| Author |
Message |
    
ColJeremeyIronside
| | Posted on Monday, July 08, 2002 - 06:50 pm: | |
There was a hollow echo as Colonel Jeremy Ironside trekked through the all but empty corridors onboard U.S.S. Coronado. With the ship at battlestations, and nearly every marine onboard gathered in the ship’s staging areas, there were few people moving about the ship. The clanking of Ironside’s combat suit boots against the deck plating reverberated against the bulkheads as he made his way towards Cargo Bay 5.
Because of the Pfhor Hegemony’s apparent lack of transporter technology, Major Gregg’s battle plan called for nearly every marine onboard both Coronado and Renegade to transport to the underground weapons storage facility; leaving only a handful onboard each ship for defense purposes. In total, there would be about 225 marines from each Coronado and Renegade landing, with a total of 16 Spectres providing air cover.
The original plan had called for a quick sweep of the facility based upon the schematics provided by the Taer reconnaissance, using heavy weapons fire from TP-4s, PARs, and grenades to quickly clear corridors and rooms. When all resistance was eliminated, light demolitions would be set and the teams evacuated before the explosions collapsed the facility in upon itself.
The Commodore’s orders, in particular “Let none escape, let no stone stand upon any other.”, had required changes to that plan. Changes made to take the order in a literal sense.
As he entered Cargo Bay 5, Captain Stampfer looked up from the large device he was working on. In the very limited space available in the cargo bay, there were six large containers that were not there several hours ago.
“Where are we at, Captain?” Ironside questioned before the doors had even closed behind him.
“Almost there, Colonel. I’ve…expanded upon our original plan.” He replied, grinning slightly. He waved the Colonel over to the device he was working on. The object was about the size of a torpedo lengthwise, but sat as high as the two men’s waists – it looked very much like a simple, large cargo container.
Stampfer popped a release clamp on the side of the object and lifted up the top, exposing the innards. Ironside couldn’t help but blink at the amount of explosives inside.
“When we altered our torpedo loadout to include the false matter warheads, we dumped the tricobalt devices, but we kept all the explosives.” Stampfer explained, stretching his arms to indicate the other six devices.
“There’s enough explosive material here to blow a crater the size of Churchill Downs in that planet. There won’t be any stones sitting on top of another after these things go off.” Stampfer said, grinning. Ironside had to give the man credit; he certainly loved his work.
“And it’s all stable? I don’t want Coronado breaking in two because a plasma beam cuts through this cargo bay.” The Colonel responded. Stampfer waved the question off with a toss of his arm.
“This stuff won’t go off until the detonators are in place. We can beam them down with the devices, hook them up in less than a minute, and then set them off after we leave.”
Ironside nodded once, “Well done, Captain. I think this is going to do very well in helping us get our point across to the Pfhor….” |
|