This thread is for Arin to run his 'mission planning' sidebar he requested.  Please not this is not the official mission briefing (that will be run by Mark) and it is happening several hours after CC9's battle training.  So people can participate in both threads freely (or in neither but then you wont have much to do!).

Arin drew up the map of the route, the convoy was going to take and set up the ships on it in the standard convoy formation of the Imperial Navy with four TIEs flying cover for the convoy. He had given the operation pretty much thought and now was a good time to receive input from the others in the crew, especially those who were not in the boarding party. Now, all he could do was to wait for people to start appearing.

A reminder that the pilots (which includes Grayrhynn as he's pilotting the boarding vessel) at the least should turn up to this briefing.  People serving on the Nightshrike would benefit to, though Arin has extended the invitation to all.  Remember it's not happening at the same time as CC9's training but I'd like to run the threads simultaneously if possible.

With combat training finished and having done as much as he could for the day on the modifications to his rifle Xil decided to go and see how Arin's meeting was going.

Xil entered the room looking around as he did so. Noting that Arin was the only one present he approached and said "mmm thought that there would have been a few more people here, especially the fighter pilots."

Arin grinned. "They'll be here eventually. I just wanted to get the input of anyone, who has any ideas or thoughts about the spaceborne operation."

Mika comes wondering in, her clothes showing smudges and mute evidence that she'd been hard at it.  She saunters in, slumps into a chair and puts her feet up on whatever is at hand.  "So, what are we talking about?"

"Unless anyone else decides to show up, then I suppose we need to get cracking. If we wait just for a moment longer to see if there's going to be any more of us, so I don't have to explain the plan all over from the beginning."

Xil decides to sit, he had hoped to come in see what was going on, put up a few suggestions if appropriate and then leave. It now looked as if he might be waiting a while.

"No problems, though I had hoped more would be here." He pulls out his datapad and keeps reviewing the other potential modifications to his AR-1 blaster rifle.

"Maybe people are waiting for the Commander's official briefing." came a soft voice from the door.  People turned to see Zyra in the doorway.  It was the first anyone had seen of the Zabrak since she'd vanished the Ghtroc with the refugees some days ago.

"This is purely a planning meeting is it not?  Well not everyone likes planning, some people prefer to just be told what to do.  It is not a fault, nor is discussing ideas.  I know the Commander is always open to good ideas."

"I've also taken the liberty of sending a message out to the others that you're holding this meeting in the Nightshrike main lounge.  You neglected to add the location to your message so people might be confused."

She took a seat in a comfortable chair and watched Arin, her posture and manner suggesting her full attention was on this man.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:56, Fri 21 Sept 2012.

Cor comes in next, looking a little unsettled.  She often does, though.  The Umbaran gives everyone present a short wave and sits down not far from Zyra.  Rather than her normal work clothes she wears comfortable everyday clothing in a blue-grey tone.  A pair of neat-o sunglasses are perched on her nose.

"Hello," she greets, "I felt it might be best to see if I could glean anything from the talks to help with the jamming.  CC9 should be along soon."

Mika gives Cor a nod.  "Glad you could make it."  Mika continues to gives an impression of being slightly bored and not quite ready to take the briefing seriously.

"Well, I suppose we have all, who are going to appear, so let's get the thing started."

A quick press of a button produced a holographic projection of the convoy to be ambushed. "Now, this convoy here is an estimate, nothing more. I've fed in the probable courses of action by the Imperials and my recomendation is as follows." Another press of the button and five more 'blips' appeared, along with the tags indicating what they were.

"We deploy in 'hammer-and-anvil'. That means, Nightshrike, carrying two of our fighters that are powered down to the minimal life support, will threaten the convoy, which causes them to scramble fighters to face it. Meanwhile, the Blue Flight approaches the convoy from the opposite direction, in which case they have to split their forces or hope, they can take out the other flight before the other one gets to the convoy and starts wreaking havoc there. Our goal is to obtain space superiority around the convoy by taking the TIEs out, for which we'll be using the concussion missiles we have in store. If we can obtain more of them, the better."

There was a small pause. "I have been working with Cor in order to create a jamming system that would at least render the enemy communications inoperable and hopefully hamper their targetting computers as well. Had we more time and credits, I would have adviced the creation of an intelligent drone that would be capable of carrying an ion charge close to the convoy and detonating it, but for now, we have to so with what we have."

"After the fighters are dealt with, our fighters will start flying patrol to detect the possible reinforcements for the convoy as early as possible. We don't want to get greedy with this operation - the Imperials have a reasonably sturdy presence in the system after all."

Arin took a look around those present. "Any comments, ideas? I'm all open for suggestions."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:55, Tue 25 Sept 2012.

Remaining silent for the moment, Xil looks at the holoprojected plan that Arin had devised. He tries to assess the success chance of the plan running it through his head. Space combat was not his strength so he waited to see what was said.

Mika listens half-heartedly.  "So we pull out their fighters with the 'Shrike and a couple of snubs, then the rest of the fighters fly in from behind.  Their fighters can't do a whole heck of a lot of damage to the 'Shrike, so if the whole bunch of them turn and go after the blues, do the blues have enough numbers to pull it out?"

"Tactically, the Imperial Flight Leader needs to choose between either splitting his team or fighting one of our groups and hoping, the others don't rip the convoy in to shreds while they are at it. And I dont think, he wants to explain, why he lost a couple of freighters while going after two fighters. The Nightshrike poses a much bigger threat and if they concentrate their fire on it, it can be assumed, the Nightshrike will divert some of its firepower to firing back at them."

Zyra raises her hand.  "I have one question and one comment at the moment."

"My question is, how do you plan to hide the fact that two fighters are flying alone through civilian space?  Surely they will draw attention from civilian vessels in the area long before they're in range of the convoy?  This could prompt a communication to Imperial sector forces to investigate."

"My comment is that if you want more missiles for the mission, all you have to do is provide the credits.  I know Rann bought some for us recently and his supplier had more.  All we lacked was the currency."

Cor nods in agreement.  "Once we have the Ghtroc outfitted to run freight operations we should see some money come in relatively swiftly but until then - or until this mission works out - we are on a very tight budget."  She drums her fingers on her chair arm a few times.  "In terms of flight tactics I am certainly no expert but would it be possible to deploy our fighters from by the Nightshrike and then have the two wing-pairs move in completely opposite directions?  That would force them to split their numbers.  If they did not they would need to, er, 'gang up', at which point they would be turning their backs to at least one group of our fighters.  And, potentially, the capital ship."

Zyra seemed to remember something and pulled out a small datachip.

"I almost forgot.  Speaking of credits, I took the liberty of having a friend secure as many of your credit reserves as I could before the Imps took them.  It's not everything you had but it's all she could manage, minus her fee.  Enough for a fresh start."

She walked over and handed the chip to Arin, then returned to her seat, stopping to whisper something in Cor's ear as she passed.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:13, Thu 27 Sept 2012.

Cor nods with a serious expression on her face and speaks into her comm quietly in Umbaran.

"We would need to drop Blue team in to position a bit earlier, when the enemy is well outside sensor range. Once there, we shut down all but essential systems, just like with the Red team that launches from the 'Shrike. The only one having active sensors on is the Nightshrike and when it acquires the enemy, we spring the trap. That way, they will have to react to two teams descending on them."

"As for the cash, I'll see what I can do. I'll make a couple inquiries."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:06, Thu 27 Sept 2012.

Mika listens to the rest, then adds, "The ships that are left with minimal life support, it'll take them some time to power up their systems before they're ready to mix it up.  It'd be best to let the convey get a good ways past them, even if the convoy paints them on the sensors, they'll have time to get ready before they have to mix it up.  So, is the thought for the enemy fighters, we blast them but for the larger ships we shoot for capturing?  Are we going to blaze away with ion cannons or just depend on the boarding parties?"

"Powering up the fighters won't take too long, trust me. Both the Blue and Red teams will be powered down, Red being docked with the 'Shrike and thus masked from detection. As for the direction of attack, the convoy won't be turning that much without a very serious threat. What you can pretty much always trust when dealing with the Imperials is that they are very much overconfident and scared enough of their own superiors, they will take more risks than you might take yourself in their position."

He had a little pause again. "As for the situation after the fighters have been taken care of, we will be disabling the ships to make boarding them easier."

"How many ion cannons do we have access to?  Two?  One fighter-based, one on the Nightshrike?  Oh," she adds, clearly remembering something.  "The fighter teams will need to bear in mind that whilst the main array of jamming technology will be on the Nightshrike, their own fighters will be carrying signal boosters - not their own jamming suites.  We simply do not have the currency available to kit out every fighter with its own jamming suite - yet."  She looks very serious again.  "What that means is that getting too far away from the Nightshrike will prevent the signal boosters from spreading the jamming signal.  It should be more than sufficient to cover the area of battle but if the enemy tries to bait our fighters out away from the 'Shrike, the signal boosters will no longer be jamming the enemy."

She looks over at Arin.  "I assume, however, that Imperial tactics would be unlikely to prompt such a baiting tactic."

"I doubt that Imperial tactics would include that sort of baiting, unless of course it was to lead them into a trap." Xil says finally joining in the discussion.

Xil had been thinking about the plan and to him it sounded like it would work. Space combat wasn't his strength though so he approached his analysis of the plan from a ground combat perspective. Some time and range estimations had been given in a pretty vague way and it didn't sit well with him.

"It might help to have some sort of alert system for the fighter pilots to let them know that they are getting out of range for the signal boost" he says to Cor "or let them know what the range is even though, you have said it should cover the battle area."

Looking at Mika and Arin "I suppose from my perspective we also need to know exactly how long it will take to power up the fighters as we have two opinions - 'some time' and 'not too long'. Not very helpful really."

OOC:  All the pilots and/or mechanics in the room (which I believe covers everyone here) would know how long it takes to power up a starfighter.  A tiny ship takes 2 rounds (12 seconds).  All the power up times are on p218 of the RCRB.  I think they are ridiculously quick but they're the rules.

One thing to consider with the plan for the 'red team' is the sheer size of space.  Imagine you know a ship is sailing from London to New York.  You plan to ambush it in a ship in the middle of the ocean.  So you plan to lie in wait but you can't use radar or sonar and you have to guess where they will likely go.  Now multiply that size by a thousand or so and move into three dimsensions and you're really going to struggle to place your ships correctly.  If you had their nav plan that would be one thing, but it's all guesswork.  Educated guesswork certainly, but you could still be tens of thousands of kms off (putting the ships way out of jamming range).  Remember how Xil changed their nav course in the convoy defense mission by a little bit and the ambushers were literally hours off course.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:05, Sat 29 Sept 2012.

"Duly noted, Cor", Arin said. "And as said, activating the fighters will not take too long. The thing is to get in to the flight path of the convoy - the freighters can not outrun us, but we need to be in the right position to intercept them. For that, I assume, the CO has a plan."

"So, yes, we have one ion cannon on the 'Shrike and another on one of the fighters. They will be required to disable the freighter or freighters we're going to board, while the rest of the fighters will provide early warning on potential reinforcements."

After a considerable period of not much a PK droid comes in with a pair of cocktail glasses on a tray.  It hands the glasses to Cor and Zyra, and then plods out again wordlessly.

Cor takes her glass with a very serious face and sips it as if nothing unusual has happened, still watching the planning session.

"So, any ideas or thoughts? Or worries about the plan?" Arin tried to milk people for answers as he noticed the silence to engulf the room.

Zyra thanked the droid politely, winked at Cor, stirred her drink and sipped it.  Then she turned her attention back to Arin.

"I'm still interested to hear how you plan to place your powered down fighters accurately ahead of time when we don't know what exact route the convoy will take.  Also how will you prevent civilian traffic accidentally spotting or crashing in to them."

Arin had been quick enough to side step her concerns about the powering up routines on the fighters, dismissed them with just a "Trust me" in response.  True, she was better at capital ships than snubs, but even so there'd be a delay and in a battle, any delay was a concern, at least to her thinking.

But if Arin is going to wave off her concerns, there wasn't much point in bringing them up.  Besides, she was better at patching up the fighters afterwards than she was at deciding where to put them before the battle.

"That will be the problem. We would need to find out the route they are taking, or alternately the Nightshrike should be tailing them to begin with."

Arin knew the problem well enough. He wasn't certain whether Mark had a plan for it or not - had the commander been there, Arin could have asked him. "Any ideas?"

Zyra smiled warmly.  "It is indeed very difficult to determine someone's exact flight plan unless you are standing next to them on the bridge.  Even though we'll know their start point and destination there are still so many ways they can go.  Then there's other factors like how close to any dangers they're willing to go, how skilled their navigator is, how reckless the captain is, space traffic, etc."

"Would it be feasible perhaps to 'tow' the ships into place?  Have Arin and Sheila powered down and once we know where the convoy is heading just drop them in front of it somehow?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:23, Mon 15 Oct 2012.

Cor carefully puts her drink down before clearing her throat a little and responding.

"Physical towing options are almost certainly impossible due to the immense strain on the cables even at extremely slow speeds.  It would result in damage to the cables, the fighters or, most likely, both.  The engineering issues with such things would be... well, not something I would like to have to work on."  She shakes her head slightly.  "Tractor beams would be more likely to work, though of course they would need to be sourced, bought, installed and tested.  And they would not be subtle.  Although..."

The droid engineer makes a thoughtful sound and straightens a little in her seat.  "Would it be possible to set up a decoy convoy of unmarked frigates, with our fighters posing as legitimate protection for it?  I would suggest the same with the Nightshrike but I suspect it would be a little too... suspicious.  Though I may be wrong."

She picks up her glass again and sips it.  "An alternative may be to attach electromagnetic clamps to the landing-gear of the fighters so that they can literally land on the exterior of the Nightshrike's hull.  I would expect the fighters would sit comfortably within the capital ship's hyperdrive envelope and could then power up and detach in seconds.  Though of course," she adds with a tilt of her head, "I am not a ship engineer."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:20, Tue 16 Oct 2012.

CC9 stomps into the room and stands near a wall, listening.

Mark's voice comes over the comm.

"All Talons.  Mission briefing in one hour, main briefing room."

"XO, B2-CC9, briefing in five minutes, my quarters.  Out."


OOC:  The 'main briefing room' is labelled as the 'formal dining room' on the middle deck of the schematic.  This thread will be closed once people have a chance to finish up their conversations.  The formal briefing will happen in the breifing thread.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:26, Tue 16 Oct 2012.

Zyra sighed, finished her drink and stood up.

"So sorry, duty calls and all that."

She quickly left the room, heading for the commander's cabin.

"Well, I suppose we find out the commander's plan in an hour, so unless anyone has any ideas for anything, I suppose we can pack this thing up." Arin looked around his 'audience' once more, to see if anyone was going to say anything. He wasn't exactly happy with the way, the discussion had flowed, nor all too happy with the lack of progress, but it was just the reality he had to face.

"The Commander has already laid out his plan for the attack," CC9 states.  "It was adequately clear."  With that the droid turns and stomps toward the door behind Zyra.

Mika shrugs, "But that doesn't leave the snubs in position on the opposite side of the convoy.  Sure, the 'Shrike can drop them off sooner, but it'll still have to come to a dead stop or the inertia will keep the fighters tumbling around, unless we get there early enough for the fighters to power up, move into position if we can figure out what that means, and then power down again."

She turns back to Arin, "And with the comms and sensors powered down, how are the pilots supposed to know when to power up and leap to the attack?"

"As I understand it inertia does not appear to be an issue in that regard for the fighters attached to the Nightshrike with docking clamps," Cor says quietly, "though again, my expertise is with droids and not ships.  Regarding leaping to attack I assume comms range would allow communication with the pilots whether their fighters are powered down or not."

Then she shakes her head.  "Irrespective, as I understand the Commander's plan we will be travelling slowly and the target will overtake us.  We will not need to have fighters on the opposite side of the convoy as both wing-pairs can converge on them from behind, and split up as the need requires."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:12, Tue 16 Oct 2012.

Mika gives Cor a nod, "Okay."  She stands and heads for the door, "Sounds like you guys got it covered." she says generally to all in the room.

*THREAD CLOSED*