[b][i]332nd Mobile Assault Company
Briefing Room, 4th Deck[/i][/b]
Commandant Tavik pulled Lieutenant Dosa aside prior to the beginning of the meeting. "How is your platoon, doing Lieutenant?" The Commandant wanted to know the morale of his Assault Platoon. Major Tavik had a habit of tilting his head back slightly, giving off the appearance of peering down the sides of his hooked nose, especially when speaking to subordinates. He treated the Mandalorian officer no differently. He was honestly impressed with the platoon thus far. "I did catch a glimpse of your soldiers sparring earlier today. You have some serious warriors in your platoon. The fact they are training in hand to hand combat tells me they prefer to take the fight to the enemy. Get right in their faces." The Commandant was indeed pleased with the Mandalorians, but Lieutenant Dosa could not see it in the Commandant's face. The tall pencil-thin man gave no indication from his facial expression. One might assume the Alderaanian Major suffered from Bell's Palsey, but alas, he did not. His bloodline was drawn to royalty. The man often felt he was demeaning himself with certain primitive alien races. "Keep up the good job, Lieutenant and we'll get that second pipit back on your blouse." The Major patted the Mandalorian on the shoulder and headed into the 4th deck briefing room. A Lieutenant wears one pipit, a Captain two and a Major three pipits. 

"Room, attention!" Senior sergeant Jax commanded with a booming bass voice. The occupants of the room immediately rose to the position of attention. It was customary to call a room to attention when a senior officer entered. Knowing this was a company meeting, it was done only for the Company Commander.

"Carry on, gentlemen," Major Tavik casually ordered with a slight wave of his right hand. He sat at one end of a long rectangular table with everyone else seated along either side. The Major nodded to Captain Kruger who was seated at the other end of the table. The Executive Officer then stood up.

"For those of you who do not know me, I am Captain Lorne Kruger, the Company Executive Officer. I will conduct today's operational briefing." He paused to allow the assembled officers and NCOs to adjust in their seats. Major Tavik prefered his XO to conduct many of the briefings. He felt it was a way of nurturing his XO for command leadership. Some considered the Commandant believed it was beneath him to brief the platoon commanders personally. Captain Kruger looked around the room at the assembled faces; Lieutenant Pib Dosa, Captain Mosh Karada, Lieutenant Ibus Trad, Lieutenanant Percival "Percy" Lomax, the Sapper Platoon Commander, Senior Sergeants Ari Jax, Bobec Felidron and Fen Mott and Sergeant Nesota Dumas. The presence of Sergeant Dumas always seemed to lighten the room, a Twi'lek female with all the right curves, concealed under her Rebel Alliance uniform. She would never flirt with any of this crowd, but enjoyed a little fun with some of the enlisted soldiers. Like a true Twi'lek her seduction dance was one to be experienced. 

"Everyone should have received a copy of the Operations Order on their datapads. I will go over the scheme of maneuver. Please hold any questions until the end." Captain Kruger changed the page on his datapad to bring up the Oporder. The other officers and NCOs did the same. "You will notice the Sapper Platoon is broken up. Each of the three line platoons will have one sapper section attached. Mosh, you get Section one, Lieutenant Trad, section two, and Lieutenant Dosa, you get section three. Lieutenant Trad, you are to detach your fourth section to the Sapper Platoon. Lieutenant Lomax, your platoon will consist of one section of sappers, one section of infantry and the sniper section. The sniper section will travel with your platoon and operate like Infantry until they arrive at the vehicle bay area. Then use them for their intended purpose, OK, LT?"

Lieutenant Lomax listened to the XO, nodding his head in comprehension, "Yes sir."

"We do not know how many soldiers and sailors are aboard the Venator-Class ship we are about to assault, but we do know that it is capable of sustaining over seven thousand. We are told the current compliment is considerably less than that. What we do have going for us, is the element of surprise. They don't know we are coming and believe we are an Imperial supply ship bringing them a few LAATs and a Juggernaut."

Captain Karada asked, "Lorne, are we going to lose that Juggernaut?" Major Tavik looked up at the Alderaanian officer, almost smiled and tapped a note into his datapad, possibly about Captain Karada's question.

"No, Mosh. There are no plans to give away our Juggernaut." Lorne Kruger returned to his briefing. "The Special Operations Platoon will fly the two LAATs over to the privately owned ship, [i]Majestic[/i]. Once aboard, they will install a [i]spike[/i] or virus into the ship's computer system that will disable their ability use their weapon systems. As soon as their batteries have been disabled, the [i]Keep[/i] Will pull up alongside the [i]Majestic[/i] and dock. On order, the Sapper Platoon will be prepared to board at the docking bridge. The other three platoons will breech the Majestic between the hulls of the two ships using breaching charges. You will each make your own doors. The Assault Platoon will set up a hundred meters from the docking bridge and the Sapper Platoon. To their left will be Lieutenant Trad's Second Platoon and to the right of the Sappers will be Captain Karada's First platoon. Space yourselves out about a hundred to a hundred and fifty meters from the inside two platoons."

As the Captain spoke, Sergeant Mott, the Operations NCO toggled a switch that generated a holographic image of the Venator-Class ship with the Nebulon B alongside. The image expanded to the point where the two ships were touching. The image was able to project the floor plan of both ships and allowed the Platoon Commanders to see what rooms they were entering and the adjacent corridors. They would be able to study the schematics to determine the best routes and courses of action to take in order to rapidly expand towards the interior of the ship. "First Platoon, your objective is to clear all enemy combatants from the middle of the ship, towards the stern. Once in the engine room, defend with one section and report to the Commandant. Second Platoon, your objective is to clear all enemy combatants from the middle of the ship towards the Bow.  Assault platoon, you need to move towards the vehicle landing bays and support Chakaar detachment from there. If they have the vehicle bays/landing bays secure, be prepared to either back fill the Special Operations detachment or move to and secure the bridge. There is a High Value Target (HVT) on the bridge, you must capture alive if possible. If Governor Moff Lorne puts up a fight, you have permission to kill, but please make every effort to take him alive. Tobias Lorne is Governor of the Dalonbian Sector and owner of the ship we are assaulting. Once this objective is taken, notify the Commandant."

Finally, Captain Kruger looked at Lieutenant Lomax, "Your platoon is to follow the Assault platoon and clear out any combatants they bypass. Assist them in securing the vehicle bays as well as supporting Chakaar detachment. Be prepared to defend the landing bays and be prepared to take and secure the bridge."

"You can expect no fire support from the [i]Keep[/i] due to its proximity to the target vessel. Are  there any questions?"

"How can we take a Venator-Class ship with only 160 people?" Captain Karada asked.

"There are plenty of examples where a smaller force has taken a larger force when the element of surprise was on their side and equipped with superior skill and equipment, " the Commandant fielded the question himself.

"Yes, sir. But the intelligence we have on this [i]Majestic[/i] is incomplete. Isn't this what you told us a week ago when we went into Anaxes?" Mosh Karada was annoyed at this mission. He felt it was taking on way too much, too soon. He didn't believe the company was prepared for this sort of thing right now. Maybe after they spent a few months training up and rehearsing every detail the company could be prepared for a mission like this, but two of its four platoons were brand new and his own platoon was under strength. He had extreme doubts about its success. 

Major Tavik raised his right hand, "that will be enough, Captain. I understand your concerns. The zeal of the soldier and the lust for battle will carry our men through. I am confident in our warriors. They will be victorious and we shall claim the [i]Majestic[/i] as our prize. Governor Moff Lorne will know not what has befallen him." Major Tavik allowed the slightest of grins, embellishing  his pride in this statement. The grin lasted less than two seconds. The look Tavik gave Karada spoke volumes. Mosh had seen it before. If he persisted in his line of questioning, he would feel the Commandant's wrath. Mosh did want to see the Rebellion succeed, but despised dealing with some of the arrogant personalities that always seemed to surface in the army. These holier than thou images some officers insisted in presenting. He'd heard of such nonsense with general officers, but quietly laughed to himself about a field grade officer putting on such unnecessary airs. His negative opinion of the Commandant had not improved since his first impression three months ago. He would make a mental point to support the Commandant in front of his men. He was still a professional.

Major Tavik then stood up. He looked at Captain Kruger, "Thank you Lorne for your succinct briefing." He pushed his chair in so it was exactly three inches from the edge of the table and properly aligned. He then slowly paced around the table as he addressed the officers and NCOs. The gaunt look of his face was only slightly disturbing to some of the newer unit members. Victor Tavik considered himself a handsome man, a ladies' man even."I know some of you may have your doubts about this operation. I must assure you, I do not share them with you. I have the utmost confidence in the outcome of this affair. It is imperative that you support the operation and stifle any negativity you may hear amongst your men. When we are successful, we will have our pick of some choice ground vehicles for us to use; maybe even some repulsorlift vehicles. I want to assure you and your men that this plan has the backing of the entire Rebel Alliance. During this operation, Captain Kruger will travel with the Lieutenant Trad's platoon and I will travel with Captain Karada's platoon. I will monitor the company net and have a radio frequency set to Admiral Ximen's Combat Information Center. You report your status and I will report to the Admiral. I want everyone, to return to your units and to brief your plans. If they need rest, put them to bed ASAP. The Company needs to be formed up and ready to go by zero-five hundred hours tomorrow morning. Dismissed!" With the last word spoken, everyone in the room came to attention and the Commandant departed heading to his office.

Captain Kruger remained to answer questions. Mosh Karada had none. He gave the Commandant a five-minute lead and then left to return to his platoon. Once back in Infantry Country on Deck four, he told his section sergeants and platoon sergeant what was going on. They were all briefed on the operations plan. Breakfast would be at 4AM and formation at 4:45. They needed to have all their equipment ready to go. Mosh told his NCOs to initiate a rest plan ASAP and use whatever time they had available to rehearse room clearing techniques. That appeared to be the battle drill they would use the most tomorrow morning.


[@HeySeuss][@POOHEAD189][@Lauder][@CaptainBritton]