Continue Briefing

"But that's moot if we can't get Kane's ship to the station in the first place. Any thoughts?" Katla asked, shifting table control so that anyone could play around with variables. Foxley and the twins started doing so immediately, while Kane and... Lavaliere abstained. Katla's carrier captain hadn't been able to make the meeting. As she waited for the results to play out Katla realized she'd been lucky. Astrid's report on Lavaliere had been nothing short of scathing. Surprisingly enough her report on the woman's crew was the exact opposite. Either the woman had some redeeming qualities or she had one hell of a first officer. Either way Katla knew one person she couldn't send off on their own.

Foxley was the first one finished. "You said we may expect that the enemy would keep a single picket on point... Beer." Katla's hand wanted to cover her mouth at the woman's discomfort. Damn. The corruption was setting in faster than she'd thought it would. She resisted by giving a winning smile to the heavy cruiser's master who bulled on. "That could mean only five ships protecting the main facility."

"Or six." Katla pointed out.

Foxley ignored the remark and continued on. "If we jump into the system at... the main transit and engage the enemy task ****. We can see dishonor repaid in full. The battle may be trying but our superiority will be unquestioned." Katla for her part had plenty of questions about said 'superiority'. Technically the plan was viable but it depended on assumptions. The part about the picket was almost certainly right, that was just plain common sense even if you weren't really expecting anything. The problems were the assumptions about the numbers and whether or not they could be overcome by that wild combination of dumb luck and skill that went into a naval engagement. The twins also came up with an idea.

"That picket will have to be within weapons range to cover the entire area of the jump point. These right here." A section of 'Shots' lit up yellow. "Block this corner" Katla had never heard the word 'corner' stretched so far. "right over here from a targeting standpoint." Cones appeared to represent firing and sensor view ranges, red and green respectively. Sure enough there was a blind spot in every position the picket could be in. Even if they were to take an 'exterior' view by going out past the jump point. If Avalon had known about that they really could have played a nasty trick if they'd been there to fight. Or the IAA could have. "So, what if we take them out, then spoof our carrier to look like our main battle group. The rest of us wait while they reposition to engage and we get in before they have a chance to turn and burn."

"That... could work. Unless they're using a carrier of their own." If the enemy had stationed their own carrier out there they could make up the difference in blind space with their own LACs or fighters. Said strike-craft would be very killable but they could still get a warning out. Spoofing was only effective until the enemy got a direct line of sight. Katla would need to send at least one of the corvettes along to provide support and deal with that issue. Which would leave her with three ships to cover the main operation if the bad gals managed to get back around more quickly than expected. There was also a high risk to the LAC crews. If one of them was destroyed in-system they might have to be abandoned to save the division. Well. The reward money would probably help them get over it.

"I imagine what could and couldn't work could be discussed to eternity. That doesn't answer the question of what we'll be doing. Get me close and I'll do my part." Kane assured. "But how are we going to do it?"