[Galaxy] [Forrest Outpost] Sept 25, 2161 DL "What you got, not what you need."

[Kate Nicholson]

"You fight with the army you have, not the one you want."

                                       Donald Rumsfeld, US Sec of Defense


Forrest Outpost
Operations 


The Station was a scene of control fear.  And barely controlled at that.
Sean stared at the images being animated on the display table in the center
of the Ops Deck.  Red for Klingons.  Blue for Earth assets.  The dwindling
number of yellow indicators showed the reduced civilian traffic.

As the Exec watched, one more of those yellow dots blinked and then shot
across the display.  Another Boomer ignoring the advice to leave their ship
in orbit and evacuate the crew to the surface.  Two of the prowling red
marks blinked and streaked after the ship.  Walker wished the Boomers luck
with his lips pressed tightly together.  Beyond that, there was little else
he could do.  Damn it.

He let a number of options play through his mind.  One memory was seeing Jia
at this very spot, running a simulation on the display.  If he remembered
correctly, that sim hadn't ended well.  He leaned forward, thinking.  How do
you win a fight with your feet effectively concreted to the floor?

Laying siege to a star system, on the surface, didn't make a lot of sense.
It was like trying to stop traffic on a freeway by using a catcher's mitt.
There was just too much area to cover with the finite resources of a fleet.
The mines helped, giving the Klingons a force multiplier.  Even though the
system was a huge area, incoming warp travel still focused on a series of
"lanes."  These were gravity neutral regions, minimizing the potential
hazards of "space junk."  Even with modern deflectors and hull polarization,
hitting something the size of a cantaloup while decelerating from warp....
It would be like a bug hitting a windshield.  Only difference, the bug would
win this time.  The mines were the Klingons' bugs.

Sean thought, trying to get into the opposing Commander's head.  This guy's
a thinker, a chess player.  Not blundering in, counting on numbers to carry
the day.  He stood up, hand going to chin.  Though he'd never met a Klingon,
Walker had been briefed by those who had.  While the stereotype was of a
huge being, roaring forward like a bear, Sean knew there were always
exceptions.

"Just our luck," he said to himself, "we get the Klingon 'Alexander.'"  He
hoped he was wrong.  Now, all they had to do was outwit on alien intellect.
Out maneuver a fleet of alien vessel with a static, orbital installation.
And outfight, in an extreme situation, a race that prided itself on being
some of the fiercest warriors in the known galaxy with a collection of
scientists, engineers, and refugees.

No pressure.


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Sean Walker
Cmdr, Starfleet
XO and CAO
Forrest Outpost