Final Briefing

Posted on Sun Aug 2nd, 2020 @ 11:57pm by Commander Samantha Howard & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Lisa Olsson

Mission: Tal Shiar
Location: XO's Office

Sam Howard strode briskly up to the XO's office, mentally preparing herself for whatever final details were be shared with them before they headed off into the depths of a Tal Shiar base. She was nervous, but kept it well hidden from everyone. Drawing a steadying breath she composed herself and pressed the door chime.

Jon was seated behind his desk, thinking of the upcoming mission and his and the teams part in it. He was roused from his thoughts by the sound of his door chime. "Enter" He called and now waited to see who would grace his doorway.

" Good Afternoon Commander" Sam smiled as she stepped into the modest office finding she was the first there apart from the Commander himself. She figured Lt Olsson wouldn't be far behind. " Are we ready for a convert mission with limited intel in one of the strongest most secret bases of the Tal Shiar?" She quipped in good nature.

"Hi Sam. Pull up a chair." Jon greeted the CMO warmly. He sincerely liked Sam and had the upmost respect of both her surgical skills and medical knowledge. "As for a covert mission into one of the strongest and most secret bases. Bring it on." He said with forced good humor he didn't feel.

" I call your bluff and match it with my own" Sam smiled in a comforting manner. " I can't say I'm looking forward to this but hey, we gotta make the best of it don't we?" She tried to look on the positive side of the situation. In her own mind she didn't trust Intelligence, let alone the intelligence said Intelligence gave.

" Do we know how old the intel is for the base?" She asked, knowing that Jonathan may very well have no idea.

"Good to know, I'm not alone in how I feel. What's the old saying? Make the best of a bad situation? That we're having to do." Jon answered. he paused for a moment, thinking on what he wanted to say. Then spoke, "I have the distinct feeling we're being manipulated in this whole affair. As for the intel, who knows, could be recent but i doubt it. So anywhere from a few weeks to several months."

" You think it might be a trap? The Cardassians used something similar to lure Captain Picard and a team to a remote moon then captured and tortured him for information. I must admit the premise is similar" Sam mused, flopping down on the chair and massaging the bridge of her nose. " The hard part is when you don't know who to trust you don't know who's got your back. Do we trust this operative within the base who's going to disconnect the power?" The whole thing was giving her a headache just thinking about it. " For the record - I trust you, and the Captain"

"I don't know." Jon admitted. "I just think it's too pat, too convenient. No rumors about a secret base or biological weapons. Heck not even a whisper of one and now. Here's one that just popped up and landed on our doorstep. I don't like unknowns especially ones that can get me killed as well as the people I care about and this mission has holes you can put a starship through. There's just enough intel not to dismiss it and just enough to make it believable " He stopped and smiled, "For the record I trust you and the Captain."

Sam smiled at the reply - they did have a good camaraderie and she hoped they could maintain it. The new officers would prove themselves in time.
" So what do we do? Walk blindly into what could be the biggest trap of the century and hope we don't get our asses handed to us on a plate?" She was half kidding, yet half not.

"We do what we always do. We take every precaution. We double and triple check everything. Nothing is taken for granted especially the intel. We aren't going to have our asses handed to us, not if we can help it. We do our job and throw in some wrinkles of our own." He finished.

" Or hope the hell Dr Perrim can put us back together again if we do get our asses handed to us" Sam mused, mulling over the detail or lack there of again.

"Before Lt Olsson gets here... how are you holding up?" She asked, concern after Jon's recent ordeal playing on her mind.

"There is that." Jon agreed. He didn't answer right and when he did it was with obvious doubt. "I'd like to say, I'm as right as rain but that would be a lie Sam. I'm making it. Taking it one day at a time. You and Essie have been a tremendous help in me getting this far."

"I appreciate the sentiment, we've had a run of dangerous missions, I can imagine it would be starting to catch up to a few people. Essie will be busy when all this is over" Sam admitted, recalling the events of their last few missions. To say they'd been through the wringer was an understatement.

"Just being honest Sam." Jon replied "She certainly will be. Just like she is there for us, we need to be there for her. Me especially."

At that moment, the door chimed and Lieutenant Olsson entered the room. She was wearing a dark uniform, clearly designed for covert operations. Other than her face, the uniform covered her whole body. There was no rank on the uniform, no insignia, and nothing else which could trace the uniform back to Starfleet. She was also carrying what looked like a black suitcase.

“Excuse my tardiness,” she apologised, a hint of Swedish in her accent as she spoke, “but I had to get changed. As Chief Tactical Officer, I am recommending that we wear uniforms like this for the mission.” she paused and her eyes moved towards Jon, “As you’re the team lead sir, I’m leaving the decision up to you. But I highly recommend their use.”

Lisa then brought the suitcase up and placed it gently on Jon’s desk. She opened the case to reveal modified type-1 hand phasers. They were in an all-black casing, and the handles of the weapons looked slightly shorter than usual. “These phasers have been customised to our hand prints. They won’t work if a passing Tal Shiar agent happens to pick one up. If he or she did, they’d receive a nasty shock as I’ve primed the main power relay inside the phasers to malfunction spectacularly if anyone else grips these phasers.”

Jon looked at the black uniform, "It would definitely help with us being harder to see." He admitted, his eyes shifting to Sam, "How do you look in black Sam?" his gaze shifter to the phasers. "Now these I like, lets not leave any of these lying around.

"You know what they say about black" Sam smirked as she picked up one of the phasers and turned it over in the palm of her hand.

"So do we have any further Intel or new information before we set off on this merry quest?" Sam asked, turning to attention back to the Tal Shiar.

Jon looked to Olsson, "Well Lieutenant? Anything new that we should know?"

Lisa frowned for a moment, deep in thought. Finally she spoke, "The Tal Shiar are ruthless. But I don't need to tell you that." she looked at the two officers, "You know that if we get caught, there's very little chance that we'll ever see daylight again. We will simply disappear."

As Lisa let that thought sink in, she continued to speak; "I've never been part of a covert operation against the Tal Shiar before, so I honestly don't know what to expect. But if we are unlucky enough to be split up for any reason, I strongly urge you to concentrate on achieving the mission. It's likely that if we are caught, we will never see each other, or the Washington, ever again."

Sam's heart sank just a little bit further with the confirmation of her worst fears.

" Then we don't get caught" Sam whispered to herself before eyeing off the rest of the team. " We do NOT get caught"

The team nodded in agreement, and headed off to begin their preparations.