[A-Deck] Best Laid Plans

[Flannigan, S.]

"Yer tellin' me that a pair of my NCO's roughed up an Officer and no one felt the need to tell me?" Captain Flannigan said, looking over at his First Sergeant as they made their way to the briefing room. He could feel his temper starting to rise and the proverbial steam coming from his ears. He could understand some of the outburst towards the Major, but the fact no one had informed him was the real sticking point.

"Yes Sir," First Sergeant Zieed said with a nod. "At least that's the news from scuttlebutt. I checked out Cruz's personnel file. It now says Staff Sergeant Cruz, clear as day. Looks like it was the Major who initiated that."

"Any idea on if Lieutenant Durant knew about it," Flannigan asked, still visibly upset. He knew his ears were likely bright red at this point.

"I checked tape for you sir," Zieed offered quickly. The First Sergeant had worked with Flannigan for the length of this cruise, and Flannigan was surprised at how quickly the man had learned to predict him. "Major Killinger and Lieutenant Durant met within the hour of the birds landing. I think it is safe to say he knows. In his defense, sir, we did stick those boys back on ice pretty quickly. I would think that the Lieutenant didn't get his report to you and has since forgotten about it after his time in the freezers."

"Ya think he forgets every time he sees Cruz," Flannigan snapped, still hot under the collar. Zieed was right though, he would have to talk to Durant and get the whole story. It would have to be after the current business was taken care of. Right now they had a battalion brief in regards to their next major deployment. Some god-forsaken ice planet or something. Not that it mattered, they were going to fight the Covenant anywhere they could find them.

The conversation came to an abrupt end as the walked into the conference room. It wasn't anything that exciting, with a dozen chairs around a table and a holoprojector. Flannigan took a spot next to his chair, picking up the individual viewer from the table. The first few lines of the Battalion Operations Order stood out and he set it back down. Another dry brief on some support action. He would rather have been taking care of the situation he had just learned about rather than politely discussing so nothing mission.

He looked around the table taking a quick stock of who was there. All the S-shops were present, their heads there to make their reports. His counterparts (and Zieed's) were there from November and Mike companies. The Sergeant Major was there as well, all of the waiting on the Battalion CO and XO. Flannigan quickly shifted his thoughts to his own XO, First Lieutenant Matheson. The man was down in supply ensuring gear was properly drawn for the new marines assigned to O-Co. After the debacle 2nd platoon had been sent on, they would need the numbers.

"More hurry up and wait," he muttered looking at the door again as though that would will the Colonel and Major to appear.

[Harrison, D.]

If there was one absolute regarding the job of a commander of an entire battalion, it was that there was always more work to do. The last several weeks had been hell for everyone involved. What with the embarassing defeat at Hydra III, and then the botched (and surprisingly classified) operation aboard the Templar, the Colonel had been kept pretty busy. Even now that the Vengeance had returned to the rear, he still found himself facing a mountain of paperwork.

Fortunately, most of that stuff he was able to delegate to his staff, such as handling the transfer paperwork of the new arrivals and all that fun stuff he'd grown far too used to doing. It seemed the higher one climbed up the ladder, the more paperwork you were saddled with. Hell, most of his job nowadays was sitting behind a desk. The most exciting thing he found himself doing when not deployed groundside was inspecting his troops.

Colonel Harrison looked to his left at Major Killinger, who managed to keep pace with him fairly easily. They were on their way to one of the "ready rooms," which was just a fancy name the Navy gave their conference rooms that they used for briefings and debriefings. He and the Major had spent a lot of time writing up the operation order for Operation: FROST WALL.

Honestly, the op was a pretty standard affair. Head to the backwater colony of Phoenix III and reinforce the local garrison forces in case of Covenant attack. Which, considering the intel that they had received during Second Platoon, Oscar Company's stint on the Templar, was more than likely.

Hell, there was a huge possibility that the battlegroup would arrive too late. They might exit slipspace to find a burnt, ash covered world lacking any form of atmosphere. It wasn't the most optimistic of thoughts, but a necessary one to have in his line of work. He and his staff needed to be prepared for any and every contingency.

Major," Colonel Harrison called, getting the man's attention, "You alerted everyone to be in the ready room at 0900, correct?"

He didn't doubt his XO's abilities, nor did he think that the man would so easily forget something as important as an op brief, but he always liked to make sure. After Killinger gave his answer, he nodded with a smile. "Outstanding," he said, and then continued on his way.

It only took them a couple of minutes more to arrive at the hatch to the conference room. Derrick pressed the button on the panel next to the door and it opened, permitting him and the Major to enter. No sooner had he stepped through the door did the likes of Sergeant Major Carson shoot up from his seat and snap to attention.

"ATTENTION ON DECK!" Carson bellowed in his thick, Cockney accent.

Everyone in the room shot up and assumed the position as the two made their way towards the table and their seats. When Derrick arrived at his seat at the head of the table, he pushed the chair out and said, "Seats. At ease."

Everyone returned to their seats, and the Colonel sat down. "Ladies, gentlemen, if you'll direct your attention to the table viewers, we can begin the briefing." Derrick, as he was talking, activated his own and brought up the operation order. He paused and waited until everyone's eyes were directed at their own viewer screens.

"This is the order for Operation: FROST WALL. Our mission will be to reinforce the garrison planetary forces of Phoenix III, a backwater ice world that we've recently learned -- thanks to the efforts of my XO and the Marines of Oscar Company's Second Platoon -- has been compromised and may be in danger of Covenant attack."

[Killinger, J.]

John replied to the Lieutenant Colonel, was greeting with a compliment and strode with a burst of confidence beside his commanding officer. Eventually they arrived at the read room, where they took their seats after 'Attention on deck' was called. The Lieutenant Colonel started the briefing off and John listened at half capacity. He had talked to the LTC previously about the data after he demoted Cruz. The amount of paperwork the man had to do, not only because John didn't do much paper work himself, was nauseating. While the Najor did his fair share of paper work the LTC did twice as much, maybe.

"Ladies, gentlemen, if you'll direct your attention to the table viewers, we can begin the briefing. This is the order for Operation: FROST WALL. Our mission will be to reinforce the garrison planetary forces of Phoenix III, a backwater ice world that we've recently learned -- thanks to the efforts of my XO and the Marines of Oscar Company's Second Platoon -- has been compromised and may be in danger of Covenant attack." The Lieutenant Colonel said.

The room fell quiet for a few seconds and John took his queue. As the XO, he had information that the Lieutenant Colonel probably wanted John to divulge as he was more focused on the OpOrder than the Colonel, who was too busy with the paperwork for it to truly understand the 'grimy' details. While John didn't doubt the Lieutenant Colonel knew as much or more than himself, the pause meant he was up. Or he assumed, at least. The 'sir' could give him shit later.

"The ground combat elements for this operation will be Mike, November and Oscar companies. Our primary and initial objective will be fortifying UNSC Army defensive locations. If the Covenant have in fact invaded this planet we can suspect that there is a ground engagement underway." John said, scrolling down his OpOrder.

"The planet we're heading too, and especially in the estimated area of operations is a mountainous environment. Strategical locations have been determined along the river cutting through the area of operations. The capitol city of Tallusa is the only 'flat' terrain in groups of twenty to forty kilometers. When I say mountainous, you'll be climbing a few of them." John said, scrolling down the OpOrder again.

"Local UNSC Army strength will be provided by the 34th Brigade, 118th through 122nd regiments. Those do not include armor and similar units. The 34th Brigade is the primary defensive garrison of Phoenix III. We must proceed with this briefing assuming the Covenant are on the way or already there." John finished, glancing towards the officers in the room and finally locking eyes on the Lieutenant Colonel.

[Flannigan, S.]

Flannigan had moved smoothly to attention, though his mind was still elsewhere. He already knew he had an OpOrd to write after this, his files to update on the FNGs, make sure his Lieutenants were still developing, especially Hernandez from Third Platoon. Apparently he had completely froze during training the other day. And there was the entire situation with Durant and Cruz to address. What he really wanted to do was tear the Major a new one first, but he knew better than to let his temper get the better of his rank. Still, even thinking that he had been left out of the loop was making his temperature rise again.

Thankfully he had First Sergeant Zieed, who brought him back with a solid tap to his knee under the table. Flannigan spared him a glance that was met with a nod back towards the Major, indicating that the Captain needed to get his head back in the game. Grabbing his table viewer, Flanning started to scroll through, sorting the data for what he needed to know and would be able to just copy and paste into his own OpOrd. The information on resupply, radio frequencies, and the enemy situation were all an easy grab. The tactical information would have to change, but that wouldn't be terribly hard.

A small window popped up low on his viewer. An instant message from Zieed was there. Despite complaints, this feature had been added years ago, giving people the chance to pass notes, discuss tactics, and start the planning process before they even left the room without interrupting the briefing. Flannigan rarely used it and shot Zieed a scowl before he pulled up the note.

The Colonel just congratulated our boys and you were too busy in your own head to notice. Pass the word to 2nd that this mission has a shot because of them.

Flannigan gave the man a nod, before turning his full attention back to the brief. A simple link up was in order, going to a backwater and setting up for some impending Covenant invasion. He moved down to the Movement section, looking for linkup orders for O-Company. He didn't notice any details, and while that wasn't entirely unusual for such a precursor briefing, he wanted to check before the shop boys got on their spiels.

"Colonel," he said, catching them all at a pause. "Do we have specific AO and link up assignments yet? Or are we going to get those details ironed out after we drop outta slipspace? It's always nice to get a name and face pulled from the files before we have to work with some ground pounder."

[Harrison, D.]

The momentary silence that had befallen the room had been intentional, and the Colonel's eyes trailed to Major Killinger as a hint that he should take things from where he left off. Killinger took his que and started by giving some cursory details regarding Phoenix III and their mission. A smile slowly crept its way on Harrison's face as he listened to his XO. One day he might make a fine battalion commander, he thought.

When the Major finished, there was a pause as Captain Weathers, the battalion's S-2 officer prepared to carry on where Killinger had left off. The distinctly Irish voice of Captain Flannigan, O-Company's CO, filled the air and all eyes fell on him. The Colonel contemplated how to respond to the question for just a moment before answering.

"Well, Captain," he began, organizing the sea of thoughts in his head, "If the Covenant haven't arrived by the time we reach the planet -- which both myself and the XO highly doubt will be the case -- then most likely we will deploy to Fort Sunrise, on the outskirts of Tallusa. In that scenario, your unit will act as QRF for the local garrison forces in the event of a Covenant invasion, while Mike and November companies are dispatched to assist directly with the evacuation of the civilian populace."

He paused for just a moment to see if the Captain had any further questions. When he said nothing, Harrison nodded and looked to Captain Weathers.

Captain Weathers stood up from his seat and walked around the table to where everyone could clearly see him. The intel officer then punched in commands into a console and the room's lights dimmed considerably, the holographic display panel thrumming to life. An image of the planet materialized, hovering a few inches above the table and rotating so that every inch of its surface area could be observed.

The Captain took two steps back from the console and gestured towards the image. "This is Phoenix III. It is smaller than Earth by roughly three kilometers in diameter, and has a oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere comparable to that of Earth. The planet is well known for its frigid temperatures and mountainous terrain, as the Major pointed out."

The Captain paused to scan the audience, ensuring they were keeping up with him. Once he was satisfied that they were indeed keeping up and paying attention, he continued. "The average daily temperatures on this rock range from negative forty Fahrenheit to fifty degrees Fahrenheit depending on the region you're in and the time of day. Obviously, the most frigid point of the day will be in the late evening and early morning. Thus, for this op, everyone will need to be outfitted with cold weather gear and equipment."

Weathers approached the console and punched in another series of commands. The image of the planet zoomed in on one of the two continents that dominated the surface, and the image of city became clear. "This is the city of Tallusa. It spans for several kilometers in either direction and is home to five hundred thousand residents, which is precisely half the colony's recorded population. It is primarily an industrial town, though it does have plenty of municipal and residential districts. At the center of the city, bisecting it, is the Great Tallusa River. To connect the eastern half of the city with the western half, there are five bridges over the water that connect the two sides. We've marked these locations as potential choke points should the Covenant invade, and may serve to be invaluable tactical assets to our forces."

The Captain paused to take a breath and again to make sure everyone was following along. The pause did not last as long as before. "Beyond the city outskirts is frozen tundra and mountainous terrain. Approximately eighty klicks to the southwest of the capitol are dozens of small towns and settlements that comprise the remainder of the planet's one million strong population. These areas we have identified as high risk in the event of a Covenant invasion, as facilitating evacuation efforts will be extremely difficult in these remote, rural areas, not to mention that with the Covenant's ground efforts mostly being centered around the capitol, it is possible they will simply commit these areas to glassing via low orbital bombardment."

The Captain looked away from the three-dimensional image of the planet and to the room's occupants. "Are there any questions before I continue?"

[Flannigan, S.]

Captain Flannigan was already building his Operations Order during the brief. The personal viewer in front of him was useful for accessing his own files on the ships computers, and the ability to copy/paste the large bits of information he needed from the Battalion orders made this a prime time to get the skeleton of his orders built. He would still have to finalize them later, but his work now would save him another hour somewhere else.

Captain Weathers report was pretty standard stuff. Terrain, population centers, potential glass zones, all the typical things. Flannigan was most pleased that Oscar would be in the fighting again.he spared his Mike and November counterparts a glance and noted their relieved expressions. A bunch of candy-assed politicos. Happy to be on extraction detail rather than in the fighting was simply disgraceful.

'Got your wish again,' Zieed messaged. 'They sure love us in the hotbox.'

'Oscar lives for the hotbox, Top,' Flannigan wrote back. 

'Ooorah,' Zieed sent back before they were back into the brief. It would be a couple days before they were back in the freezers now, and the next stop was combat. Flannigan couldn't be happier, and knowing his marines, they would be just as pleased.

"No questions here Captain," Flannigan offered quickly. He wanted to go spread the good news to his men. The sooner they were done here, the sooner O-Co could start the party.

[Harrison, D.]

The room fell quiet after Captain Flannigan spoke up. The only sound audible was the dull hum of the ship's engines. Colonel Harrison scrutinized the officers and senior NCOs present in the room for a moment before turning his attention to Captain Weathers. He nodded at the officer, whom instantly understood the non-verbal queue. Get on with it.

Weathers took a step back and straightened his uniform before continuing the brief. "With the enemy situation being mostly up in the air at this point, the only direct threat to our forces would be the local wildlife outside of the city's limits. The majority of the wildlife on Phoenix III is carnivorous in nature, and have adapted surprisingly well to the planet's natural environment. The colony is especially known for its population of Blind Wolves."

Weathers saw the confused looks he was receiving at that last statement, and decided to elaborate a little further. "Blind wolves are hairless, nine foot tall carnivorous creatures with thick, dark grey leathery skin. They often hunt in packs, and resemble prehistoric animals such as the T-Rex and raptors more than anything. They have massive teeth meant to tear meat apart, jutting from their lower jaws. They are blind, however. They hunt via smell and noise."

The image over the holotank shifted into a diagram of the Blindwolf. Courtesy of Beatrice, no doubt. The looks some of the officers gave were that of terror barely restrained. Captain Flannigan, on the other hand, seemed totally unaffected by the image.

"Beatrice, kill the tank and give us some light," Weathers ordered, then started towards his seat.

Colonel Harrison turned his head to First Lieutenant Jackson, the battalion's logistics officer. Lieutenant Jackson was a lean and tall individual with thinly framed glasses. He was a relatively new addition to the battalion's staff, but Harrison had faith in him and had personally requested his transfer into the battalion after looking over his outstanding CSV. His previous CO had nothing but good things to say about him.

"You're up, Lieutenant," the Colonel said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Everyone, please scroll to the logistics section of the OpOrder."

Lieutenant Jackson nodded, somewhat relunctantly. This was his first time ever briefing an entire battalion's worth of officers on the logistics situation of an operation. Before he had only dealt with company level affairs. The young man appeared nervous, but prepared. He marched round the table and assumed the spot that Weathers had occupied a moment ago.

"Alright, if everyone's ready and paying attention," Jackson began, pausing momentarily to take a deep breath. "The logistics situation for FROST WALL is relatively straight forward. It's pretty thoroughly outlined in the order itself, but I will elaborate so that we're all on the same page."

"Class I will be provided by the Army groundside and will constitute one cold, and two hot meals a day. Resupply for Class I materials will be handled solely by the Army. Class II is not an issue as your Marines should already have their own supplies. Let your Marines know that lost equipment or weapons will not be replaced, as we have made no plans to resupply those materials."

The Lieutenant paused and scanned the crowd. Most of them seemed to be following along, others seemed very obviously bored. While he personally hated to admir it, logistics was a pretty dull subject in the scheme of things; albeit necessary.

"Class III falls into the same boat as number two. Your Marines should already possess these items, so resupply will not be available in the event that they do not. Class IV will be handled and supplied by the Army. Class V, which I'm sure many of you consider most important, will be resupplied as needed and can be facilitated through your normal chain-of-command."

"Class VI obviously will not be supplied or resupply. So, if your Marines lose their deck of cards or run out of dip, it's not our problem. Class VII will be supplied on a need basis, and will be handled via normal means. Class VIII constitutes Alpha and Bravo materials. Regular medical supplies, classed Alpha, will be supplied by normal chain-of-command. Class B for all blood related materials will be issued on an emergency basis through the BAS."

The Lieutenant looked to the battalion surgeon for a moment before finishing his segment of the brief. "Classes IX and X will not be resupplied. Any questions?"

[Flannigan, S.]

Flannigan was grabbing pieces of the Operations Order as they went through it, pasting it into his own document on the fly. He had long ago learned to build the majority of his own orders while being issued them from higher. This left him more time for the other pieces of his job. He was also making other notes on things that had to happen that wouldn't be in the order he issued to his Platoon. There were also a few messages going back and forth with Zieed.

"Remember we need to draw cold meals for QRF missions," Flannigan passed over. "Two days worth on hand when we get there?"

"Two days is enough for an initial issue," Zieed sent back. "A plussed up combat load should do for bullets."

"Roger that," Flannigan sent back. 

More information on who was supplying what, radio frequencies, and a variety of other things rolled out of the OpOrd, and Flannigan digested each in turn. The briefing, all in all, would be pretty short as long as no one asked any stupid questions. Flannigan had none.

Then, the disruption started. A notice came up on his chatter, and he was quite sure he saw one pop up on Zieed's screen as well. 

Two marines, Oscar Company, 2nd Platoon, First Squad checked into the infirmary. 

A link to the marine's files were there, and Flannigan smiled to himself and he saw Zieed shake his head. Flannigan dismissed the notification, turning his attention back to the briefing. His fingers tapped away with another message for Zieed.

"Those are Stone's boys, right," Flannigan asked. 

"Roger," Zieed wrote back. "I'll check with the Infirmary when we're done here."

"I'll touch base with Durant. I love this job."

"You would sir."

[Harrison, D.]

Lieutenant Jackson waited long enough to ensure no one in the room had any questions for him, then nodded and said, "That's all, then." The junior officer turned and made for his chair, his segment of the brief having been fulfilled.

Colonel Harrison nodded curtly towards Jackson and gave him an approving smile. The lieutenant had done very well for his first battalion level briefing, and he wanted to make sure that the young man was aware of that fact. Harrison was a man who believed in commending the deserving, and he definitely planned to let Jackson know that he'd done an outstanding job once things were over with regarding the brief.

He wracked his brain for anything that may have needed to be covered in detail in further. After a moment he decided that everything that had needed to be said, had been said. Everything else could be found and understood in the OPORD itself.

Derrick stood up, gaining the attention of the room's occupants. Before he spoke, he noticed a notification pop up on his datapad stating that two of Flannigan's Marines were in the infirmary. A deep frown pursed his lips for a fleeting moment before he put on his poker face. He glanced over at Sergeant Major Carson, whom seemed to have also received the notification, and whispered, "Handle that when we're finished."

The Sergeant Major nodded. "I'll get t' the bottom of it, sir."

Harrison nodded at the grizzled old Brit and then turned his attention back to the rest of the room. "Before I dismiss us, just remember that there are a great deal of unknowns here. The situation, and the state of our operation, could change at any moment. Be prepared to be called to action at a moment's notice and keep your Marines prepared for combat. Myself and the Staff will be working on several contingencies in case the Covenant decide to make a move before we arrive at the colony. Be ready to change your own op orders, and let your Marines know this plan is not set in stone."

He paused just for a moment, checking to make sure there was nothing further that needed to be said. Nothing came to mind of any great importance that it mandated he drag things out any longer, so he looked to the Sergeant Major to do the honors. "Dismissed!"

Harrison stepped away from his seat and headed for the door. "XO, meet me in my office after chow. We'll start war gaming contingencies from there."