AQ/D01 - Observation Lounge

[Daniel Brooks]

==SEE WIKI FOR OBSERVATION LOUNGE LAYOUT==

[Daniel Brooks]

<<<Bridge<<<

Entering the Observation Lounge Daniel walked over to one of the seats at the head of the table, knowing that Commander Velaul would be sitting to his right.

Taking a seat he awaited for the other senior staff to enter before he said,

"Go ahead with your briefing Commander Talion."

==Tag all==

[Beno Velaul]

<<<Bridge<<< 

Beno walked into the Observation Lounge, Beno didn't bother with the beverage it wasn't going to take too long. Soon Beno took her proper seat to Daniels right, she was interested in what Tallion had to say." Then she would know who to give credit too, by now Beno was learning her style. Daniel gave the go ahead to start, and Beno gave her undivided attention.

==Tag==

[Alexander Talion]

<<< Bridge <<<

Once everyone got settled and the CO gave him the green light, Alex began...

"I spoke with Lieutenant Thorn and she has been testing something that might give us something to use on the enemy that is unexpected."

He brought up an image on the large viewer on the wall, "I've seen something like this involving nano-tech, but it was on a very small scale. For it to work for us, we don't need to deal with the dangerous complexities of the nano-tech. This will employ micro-bots and is based on technology that we're simply repurposing on a scale that can be effective in a combat situation."

The video image changed to show the tiny robots working in an almost fluid motion in some testing, "They're still very small, but they're using a superconductor coating and are each able to generate fields that connect each other. The more there are, the more processing power they have together and the more energy they can create. When these are loaded into a dummy warhead, they are delivered to the target, but instead of using hard kinetic impact or an explosive detonation they impact the shields with what is considered a soft contact. The shielding doesn't react to them as a kinetic threat as a result. The robots are instantly going to apply what was originally designed as a stealth effect and dissipate the energy of the shielding around them."

The image showed the robots actually making a physical hole in a shielding field and someone sticking their hand through it with no contact to the field itself. "This alone night be of use, but what the real plan involves here goes further. It is common for shielding to use a different frequency of energy and has its own unique generator source. This is also true for the generation of the structural integrity fields."

A new video showed the blob of robots landing on the shields and then extending through the shields to the hull surface of a ship. These robots then make contact with the hull structure and form a hard connection between the shields and the structural integrity, causing a conflict that is highly problematic for both, effectively negating both, at least in this area. Further, the shields, even if they are extended further away from the ship, this spot is now anchored at this distance and will not conform to the new variable geometry."

The image showed a ship with the shielding violently fluctuating and reacting to the shorting of the field, draining it as it caused some minor damage to the hull as well. The shields tried to extend to negate the short circuit, but there was almost a hole in the shields where it looked like a funnel to where the robots were attached. The field was still connected to the superconducting robots.

In the sort term, especially in combat, they have limited choices. If they keep their shields up, this will drain their shields slowly by doing damage to their hull in the process. To turn off the structural integrity reduces the drain on the shields, but then increases the rate of damage to the hull. The entire time they are struggling to decide what to do next, this also becomes a targeting point that we're able to home in torpedoes on that will destroy the robots, but will punch right through the shields. There's also the added perk that if you make this happen too close to an impulse engine, it disrupts the field of the driver coils as well and can effective knock out an impulse engine without appearing to have fired a shot."

An image came up for various sizes of delivery options. "A torpedo or probe can deliver a pretty good size payload. We have stealth probes that can get close, but nothing is certain. This can even be delivered as a cluster bomb effect with each smaller canister containing robots with their own target location guiding them. When in doubt, they can be loaded into a micro-torpedo, like from a shuttle and we could drop them like mines and then have them triggered remotely, confusing the enemy as to where these are even coming from. Cardassians are are what I affectionately like to call paranoid, so this is the sort of thing they will likely attribute to cloaked technology and unseen allies, but that's just some psychological speculation."

Alex gave a sigh and finished with, "The hardest will be the Dreadnought, but these will certainly be effective on the other ships. No matter how you slice it, these are some tools to plant the seeds of chaos in an enemy that is confident that they know what to expect from us. For example, if you hit them in a nacelle, they're not going to be able to form a controlled warp field, meaning they can't escape unless we deactivate the robots. I'm not a big plans kind of guy, so I don't know what you have in mind sir, but I understand trying to control the field of battle and I think this might be able to at least convince the Cardassians that they are not in control. That could buy some valuable time and make them rethink the situation. Anytime you can give an enemy doubt, it give your side hope."

He glanced around, "Questions?"

== Tag to all in the briefing ==

[Jez Mala]

<<< Bridge.<<<

Jez took a seat across from Commander Talion; she truly admired him. She was fascinated by his presentation and she sat silently absorbing his information.

Jez had been quiet throughout Alex's presentation, her eyes following the demonstrations on the viewer. She had seen enough battlefield technology to know that the most dangerous weapons weren't always the ones that made the biggest explosions. Sometimes, the most effective weapon was the one that made an enemy wonder what the hell was happening to them.

When Alex finally asked for questions, Jez leaned forward slightly.

" Commander, I've got one," she said. "Actually, several."

She glanced toward the image of the micro-bots attached to the simulated hull.

"First, I like the concept. A lot. You're not trying to overpower their defenses; you're convincing their defenses to work against themselves. That's exactly the kind of asymmetric advantage we need against an enemy who thinks they know how we're going to fight."

Jez pointed toward the display.

"But from a Security perspective, I'm interested in what happens after we deploy these. You said we can deactivate them remotely. How secure is that control signal? Because if the Cardassians figure out what we're doing, I don't want them hijacking the signal and turning our little surprise against us."

She paused, considering the possibilities.

"Second, identification. Once these things are on a ship, how do we make sure they're attaching themselves to the right system? Shield generators, structural integrity systems, nacelles, impulse engines—I understand the theory. But in a real combat environment, things aren't going to be as neat as they are in a test chamber. I want to know what happens if the bots encounter multiple compatible energy fields."

Jez leaned back, folding her arms.

"And third..." A faint smile crossed her face. "You called Cardassians paranoid. You're absolutely right. But that's also where I think this could become really useful."

She looked around the room.

"We don't necessarily have to destroy anything. If they start seeing unexplained shield failures, localized structural-field disruptions, impulse engines dropping offline, and torpedoes suddenly finding vulnerabilities that weren't there thirty seconds earlier, they're going to start looking for an explanation."

Her expression became more serious.

"And if they can't find one, they'll invent one."

Jez looked back at Alex.

"That's where the psychological effect becomes important. Cardassians like having explanations. They like knowing who did something, why they did it, and what they're going to do next. Take that away from them, and you've created uncertainty."

She nodded toward the viewer.

"So, yes. I think this could be useful. Very useful. But I'd recommend we don't use it just as another weapon. Use it as a tool for controlling the battlefield. Disable one system here. Disrupt another there. Force them to change course, drop shields, redistribute power, or break formation. Make every decision they make a response to something we did."

Jez's smile returned.

"And if they start believing we're using cloaked ships, invisible weapons, or some new technology they don't understand?"

She shrugged.

"Let them believe it."

She looked toward the commanding officer.

"From a security standpoint, I'd support testing it. But before we take it into combat, I want Thorn and Alex working with Security and Tactical to develop safeguards for the control system, identification protocols, and a reliable way to recover or deactivate the bots if something goes wrong."

Jez glanced once more at the image of the tiny machines crawling across the simulated hull.

"Because the last thing we need is to invent a weapon so clever that we forget to ask what happens when it doesn't do what we expect."

She settled back into her chair.

"Other than that? I think Alex may have just handed us a way to make the Cardassians question everything they think they know about us."



== Tag All.=

[Alexander Talion]

Alex smiled and looked at Jez, "You're right, on all counts. That's also why we're all in here together. This is a team thing. By the way, to both you and Mister Coppola, welcome to your first official table meeting like this as Department Heads. You're right to ask those questions, but remember that it is so that we can advise out Captain, who makes those decisions. We give him the tools, possible ideas of how they might work or how we might be able to help, but He's the one who needs to decide what tactic to turn it into, what advantage it allows him to exploit and so on. We do our best in here so that he can do his best with what we hand him."

He took a breath and began, "First point, no, this is not a direct attack. At best, it creates a weakness to exploit with follow up direct attacks, but mostly it becomes a distraction, an anomaly, something that is unexpected and pulls a brick from the foundation of what the enemy thinks they know. That makes the faith in the rest of their plan unstable. One brick can be ignored, but several makes them question everything they know and what they don't know. Why aren't we running yet? Why aren't there more ships here yet? Questions that they get to worry about. As a fighter, if you can move in a way that opens your opponent to an attack, even if you don't take advantage of it, they know as well as you do that you could have and that they made a mistake."

Alex looked to the CO, "To the question of control, it is multi-level. The default can be as simple as if we lose the encrypted link, they can't be shut down and the Cardassians will literally have to go out and scrap these things off of the hull manually. Even if they send automated robots out to do it, it takes time. It only takes a few keystrokes to make it so that if threatened, the bots link the shield conductivity to the unit or people trying to remove them and they have to be destroyed from a distance to do it safely, using phasers and such to remove them, but they're still able to transfer most of the energy laterally, so even that might take a while and they will not be happy about that. Remember that these things work on a hive concept and can run complex program sequences, at least until they get reduced to about a handful of units, in which case they can be given a default command, but by then they will have already accomplished their mission."

Looking over to Coppola, he said, "This leads me to the second point, targeting. The native program operating these was originally adapted from the same targeting program we use to assist Tactical in finding and locking onto enemies from the Bridge. This was deliberate, so that it could primarily be able to have fine distinction in target selections. With our link, we can actually designate very specific target locations right up until they actually make contact after deployment. So, your weapon can be guided and even switch target right up until impact. In fact, you can use them as remote sensors to help suggest targets, if you so desired. The program is not Cindy, but it has been in development for years now, so it is pretty smart. It is designed to be multi-purpose and in this case, it wants to cause chaos with enemy systems, because it started out knowing how to look for vulnerabilities in targets as a primary directive. I'm sure that's something Tactical can find something to do with."

Looking back at Jez, Alex continued, "Third, Yes, we're counting on Cardassians being Cardassians. We don't go for the direct shot, because they design their defenses to be effective against a frontal assault. The easiest way to reduce our threat with these would be to shut down their structural integrity fields and drop their shields, that would leave our bots to very little effectiveness unless we directed them to do something else once that happens. The odds of them simply dropping their shields, well...that would go against their grain and would require them to adapt faster than they tend to. However, if they bring their systems back online, the bots are still there and can still carry out their programs and they haven't solved the situation unless they are willing to talk instead of fight. Also, I want to point out that these have not been combat tested, but they have actually been tested on our own hulls to see what would happen. They were tested in the lab first, but then they were tested on actual systems to see how effective they were. Some of that video recording was not simulation, it was from tests that Lieutenant Thorn has completed over the years. Her and I have a shared interest in such programs. My field is more with Drones and programs like Cindy. For Thorn, it is more about Damage Control, Search and Rescue inside areas of a ship that are damaged and too dangerous to send people in without good information and so on. Instead of Cindy, she has DeeDee."

Alex looked at the CO and added, "I'll leave the conversation at this specific weapon of choice for now. If things get very dangerous, we might discuss other options, but...I would prefer if we never had to explore what I would consider a worst case scenario...Sir."

== Tag all ==

[Cologero Coppola]

Cologero was listening to the Commander speak while drawing an imaginary net that it almost sounded like, it was like a construction of a ship in a bottle. Each piece being put into place growing bigger as each piece goes in, as the net gets bigger the harder it is to get rid of. As he was listening to now Jez get some clarity there was more to the puzzle. "We extend while they contract." Cologero was quietly talking to himself. He looked at his fist like it was some kind of space station, around it was a lot of ships that cause a blockade. 

"Commander that sounds more like placing a brick on their foot, they are stuck there but it doesn't actually control the battle field conditions. Locking that door trapping us inside that is closer to controlling the battle field, this is closer to removing the flight from the fight." Cologero was thinking about how to present this better.

"Ok so let me get this strait right now the Cardassians have a foothold situation, they have established a blockade within our territory. Chances are good that the occupied station would make it harder for them to use their station to resupply, or even use their communications." The idea as a whole isn't a bad one, just needed some refining. 

"If we establish a blockade of our own we can cut them off from their own space, if we make a blockade theirs we can control the battle field completely. We lack the ability to maintain it long, Captain I believe this is exactly what they need to see. If they see our blockade that fails and a weapon we deploy fail, their ego will kick in underestimate us mistakes will be made." Cologero was forming something in his mind.

"We have stealth probes that we can hide people in we would need a minimum of three, we can expand on that later. Thorn was great at quoting the bible, how about this one. Mathew six three never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Naturally as children they took it too literally. 

"What the Cardassians see is us attempt something that is designed to fail, the Obsidian Order I have no doubt know your device. They know everything about it that you do, possibly even more. We can actually use this to our advantage, they see our first volley fail up to our third. They even watch us do a tactical retreat, this should inflate their ego. What they don't see is us smuggling three officers onto one of their ships. With that we have two pronged attack from the inside and out, Cardassians are not known for their backup systems so the teams can cause disruptions to their primary ones." If he was there he would start with low level systems working his way up, they just needed permission to do so..

"The Tactical retreat can afford you the opportunity to gain information on how to make it work better, if we refine it enough we can keep ahead of the Obsidian Order. If we do two failed attempts by the time we get to the third they will completely dismiss our efforts, the first two established a couple of building blocks. Then the third one sets the stage for the final kill." Cologero had faith this could work, if they just refined it a little more.

Cologero pulled out his medallion of Saint Jude. "Commander I believe if we fully merge our two plans together it has a higher chance of success, plus we have Saint Jude in our side. Saint Jude is the saint of hopeless, impossible, or desperate causes this certainly qualifies." The last word on anything would be on the shoulders of the Commanding Officer, it also gave him a better idea of what Velaul was talking about. This choice no matter what it is would weigh heavily on his mind, no matter what he chooses the question will always be if it was the right one. 

==Tag==

[Alexander Talion]

Alex listened to what Cologero was suggesting and was almost certain that he didn't fully understand the dangers and complexity of his plan to infiltrate such an enemy ship. It would almost certainly be a suicide mission. There was a way to do it, but not by having people board the ship. Alex almost spoke up, but decided it might be best if he kept quiet for now. He had said enough and it was time for the others to voice their thoughts. He would speak up on the matter if the Captain thought he wanted to run with such a mission. Alex really didn't want more blood on his hands, but it would be even worse if he let his fellow crew die when he could have avoided them going in the first place.

[Jez Mala]

Jez was surprised; her first official meeting in the Observation lounge, it wasn’t what she expected. Jez had been quiet for several moments, listening to Cologero finish his explanation. She watched the way he had been physically mapping the battlefield in the air, expanding his imaginary net as the pieces came together.

“We extend while they contract,” she repeated softly.

Then she looked at the tactical display again.

“I think we're missing one piece.”

Jez stepped closer to the display and brought up a schematic of the battlefield.

“Everyone keeps talking about what we want the Cardassians to see. The blockade. The retreat. The bots. The ships.” She looked around the table. “But what if we don't show them the battlefield at all?”

She manipulated the display, creating several Federation ship icons.

“What if we use holographic emitters and sensor spoofing to make them believe there are ships where there aren't?”

She moved several icons into different positions.

“Not simple holographic ships. That would be too easy to detect. We combine holographic projections with our existing sensor data and communications traffic. Make each false ship appear to have a believable warp signature, shield emissions, weapons charging, even internal communications.”

Jez smiled slightly.

“We don't need them to fool every Cardassian sensor forever. We only need to fool their tactical officers long enough for them to make a decision.”

She turned toward Cologero.

“Your blockade becomes bigger than it actually is.”

Then toward Alex.

“And your bots become part of the illusion. We deliberately attach some to real ships while others are directed toward false targets. The Cardassians see the bots moving toward a vessel that doesn't actually exist, and suddenly their tactical computers are telling them something completely different from what their eyes are telling them.”

Jez paused.

“And that's when we give them the retreat.”

She rearranged the display.

“Except we're not retreating from them. We're creating the appearance that we're falling back because we've encountered a much larger Cardassian force than expected.”

Her eyes narrowed as the idea developed.

“We make them believe they're winning. Their ships advance. Their formation changes. They move toward what they think is our weakened position.”

Jez tapped several of the false contacts.

“And those ships they're advancing toward?”

She smiled.

“They're not there.”

She let the silence sit for a moment.

“We could use the holographic signatures to pull individual ships out of formation. Convince one group that another Cardassian unit is moving into their position. Make another group believe we've broken through somewhere else. We don't have to control their ships.”

Her smile widened.

“We just have to make them control themselves.”

Jez looked toward the Captain.

“Meanwhile, the real ships stay quiet. The infiltration teams get into position. The bots gather intelligence. And Tactical watches how the Cardassians respond to every false threat we create.”

She folded her arms.

“Eventually, they'll start seeing patterns. They'll think they've identified our trick. That's when we change it.”

Jez glanced at Cologero.

“That's where your idea comes back in. We give them two or three apparent victories. Let them believe they've figured out the deception. Then, when they become confident enough to stop questioning their sensors…”

She pointed toward the tactical display.

“We give them one contact that's real.”

A beat passed.

“And make sure it's exactly where we want them to look.”

Jez leaned back slightly.

“Think about it. The Obsidian Order expects deception. They expect spies. They expect tricks. So they'll be looking for the trick.”

She smiled.

“What they won't expect is for us to deliberately show them the trick they're expecting.”

Jez looked around the table.

“We aren't hiding the battlefield from them. We're giving them a battlefield that doesn't exist.”

She glanced at Cologero's medallion and then back to him.

“And if Saint Jude wants to take credit afterward, I'm sure we'll let him.”

Jez's expression became serious again.

“But that's the advantage. Their greatest intelligence organization becomes a liability because they'll be so certain that everything they're seeing has meaning.”

She tapped the display one final time.

“Sometimes the best way to defeat an enemy who thinks they know everything…”

A faint grin crossed her face.

“…is to give them more information than they can possibly interpret correctly.” Said Jez.

"Gentlemen, in my opinion, that Dreadnought Missile is the greater threat, Jez stood beside the tactical display, bringing up a series of Cardassian vessel schematics.

“Captain, I'd like to add something to the discussion before we decide exactly how we're going to use Alex's devices and Cologero's infiltration plan.”

She enlarged the first schematic.

“We have a historical advantage here. Cardassian weapons and automated systems have demonstrated a rather interesting weakness over the years: they can be extremely sophisticated while still being remarkably predictable.”

Jez brought up a series of highlighted system pathways.

“Take the old Dreadnought weapons platform. Its artificial intelligence was designed around probabilistic analysis and game theory. That sounds impressive until you realize what happens when the system encounters information that contradicts its assumptions. Instead of reconsidering its conclusions, it could interpret contradictory information as enemy deception.”

She paused.

“In other words, it could become convinced that it was right precisely because someone was trying to prove it wrong.”

Jez gave the room a faint smile.

“That's not artificial intelligence. That's a Cardassian with a computer.”

She continued.

“The system also demonstrated extreme distrust of its own operators. Attempts to override or abort its mission could be interpreted as hostile interference. That's important because it gives us a potential avenue for deception. If their automated systems inherit even a fraction of that design philosophy, we don't necessarily have to defeat their systems.”

She tapped the display.

“We may be able to convince their systems that their own operators are the threat.”

The next schematic appeared.

“Target recognition is another concern. Cardassian targeting systems have historically placed enormous weight on matching known signatures and mission parameters. That's useful when the battlefield behaves exactly as expected. But introduce contradictory sensor information, false signatures, or localized spatial anomalies, and suddenly the system has to decide which information it trusts.”

Jez looked toward Tactical.

“That gives us an opening.”

She brought up several false sensor contacts.

“If we combine holographic deception with sensor spoofing, we can create conflicting information. Not enough to simply make a ship disappear, but enough to make their computers disagree with their crews.”

She paused.

“And when the computer says one thing and the tactical officer sees another, someone has to make a decision.”

Jez smiled.

“We want them arguing with their computers instead of shooting at us.”

She changed the display again.

“There's also a hardware lesson. The Dreadnought carried an enormous matter-antimatter warhead, but development problems reportedly resulted in a mechanical kinetic detonator. The important part isn't the detonator itself. It's the philosophy behind it.”

She pointed toward the schematic.

“Cardassian engineering tends to be very good at making something powerful. That doesn't necessarily mean every component is equally sophisticated. Sometimes the weakest component is buried inside an otherwise extremely advanced system.”

Jez looked around the table.

“So our objective shouldn't necessarily be finding the strongest part of their defenses. It should be finding the part they assumed nobody would bother looking for.”

She brought up another set of systems.

“There's precedent for navigational and sensor systems being disrupted by unusual spatial phenomena. Again, I'm not suggesting we manufacture a tetryon anomaly and hope for the best. But it demonstrates something useful: their systems can become dangerously dependent on the integrity of their sensor picture.”

She leaned against the edge of the console.

“And that brings me back to the holographic deception.”

The tactical display filled with multiple versions of the same Cardassian formation.

“Imagine their sensors detect six Federation vessels. Their visual systems confirm six vessels. Their communications intercept six vessel signatures. Their tactical computer identifies six targets.”

She paused.

“There are actually three.”

Jez allowed the implication to settle.

“Now imagine we deliberately make two of those false contacts behave incorrectly. One appears to be retreating. Another appears to be moving toward their flank. Their tactical computer will try to reconcile the information. If we make the contradictions believable enough, they'll start making decisions based on what they think is happening rather than what is actually happening.”

She turned toward Cologero.

“That gives your infiltration teams something much more valuable than a simple distraction.”

She pointed toward the tactical display.

“It gives them cover.”

Jez then brought up a representation of a Cardassian ship.

“And if we do get people aboard, the historical lesson from Dreadnought becomes even more interesting. External defenses can be extremely difficult to defeat. Internal systems are another matter.”

She looked toward the Captain.

“That's the principle I'd recommend we use. We don't try to overpower the fortress. We convince the fortress to open the door.”

A slight grin appeared.

“Preferably while it's busy shooting at a hologram.”

Jez stepped back from the display.

“So my recommendation is that we stop thinking about these as three separate plans. The bots create confusion and gather intelligence. The holographic deception corrupts their understanding of the battlefield. The apparent retreats encourage them to become overconfident. And the infiltration teams exploit the gaps created by all three.”

She folded her arms.

“We aren't trying to make the Cardassians believe something that isn't true.”

A beat.

“We're giving them so many believable versions of the truth that they can't determine which one actually is.”

Jez looked around the table.

“And if their systems have inherited the same weakness we've seen before—if they trust their assumptions more than contradictory evidence—then eventually they'll do our work for us.”

She nodded toward the tactical display.

“They'll trap themselves.”

Jez sat down and waited for everyone to process what she had said. She knew that the Cardassians were sneaky and ruthless, especially when the Obsidian Order was involved.



== Tag All. ==

[Alexander Talion]

Alex let out a breath long and slow, looking only at the table, "I can play several games of three-D chess at once and the degree of choreography you just described is far too complicated for us to accomplish and most people aren't even going to be able to even follow it, even if you wrote it out with pictures for them. Every complication is a possible weak link. Cardassians don't like letting machines run things for them and they almost never use opticals, but sensor ghosts are a tool that's been used before...which is why they try to verify targets with gravitons and tachyons, because you can fool one, but you can't fool both. When in doubt, they will fire what they will refer to as a warning shot. The problem is that they like it when shots get fired, because they plan around brute force fights. We really don't want to give them a reason to start firing at all."

Alex tilted his head, "I would advise against sending people to try and board their ships. They tend to treat their own people badly enough and will not hesitate to use very lethal means to shut down areas of their ship that might be compromised. If we need to control one of their ships, that is what I would say ventures into one of my worst case scenarios."

After a pause, he added, "I could do that, but then Star Fleet would want to know how I did it and I'm not going to want to tell them. If it gets that bad, we're better off destroying their ship than taking it over. If we go that route, I would like to give them full opportunity to evacuate their people to minimize the loss of life...not to mention us getting to minimum safe distance ourselves. The problem with such violence is that it almost always results in more violence as a result. I think we need to encourage exhausting the diplomatic options first. There's little to orchestrate if it is all fabricated by their own paranoia."

Alex looked at the Captain, because he didn't want to look into Beno's eyes right then, "Captain, your thoughts on any of this?"

== Tags...I think we might need to let the CO and FO voice an opinion on how they want to approach this situation... ==

[Beno Velaul]

From what Beno could tell Cologero didn't fully grasp what was said, as a Tactical Officer he wasn't fully expected too. Even with that said he did have some valid points, Cardassian intelligence did have a chance in knowing about his technology. At this point Beno was starting to wonder why they were there in the first place, there had to be something other than nothing else better to do. 

"Lieutenant I believe even the great Saint would prefer to sit that one out." Looking at Alex for a second then back to Cologero. "From what I gather that would be unwise, in most other cases I can understand the two pronged attack. This just isn't that time, I couldn't send anyone on it even leading the charge myself." Beno started to think a little more on the subject.

"Now with that said Commander there was one big point that did come out of that, we need to gain more data on the subject. You said that this is not Battle tested, I would recommend we run some battle simulations. I believe we have time to run at least two." All she really wanted was something to show battle testing, even if it was a little bit. 

Jez had a great point too there was only one over all plan, just with many parts. "Captain I do believe that with Commander Talions plan it would minimize casualties all round, I would feel more comfortable if we were to run at least two battle simulations.  To give it a fair chance we would need at least five hours, we get the raw data." There was something that she was holding back, it was just a gut feeling and it was bad.

==Tag==

[Alexander Talion]

Alex was quick to clarify, "We have lots of simulation data. My default standard is a 10,000 sim run with a standard array of variables. We even have lots of practical data about field strengths and so on, from lab work and practical experiments. The only thing we don't have is any actual deployments of it under actual battle conditions. In a perfect world, it would be attempted in an active range against both stationary and moving targets, eventually facing off in various scenarios of remote control drones, it would perhaps then be handed over for military testing in field exercises and so on. We haven't take it out of the controlled environment yet. That's where we are now."

Alex tapped his arm device a couple of times and a PADD materialized on the table in front of him. He tapped it a couple of times, then slid it across to Beno. It contained all of the simulation data and results of lab testing, including some tests in hangers against shuttles.

[Cologero Coppola]

At that very minute Cologero knew where he went wrong his thinking wasn't exactly that clear, being the first meeting like this made him a little apprehensive. His thoughts were a little jumbled on the subject thankfully the Commander provided him a way out, he just felt a little silly before restoring the medallion away again. He could tell that the First Officer was holding something back, if she wanted to let them know she would.

"Thank you Commander." He said while reimagining the effect, he seen it in front of him Cologero was just imagining it in a battle against the Cardassians. Commander Talion was a brilliant man he had no idea how he came up with these things, hopefully Cologero could learn something from him. He was right boarding the Cardassian ships wasn't wise at all even with equipment, if caught the consequences were enough that he didn't want to imagine.

"Commander Talion." Cologero wanted to sound a little more intelligent than before. "Seeing how this is an impressive piece of work, my question is this. After deploying this indirect method of attack wouldn't that paint a giant target on us?" In some situations it could be useful, paint a target make them chase you to the field of your choice. "Also is there a way we can prepare another ship to fire the same thing? If we had two or three ships firing this weapon it could give you more usable data to improve where you need, plus the Cardassians wouldn't know how many ships actually have this." If they had other ships fire this weapon the Cardassians could believe it was now a standard weapon, it would give them cause to rethink their adventures. Cologero wasn't going to pretend he understood the mechanics behind it, just the tactical advantages and disadvantages.  

==Tag==

[Kalli Thorn]

Kalli stepped into the room in time to hear Alex talk about what was on the PADD. She walked over to a chair and sat down.

"Sorry for the interruption, but Commander Talion seemed to have high hopes for my project in question and I felt that, given the situation, I needed to perhaps clear things up a bit. What he just said about the testing is true, but those numbers will also show that a Dreadnought is at the high end of those specs and we don't know how effect they would be against such a strong power source. They weren't designed for that. The smaller ships, yes. In fact, they were designed to disable escorts and small craft while being a problem for Galor class. They aren't a solution, they're something to buy a weaker force time to focus on specific targets. It's hard to provide suppressive fire in space, so you have to give them something to worry about as a distraction."

She wrinkled her nose a moment, "I hadn't thought of them as a delivery system, but after he suggested it, I realized it was an option as well. It could act as a means of messing with an enemy on a larger scale, but it would be risky because once it was on a ship, the control over it is very questionable. As it takes damage, the capacity to follow the initial program becomes a variable. If your computer was running on a thousand isolinear processors and you began randomly pulling them out as fast as you can, the predictability of how well that program runs becomes questionable, so your orders need to be simple. This also makes them indiscriminate, like tossing in a grenade. You can't be sure who or what it might impact, but turning it off becomes problematic, even if you have decided to call a halt to hostilities."

She looked around the table and then said to the CO, "Sorry sir, I just felt I needed to make sure that was clear. I'm more about making tools than making weapons. When I make weapons...I don't like people to know about them until it is too late. That way, I remain the only one who knows about them...sir."

== Tags to all ==

[Jez Mala]

Jez sat listening as everyone put forward their ideas and suggestions. She was beginning to understand why senior officers looked older than they actually were. It was stress. Jez actually felt bad for the Captain. He had to worry about everything, take everyone's suggestions into account, and somehow make the right decision.

Jez had to fight a smirk as Alex seemed like a teenage boy talking about riding the Bone Buster Hovercoaster on Mars. Except, in this case, it was about destructive little robots destroying an enemy's defenses. She so wanted to send Alex a telepathic message saying, Relax, you're acting a little too giddy, but this wasn't the place or the time. She truly admired Alex's determination. Jez tried picturing Alex as a young teenager having fun, but she just couldn't do it.


He probably was born with a Scientific Data PADD, but that's why he’s the best.

Jez's PADD indicated that she had received a reply to her inquiry from the Chief of Security on Deep Space 9. She glanced at her PADD and read the message.

[ There was no increase in traffic. —End.]

The message didn't contain any data, no numerical averages for Cardassian or Dominion traffic. Yes, Jez hadn't gone into great detail in her message or explained why she wanted the information, but she also knew that if there was a possibility that your messages had been intercepted or someone had decrypted them, it was best practice to act as though you didn't suspect anything. You didn't want to tip off the enemy that you knew they knew.

As Mike had told her many times, “To get smart, you have to play dumb once in a while.” Jez understood what that meant completely: if people think you're harmless, that you don’t know anything, then you aren’t a threat, and they'll feel safe talking around you; thus, more information comes your way.

Still, Jez couldn't shake the feeling that a Cardassian invasion didn't make sense. Starbase 214 wasn't anything spectacular; it was one of hundreds scattered throughout the Federation. In her opinion, this was too big for just the Cardassians to do alone,

What is their motivation here? The Cardassians can't be that stupid to take on the Federation by themselves, can they?

Jez looked around at her colleagues.

“Are we missing something here? Why would the Cardassians invade Federation space? Why run the risk? They still haven't fully recovered from the Dominion War. They aren't on the best of terms with most of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Is there something on or near Starbase 214 that they want—something they're willing to go to war over?”

She paused for a moment, considering the possibilities.

“What system is near Starbase 214? Is there anything valuable in those systems? Dilithium, Deuterium, Tritanium, or latinum?”

Jez let her speculation hang in the air before continuing.

“If we knew what their motivation for this aggression was, maybe we could take it away, make it less appealing, or make it so difficult that they'd think twice about pursuing it. Unless this is a diversion.”

She looked around the room. 

“You know, do something over here to get everyone looking in one direction, and once everyone is distracted, they do something completely different somewhere else.”

Jez leaned back slightly, letting the implications of her suggestion sink in.



== Tag All.==

[Beno Velaul]

Having a half smile when Thorn walked in Beno knew she would appear eventually, it was unfortunate that the origination of her bad feeling became clear. The unpredictable results put this plan in motion would be a pandoras box, once its opened there was no way of controlling the outcome.  Benoes ears were already ringing from the yelling Star Fleet would give them, if her theory was correct Star Fleet Command would be the second round of yelling. 

Her former Commanding Officer would be the first, Beno knew for sure their paths were going to cross again. Something else crossed her mind, was the location of the star base. It was reasonable to conclude that they were attempting to reclaim territory, their attempt to rebuild the former glory days.

"The easy answer for me to come up with is the location of the Star Base is in their former territory, starting there they can eventually expand." Right now that wasn't the important part, the important part is what to do when they get there. There was a bit of irony at its finest, or just weird timing to have a team building exercise like that.  She glanced at Jez.

"The success of this rides on the entire fleet working on the same plan together, as is this would be a very hard sell for them to get behind it. Lieutenant Thorn I apricate your honesty about this, the delivery system is going to be the issue. You know this better than any of us can, you said that the bigger this is the harder it is to control. What if one ship was only responsible for a quarter of the size, if we can't how much time would we need to make it possible?" If there wasn't a way to do it now the whole idea would have to be scrapped, even if they get it to the optimal operational status they might get ordered not to all the same. There was still hope for the plan, they just needed to be able to convince the fleet the same thing.

==Tag==

[Kalli Thorn]

Kalli nodded to the FO and gave her a friendly smile. She liked her and Alex had told her about their relationship. She was very happy for the entire family and right now, she felt like one of the calm adults in the room who understood the situation. Alex briefly tried to explain the ideas the CoS and the CTO were trying to envision.

Kalli shook her head slowly, "First of all, using holographics and sensor ghosts is a weak bit of smoke and mirrors that is very risky and I don't think this situation will give it much traction. The idea is right, but you can't beat them over the head with it. I've fought againstbigger numbers and brute force and you can't do it on their terms. If the Yeager isn't actively fighting them right now, it either means they're already dead, or they aren't fighting at all. If they were in talks, we would know about it. I don't know how, but they're hiding or using some tactic that is allowing them to remain in the area without engaging the enemy. That's smart and if we can drop in on the edges of it all, we might be able to help."

She thought as she spoke, "That big ship is able to shoot anything it wants and keep shooting. They don't need to scan everything, they can shoot everything. It is designed to destroy. It doesn't have to move much, because nothing can move it if it doesn't want to be moved. If we give it small sensor fluctuations at rare intervals, they might be more interested and investigate. If we can lure the smaller ships into breaking formation or splitting up, we might be able to weaken them gradually. My bots are best when used with simple commands that can reach deeply, but we shouldn't use them lightly. They can be slow and quiet, but they're no less deadly than a slavo of torpedo fire. In fact, I suggest that we might best deploy them almost like mines or using probes that can secretly move to specific locations to release them toward their targets. They're actually hard to detect, because they don't tend to return a scanned signal. The best way to detect them is if they're between two ships and the bots break a beam between them, like we used to do for detecting cloaked ships. My point is that if the bot don't cause the disruption Commander Talion is suggesting, they can actually slip inside shields slowly and they conduct some dirty work for us while the enemy doesn't even know they're being attacked yet. You have them focus on specific systems. If you're nice, you have them literally destroy the system, like their entire comm array. They can't replace the entire array in a battle, so they might have to withdraw. If you want to be more evil, you scale it up. Pick a system, they're pretty easy to destroy once you're inside. Life support makes for a slow way to go, but a loss of antimatter containment would take out the station as well, so that might not be a good idea. You could disable the feed to their core though, crippling them. It would be a real shame if something happened to their ship's computer core. You just pick a specific target and tell them to rip it to shreds. More specifically, they detect connections and are instructed to disconnect them so there is no more energy transfer to detect. You can be more specific, but you get the idea. There are evil ways you can sell it, but I won't get into that right now. We can talk details if you ever decide to go that route. You don't even have to say we did it. It could look like we were attacked and we have no idea who's behind it. They just picked a really bad day to show up. They really should have called ahead."

Kalli was being a bit sarcastic now, but it was just part of her personality. Beno knew though, Kalli was not to be trifled with. She was very friendly and even a bit shy, but she was although lethal and her records showed as much, if you knew what you were reading. Alex had even informed Beno that Kalli was always armed, which meant she likely was armed even in their meeting.

Looking to the CO, she shrugged, "I can whip up tons of these little guys, that's not the problem. You just need to decide what it is you want to do with them, then we figure out if we can make it happen before things go too far sideways. I've kept Borg from messing with one of my ships. I'm the one who out-maneuvered them and taught them the value of having more than one computer core in your ship at a time. I'm not afraid of some Cardassians. I just know not to expect to do it in a fair fight is all. When it really comes to fighting any true enemy, there is no such thing as a fair fight, and overkill is under rated. That said, let me know what you need to happen and I promise to try and find a way to make it happen."

Kalli leaned toward Beno and narrowed her eyes, almost whispering, "Have you seen this guy's luggage? Who do you know that uses an industrial grade grav-sled to move his luggage?"

Alex cleared his throat and responded, "Let's stay on topic."

Kalli stared at Alex for a moment, her eyes were searching for something in his face, "I'm not going to be seeing any old friends, am I?" She looked at the CO and then back at Alex. She was about to say something, but Alex turned and stared back, his single eyebrow lift caused her to stop, rethink and simply say, "Never mind, that's all I've got. So, Captain, other than keeping the ship doing what you need it to do, what is it that you need?"

== Tag all ==