be ready to begin Operation Reconquest in about a year. In the meantime, we will continue to strengthen our defenses, seeding warp points with mines and building up fighter forces in the frontier systems. Hopefully, the Ukra-Tal will continue to use Iolo as a transit point, allowing us to interdict their traffic there. We hope to provoke another attack on Correlia so that we can give them another bloody nose.”
A few chuckles rose up from around the table.
“For the Romulan front, we need to step up our reconnaissance efforts. Other than the first contact with them, we don’t know anything about their strength or systems. Before we can make any sort of plans, we are going to do a reconnaissance in force. This force should be ready to deploy in about six months.”
He glanced around the room.
“Are there any questions?”
No one spoke.
“That’s all I have sir.”
The Chairman nodded.
“Thank you, Grand Admiral. You’re next, Commandant Hunter.”
The Space Marine commander keyed his datapad, and a number of figures appeared in the holographic display.
“As I mentioned before, we are continuing the mustering out process. We’re running at about twenty percent retirement, which is well below what we expected.”
The Chairman interrupted him.
“What were your estimates, Commandant?” he asked.
“Well sir, we anticipated fifty percent, with seventy percent being the high end, at which point we would have had to activate forced retention measures.” Hunter answered.
“What do you attribute the high retention to?” the Chairman inquired.
Hunter paused for a moment.
“Well sir, most of the men are saying that they want to see this through to the end. A lot of the marines leaving were the ones who joined up when they already had families back home. The one’s who joined up young don’t have any attachments to go back to, so they decided to stay in and try to finish the job.”
“I see,” said the Chairman, “please continue.”
Another display appeared, showing troop strengths.
“First and second brigades were the only two units to see combat action. First brigade suffered relatively light losses, while second brigade was mauled at the Battle of Rage. We have brought second brigade back up to full strength, and will mix the veterans in with the new recruits to spread the experience throughout the brigade. Consequently, there will be a disproportionate number of promotions in second brigade. Third brigade is deployed on Highrock, and the fourth brigade is on Norak.”
At this, some of the faces at the table frowned slightly. Fourth brigade was an all Norakian brigade, and not everyone in the government supported the though of arming the former enemies of the Society. So far, there had been no incidents, and all of the Norakian Space Marines displayed an almost fanatical loyalty to the Society, but there were still detractors. Hunter continued. “At this point, we think it would be best to assign first, third and fourth brigades to Ukra-Tal Fleet, while second brigade will be assigned to Romulan Fleet. We have more than enough recruits to raise two more brigades, and will assign these to Romulan Fleet, with the option of assigning one of them where the need is most pressing.”
He keyed the datapad again, and vehicle schematics were displayed.
“We are planning on upgrading the Blazer Combat Vehicle. The biggest upgrade will be the addition of the new generation of battle computers, which will allow them to fire more accurately. We will also be able to incorporate some of the improvements learned in the field into the new vehicles. Finally, we are going to retire the current assault rifle and introduce the new PPR-3 Phased Poloron Rifle. These changes should greatly enhance the combat power of the Space Marines.”
The Commandant finished his presentation.
Next, Admiral Ash of the Naval Design Bureau discussed the task of upgrading the fleet with the latest generation of weapons and battle computers. He estimated that all ships should be upgraded by the time Operation Reconquest was ready to begin.
Director Sangi Mulatti discussed the focus of the Remorhaz Security and Intelligence Bureau. Most of the intelligence and espionage were to be focused on the Ukra-Tal, but efforts would be made against the Romulans as opportunities presented themselves.
The various other ministers presented their plans for supporting the war.
The meeting was coming to an end. Chairman Sachmo stood again and addressed the gathered officials.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will go over all of your proposals and get back to you with any suggestions that I may come up with. I can tell you that at this point, I don’t see many changes being recommended. As usual, your plans are visionary, precise, and well organized. Thanks to you all, the transition from a defensive war to an offensive war should be as smooth as possible. Does anyone have any Last minute questions?”
There were none.
“Alright then, let’s put these plans in motion. Thank you for your time.”
With that, he turned and left.

[ June 08, 2004, 18:31: Message edited by: sachmo ]