BCH #018: Rules of Engagement
Rules of Engagement
Summary: The TACCO and Weps get down to brass tacks about naval gunnery and the wargames.
Date: 18 BCH
Related Logs: None
Players:
Mackay Tillman 

CIC
The central nexus of the ship, the fighting capability all stems from here. With entrances on both sides, an entire section of the wall will twist its armored glass and doorframes out of an air locked position and allow access. At the rear of the room is a standard hatch that allows access as well. Computer terminals sit in a semi-circle around the main plotting table in the center of the room. DRADIS and other essential readouts are displayed on screens that hang from the ceiling. Forward and aft are a set of glass plots that hang vertically from the ceiling and provide the crew with the ability to coordinate air traffic operations in the easiest way possible.


The CIC is a little more tense than it has been the last few weeks. There's a few more crewmembers running around and Tillman is standing at the planning table with his eyes on the DRADIS. There's Lieutenants taking reports back and forth. Something happened. But they're still at Condition 5. Tillman's face looks terse and focused, no less. Arms crossed and a cigarette bunring in the ashtray, he probably looks like he belongs here by now.

The tweet of the hatch as one armed man, moves by the marine guards, but that seems almost to have been looked off, as just as one of the Weps' quirks. One blue grey eye takes time to scan over the scene as it stands within the crowded CIC. Odd before all the personnel arrived this place was down right cheery. Only now is it really beginning to feel like a CIC. A mug of coffee in one hand, Mackay, moves towards the main plotting table "She looks busy, but fleet traffic is just that." a means of a greeting to the TACCO as his coffee is set down. A sharp whistle as he looks towards the weapons terminals. Even though same and similar are down in the gallery, he'll be up here when the shit hits the fan. Good to see what his gunners see as well. "Bigsby, you got my reports?" This more or less bellowed to a specialist with dirty blonde hair.

The TACCO looks to MAckay as he approaches. There's a terse nod given to the man. "Just had some action, Weps. If you had anyone up in the Gun Gallery, likely they got one helluva show." His eyes finally fall away and he looks to Mackay. "Had a KC-145 try to break escape velocity on Leonis. Ran into engine trouble. Both pilots had to punch out and the ship drifted back into the atmosphere. We pulled both pilots out but one of our incoming Ensigns took a header. That tanker blew up with the force of a ten kiloton nuke. Luckily it was over the ocean but fleet went bonkers for about two minutes. How's your end of things?" A smirk twitches at the edge of his face. Bastard probably enjoys this shit.

A check of his watch, and eyes flick back down to look at the report that is thrust into his hand with a salute from the pudgy Specialist. A grunt, before he's flipping over the manilla folder-which Bigsby takes as a dismissal. "I have a skeleton crew up in there right now. Normal for this time of night." Sig notes, before he's raising a brow over that thick black patch that covers his eye. "You gotta be shitting me." Which given Mack's size would be a helluva tall order. "Any residual damage besides shit dropping into the sea?" Such a way with words, with the Weps, but he's an old salt at this.

As for things on his end, he barks a laugh, and adds a sip of coffee for good measure "Well." Sig replies, "I've been going over our guns, bunch of em so brand damned new, they got their baby plasitc on th' gears. Making sure we stay good and oiled, waiting on some parts from planetside, and basically working over plotting with my Chief and his PO's. Still waiting on two officers to report, but they come in, within the week." A shrug "Like trying to put together a damned working watch, while someone wears it."

Tillman bobs his head a few times with the information. A LT sneaks up and hands him a short message that he reads quickly and sets aside. "Sounds like you've got some pretty new toys, Weps. I'm almost a little jealous. But yeah, I know what you mean about not getting personnel in. We're still a bit short. This is, believe it or not, everyone." The TACCO gestures around with his eyes and looks back to Mackay with a grin. "Could be worse though. I still haven't met the damned XO. Still just the passing nods to the Admiral. Busy people, lemme tell you. Thank the Gods my ass never has to deal with that nonsense." There's a quick raspy bit of laughter before he reaches for his cigarette and takes a puff. "So what can I do for ya, Cap?"

Mackay shakes his head a few moments, apparently something on the paper is not cared for. Still, the file is shut, and that one eye flicks up to the TACCO's attention. "Well, given our orders as i've been notified, you an I need to put our nuts together and bust out a plan that will work with, and in concordance to the upcoming war games." Yup, Sig got the mail, and given the gleam in his eye, he's been all but chomping on the bit at this one. First he needed his toys to get all assembled so he could see what he was working with, beyond what paper has called for. "I'll put in a request for a target run as soon as we can before we go to Uram. Less calibration before we go in would be frakking phenomenal, and nothing short of a miracle." the Captain concludes. "So I guess first order of business, beyond taking my shift, and sipping coffee would be to see what little aces you might be chewin' on Cap."

Tillman nods his head and that grin turns a little more wolfish. "If you can get that calibration approved, let me know. I'll want to run over some fire control coordination with you. I'm going to talk to one of the techs and get a directly line installed from this terminal up to your station, as well." He makes a fist and lightly taps the corded phone with his knuckles. "As for aces? Well I have a few ideas. A lot of it includes jumping in right on the flanks of ships if we can. How fast can you get your gunners up and firing from an FTL jump? Feel free to overstate until you've got reliable numbers if you can't have any yet. Like you said, things are still coming together with teams."

Now there is something to think about. Time from jumps in to, getting weapons online and firing, let alone his gunners firing into a damned fine aimed mess. "Right now, I am going to cheat and sat three minutes." Which can be a damned bad time, but the great thing is, he can always see how many vets he has. Cut them down on it. "What helps is to already have a few plots into the system, when you go. Something that can rectify a cluster of ordinance in perfect places, while some of your more ship to ship batteries take time to get the aiming bearings. Course time can be cut down with a good astrogation, and some plain fine mathematics. First volley is to act as buckshot and send shit stunned and scattering, as they don't expect you to get going too quick. Second volley is aimed, and we toss in missiles." There's a click of his teeth as he catches the look. Seems the TACCO is a man after his own heart. "Dry firing will show a lot to what I am working with, then I can simply have em on sim drills. Kill a few birds with one stone.." And there's a raspy chuckle into his mug as more coffee is indulged. "Coming in on th' flanks I like, s'long as our belly is good and covered."

The TACCO keeps his mouth shut, letting the experienced gunner speak his piece. At the end, he takes a drag of the cigarette and blows it into the air over his head. "What I would like to is jump in behind them and underneath. That way our first volley - even if it is just buckshotting - heads right into their engineering decks. I wanna smash their propulsion systems first so if we ARE facing off against smaller boats, they lose their advantage right off the bat. But the other part of what I'm thinking about involves using Raptors as decoys. If we can jump a bunch as a tight group, they might look like a Battlestar or something else pretty significant on a DRADIS. We jump them in at the same time, aye?" Tillman leans in a bit closer. "They jump in at a distance like they would expect a Battlestar to. Avoid the knife fight with the smaller and more maneuverable ship. Instead we jump in only a few miles out and underneath? We let go with your gunnery troopers and snapshot a broadside of missiles at them? At the very least it will scare the living shit out of them."

"I can get sim runs, going this week. Give my boys something to do beyond maintenance, cleaning, and plotting." Yup he runs them through the grinder, but Mackay expects a lot out of his gunners. Like being able to change into their zero grav suits at a moment's notice so as to keep firing while putting out a gallery fire. Coffee is set aside, as he brings up his hand to run over his jaw for a moment. Letting the thick palm of his hand scrape stubble, before he's nodding again. "Could come up for a plot for just that. Specially if we're coming in underneath. Could-here." and with that he's flipping open his report and turning a page over, a pin pulled from his pocket as he clicks to life, and begins to draw "Come in down and at an angle, give our starboard battery a trajectory to shoot up about a sixty degree angle. Lob that shit out quick maybe focus a few guns.." and yes he's already moving to position things-"Ain't the best mark up" Mackay, continues, "BUt'll be fine for crude right now."

"Damn. You don't waste any time." Tillman laughs around a cigarette, the butt flopping between his lips as he speaks. The TACCO moves around the table a bit to get a better view on what Weps is showing him. "What about our forward batteries that are stationary to the front of the ship? I know we have to have a straight-on shot with them. Do you think they might be worth trying to use or would you recommend using only the dorsal batteries and side guns?" Clive looks up to the man again as he takes a puff of the cigarette.

Mackay quirks a grin as he idly clicks the end of his pen his eye scanning over the drawing, already a few quick math figures are written out, something to toy with later. "Never saw the need to dick around. Can get your ass killed if you're not moving. Sides," a pause for a moment as Sig looks over to Clive "This is my first run as a CWO. I'd rather get my mistakes out now, than have em come and bite us in the ass." luckily though, Sig did work his way up through the ranks. He's got the years to go with him. "With our two front guns, I'd rather save for a charging manuver. They can fire quick, but there's not a lot of em.. WHat we could do.." and with that he's drawing again "Is if we come jump underneath, but pull into a slant.." and there's the crude drawing to show what he means. 'We could rake slowly, but rake at their bellies from the front. Kinda like a kick in the door with a sawed off."

"Mm." The TACCO strokes at the stubble on his chin while the cigarette dangles between his fingers. "First tour as a Weps? No kidding. I figured by your enthusiasm you at least had a cruise or two under your belt. Well sierra hotel, Captain. You seem to know your shit anyway so we'll just pretend you've done this before because you sure seem to know it." Tillman's grin spreads before popping the smoke into his mouth at the end for another drag. "But this might work. As you can probably summize, I'm aggressive. I don't believe in long-ass endaround maneuvers that look beautiful on a tactical plot. I like ugly and effective, personally. If we have to go against smaller ships like we probably will, whats your recommendation. I'm tactics but you know your guns. Whats the best place to put us inside range? Directly underneath? Below and behind? I sure don't want to jump in overtop."

"Well, Captain, it's because I was given the grace t' have borne my old ass up through the enlisted. Been in the Navy since I was seventeen and haven't even looked back once." A faint grin right there back towards the TACCO. "I finally caught my promotion from the Atlantia. Commander put in a few damned fine words." Or so he believes. Course his record as a Weapons officer speaks for itself if one was to go looking. "Lost my eye to the guns.." added briefly. "So you could say I know all they can do, intimately." Mackay snorts for a moment, before he's nodding. "Put us under and behind only slightly. Our dorsals will do fine, and we can always roll to fire if needed. I'd rather kick out our door and then scatter em, so we can turn and burn holes. At this point we'd need out vipers disgorged, before I even think about tossing up a flak wall, because us coming in like that? We'll have their attention. Pretty frakkin quick. Small fighters will be the first in before they even turn their guns on us, I believe." A pause "Just my thoughts."

Tillman chuckles. "I know the feeling, Captain. I did my first two years in a Marine Infantry Division before I went officer. Did another seven attached to an Armored Division before I lateralled out to the Navy. So if it seems like I do things a little different, its because I believe in using firepower." He clicks his teeth, smirking to the man before stubbing out the remnants of the cigarette. "Well see, if you guys need three minutes to get your guns up and ready from a jump - on the outside, we can use that time to put our Vipers into action. If we have them staged for this, we can jump with them in the tubes and have the rest sitting on the flight decks. We jump in and you can probably throw up a flak wall inside.. Shit. Maybe ninety seconds? I'll have to talk to the CAG about it all, though. But just underneath, alright. Lets get some sims set up to plan for attacks like that. Throw in a few different scenario variables and run it without the Vipers. I'll talk to Major Hahn and see if we can't get this to work. Probably have to hit the LSO on it too, get deck involved in some DRADIS fu and how to fool their systems with our Raptors."

"LSO should also be able to know how long it'll take to get the vipers out of the tubes and about how many we can disgorge as well." Mackay adds with a bit of a grunt. A look over towards the TACCO for a moment and he is grinning again, same knife sharp grin he's shown when blood's been in the water, before. "I can have a flak wall up in under ninety seconds. I'd say eighty five. Flack's easy to gut in on, and one that even a rook can do if our power's been knocked out flat." Silence for a bit as the Captain chews on that little tid bit. "Shoulda known you were a marine. You got a fighter look to ya." Mackay remarks, before he's snapping the folder shut and clicking the pen off only to jam it back into a pocket. "Good to know we won't be hiding behind our weight. Gods gave us this much to work with, we should frakkin throw it around. You wanna hide and be sneaky, join a CEC.."

"True. But I'd like to get a pilot's opinions on how fast she can get her birds a flocking. LSO's are good at numbers. CAG's are good for tactics and ideas. But good to know about the flak. I'll keep in mind." There certainly is blood in the air. After the serious situation earlier and the dicussion of killing shit? Tillman looks about ready to eat a raw steak with both hands tied behind his back. "Yeah. I think that's a compliment," the man laughs. "But the Corps did me good. I've never met another TACCO who likes to play the problem like I do. I spent a lot of years as a forward air controlled, calling in air and naval strikes close to my position. I don't worry too much about getting intimate with the enemy when I need to." He clicks his teeth before laughing at the last, shaking his head. "Ain't that the damned truth. Fuckin' Escort Carriers. Anyway Mackay, I gotta get back to some of this bullshit with Leonis. Lemme catch you in the next few days. Bring your ideas and we'll sit down with the CAG and LSO. See if we can't make the fleet cry, eh?"

"Don't wanna cut out either, Captain. I say we get em both together. See what the tubes can hold and then what we can frakkin' push out. I'd like us to have more vipers out than kids comin' from a womb, but that's my opinion." As for the marine comment Sig does give a grin. "Course it is. I like the leathernecks, just as anyone else who has a healthy respect of guns, and knows that if anything comes in here, besides my pistol it's em putting their asses on the line for me." As for the bullshit Sig's nodding for a moment with a slight snicker. "Frakkin' A. I'll let you handle that crate of kittens..Sides I need to take m' watch and run numbers with my crews. But we'll keep on this shit." A promise there is as good as gold. "Feel free t' call me Sig. Fellers I like get that." a nod there. "Good luck with th' traffic cops." offered before he's sauntering to his station area.

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