The Jock and the MOC

Posted on Mon Jul 15th, 2019 @ 1:30am by Lieutenant Aleksander Voroshilov & Lieutenant Jack Carver

Mission: Getting To Know You
Location: Flight Deck

Aleksi needed to sit down with the wing commander, he'd be the one performing a multitude of missions, to include strike, recon, and electronic warfare. It was the latter two he was most interested in, having firsthand experience while serving with the 45th recon squadron. It didn't help that there had been a lingering discussion involving the use of the squadron that needed to be resolved. Clearly the mission wasn't his, but he would be the one that had to interpret any data the pilots picked up. He wanted the air to be at least clear enough to get that planned hammered out.

Heading directly to the wing commander's office, he buzzed the door. Beyond the obvious discussion, they did need to figure out how intelligence debriefs were going to work, something pilots routinely tried to avoid from his experience, and what mission planning support he would require.

"C'min!" came Jack's voice.

Aleksi grinned broadly as he walked into the office, looking at Jack as soon as he crossed the threshold, "Lieutenant Carver."

As Aleski entered Jack rose to his feet, heading over to offer a hand in greet. "Lieutenant Voroshilov if I'm not mistaken? My apologies if I butchered the pronunciation. What can I do for you?"

"You said it well, but I do prefer Aleksi," The Intelligence Officer took the man's hand, letting his gaze finally break to look around the office, "I was hoping to discuss our working relationship. Usually these sorts of things are easier to figure out before the fighting ensues."

"Tends to be, yes." Jack mused, motioning to an office chair. "Have a seat. Want something to drink? Lubricate the conversation muscles?" as he headed to his replicator.

"Black tea," Aleksi took the seat Jack had motioned to. He had to remind himself that this mission was going to be routine, nothing out of the ordinary. He also reminded himself that was a comforting lie people told themselves to shut up their true thoughts, "What do you think of our escort trip?"

"We'll be lucky if it all goes as smooth as per the brief." Jack mused, replicating two teas - one black, for Aleksi, one mint, for himself. "We're flying into a semi hot zone and there's plenty of ways things can go south." he added, offering Voroshilov his tea as he sat back down again. "You?"

"It's a simple movement of a totalitarian government and the brutal insurgents they spawned on two separate vessels because they would love nothing more than to eviscerate each other," Aleksi took the tea and sipped it, letting his statement linger, "Assuming everyone behaves themselves it should go along smoothly," His tone indicated it would be anything but.

"Mmhm. And pigs fly." Jack chuckled. "The very fact that we're having to transport them on separate ships should be enough of a warning bell." He sighed, taking a sip of his tea. "But you didn't come here just to trade witticisms about the inherent risk of our current mission, did you?"

"No," Aleksi sipped his tea, brewed perfectly, too much for his taste, "The pressing issue is how you'll be attempting to grab from Trion 8 and how it will be used. We have a rough idea what is normal, so we can avoid mistaking a vehicle depot for massing of troops, as well as locations of anti-space and air defenses, but there are some large gaps in knowledge we have on the insurgency group."

Setting the cup down he produced a PADD, the screen showing dense overlapping coverage of the capitol, "So I guess the question is, are we going to attempt collection? And if so how are we going to do it?"

"I have six KD-56 Gryphons at my command. Multirole fighters with optional mission equipment, including a sensor pod with sensors rivaling those of a small starship, and sensor-dampening pods making us almost invisible to incidental scans. They'll have to be looking for us to be able to find us." Jack mused.

"So I can theoretically go in unseen, take my scans of whatever area you want me to scan and pop back out before they know I'm there, bringing my scans back to the ship for you to analyze." He explained, taking a ship of his tea.

"Alternatively, we can leave the sensor dampening pods on the Astraea, warp in, announce our intention, wait for permission to scan the area and transmit the readings back to the Astraea in real time." Carver elaborated. "It all depends on what the captain decides is the best course of action."

"The issue with option one is that what we need would need a continuous presence. I'm less concerned about the military ruining our day. My concern is a pipe bomb being triggered the moment people are beamed down," Aleksi took a sip of his tea, "Usually the most active comms from an IED team would be the night before and within about an hour with those comms going cold within 30 minutes of detonation. I'd want to know what frequency of that communication specifically so we can jam it and potentially roll up the terrorist. Something you can't get by just popping in and popping back out. I suppose if you get lucky you could catch them planting the munition at night, but hope is not a strategy."

"The second option seems less shady but presents its own issues. For one, the ruling party wants to be a member of the Federation, treating them with any form of unwarranted hostility could cause...issues. The second is that if we do ask permission and the government happens to be the issue we give them all the warning they need to cover up anything."

Aleksi chuckled, knowing that he was being a pain in the ass. He did promise Commander Laurens he'd be honest, "Have you considered standing off outside of weapons range and scanning from there? Transmitting the information via subspace back to us while the team does their analysis. We used to do this sort of thing in Danubes back in the 45th, monitoring the Cardassians who knew we were there the entire time. I'm sure dropping in with a pair of fighters wouldn't generate too much alarm, especially if it's on a well known trade route."

Jack gave a nod. "I can hang back and monitor, yes. My sensor pods are considerably more sensitive than a Danube's sensor suite. Still not sure if they can pick up IEDs from that long range out though." He mused. "My ships have about a week linger time if needed." A smile. "Again, it's all up to what the Captain decides is the best option. I'm her sword, but she needs to wield it properly."

"We'd just need comms, nothing else," Aleksi smiled, "And of course, I just to make sure we have some semblance of unity prior to any questioning," Sitting up he nodded, "Now that is out of the way the more uncomfortable question. From my limited experience with flyers most like to leave before they can get properly debriefed, either by maintenance or us. I suppose it'd be best to figure out how you'd like to handle that."

"Well, you're not wrong. Pilots don't like being debriefed. But I'm not here to only do things I like, and debriefings are as important as anything else related to the missions." Jack mused, sipping his tea. "I've always made time for debriefings after every sortie. Normally I take my people to a briefing room and go through it in a more casual manner, debriefing my crew with the ground crew chief there and present, before I go deliver my own report to my direct commanding officer. However, that's a flexible arrangement, depending on the events during the sortie."

"Of course, I just want assurances we won't have to call them back in," Drinking his tea, Aleksi nodded, "It tends to make everyone unhappy. My team is ultimately here to support the mission of this ship, whatever that is, mostly. So whatever makes life easiest for your pilots, making your life hard is the enemy's job."

"And mine." Jack took a sip of his tea, smiling. "My pilots report to me. I know how to handle them. I report to the ship's chain of command, whoever's appropriate for the sortie I ran. Ideally they shouldn't have to deal with said chain of command and vice versa. That's my responsibility."

Leadership philosophy, it had always been a boring discussion, "I understand, and I will be sure to not be the one to break that chain," Setting the now empty cup down he smiled, "Do you have any questions for me?"

"At the moment, no. Though I suspect you'll be doing research on the world and people we're flying towards, and I'd like to drop by before we arrive." Jack finished his tea as well. "I like complete pictures."

"Of course, I'd be failing you if I didn't give you all the information you need to stay alive," Aleksi nodded, "I can't promise you a Da Vinci, but it'll be more coherent than a Rothko," He liked both artists, the latter more than the former, but he knew what sort of art his customers preferred.

Jack laughed. "You know I'm really not an art type person. I know of Da Vinci ofcourse, but I'll have to look up - whatshisface. Rothko?" he smiled. "Was there anything else I could do for you, Aleksi?"

"For now I have nothing," Taking the hint he stood up and offered a hand, "It was good to officially meet you Jack. Hopefully this is the start of a equitable partnership."

"I hope so." Jack rose to his feet as well, to shake Aleksi's hand.