The landing of Starfleet troops on Menelax was planned with excruciating detail. Captain Eccles of the Kupua, despite his vociferous protests about the entire affair, took charge of planning the assault. With no sign of reluctance, he applied the full considerable might of his intellect upon it while pushing everyone assigned to his temporary staff to work to the point of exhaustion. Countless aspects of the landing operation were considered. Contingency plan after contingency plan was devised, topography was studied in detail, equipment loadouts were discussed, and engineers were sent to modify all available shuttles with makeshift armour and reinforced shields. Even late into the night, Eccles drove everyone to analyse the available information on the Rachnil Brigade and their commander, a legendary soldier in her own right.
Everybody agreed that if the Tholians managed to inflict severe casualties as the Starfleet troops landed, the operation was dead. It was a worst case scenario that was hammered in to everybody's skulls constantly. Captain Eccles was a famous veteran himself, having seen countless crises throughout his career, and so nobody questioned how he was so confident of what would happen if the landing operation went wrong. Nobody dared.
As the shuttles were loaded up and the transporter rooms were filled, the command staff were intensely nervous. Captain Schmidt sat in her command chair on the Stargazer, her hands tightly clasped together to hide her nerves with her forcibly relaxed pose. Captain Halk of the Adroit, her ship barely spaceworthy, was able to excuse herself by being hip-deep in a damaged computer core as the landing operation began. Captain Copeland of the Churchill, despite his own experience with bloody conflict, stayed secluded in his ready room. Even though he'd allowed his security chief to present the plan, he was quietly and painfully convinced that it would turn into a massacre.
And Captain Eccles himself, leaning forward in his command chair with a predatory look in his eye, quietly dreaded the death that was about to happen. Even so, he'd been a soldier. He'd seen enough battle to know what would happen next, and so he was ready, even if he hated that he hadn't protested more firmly to that bloodthirsty bastard's plan. As the time passed, with all the planning done and hundreds of people ready to move, the order was eventually given with all its attendant consequences.
And so, when there was no opposition whatsoever to the landing operation, Captain Eccles felt faintly cheated.
The first landing parties were beamed down without any problems on either side of the entrance to the box canyon, out of sight of the Tholian fortress. The shuttles landed with ease on either side of the opening to the box canyon, disgorging their passengers with dramatic urgency that was now utterly anticlimactic given the lack of enemy fire in response. Clad in grey camouflage to match their surroundings, everybody rushed to their assigned tasks.
Within ten minutes, a secure perimeter was established. With twenty minutes, precise phaser fire from one of the starships in orbit carved a deep trench all the way along the entrance of the box canyon, allowing a safe way of transiting from one side to the other. Within forty minutes, armoured barricades were established. Within an hour, several small buildings were established with everything that was needed for the troops, from a barracks to a basic mess hall to an operations center.
By the time two hours had passed without any sign of Tholian soldiers or weapon fire, Captain Eccles felt more than faintly cheated. He felt insulted. He stood in the newly replicated operations center, a cramped little hut worked up by the engineers, considering the hologram floating atop the table with a bemused look.
"Well, this has all gone swimmingly so far," he said with a sarcastic grin to his assembled staff. They all wore bland grey camouflage now, with only their names, the Starfleet chevron and their rank pips to identify them on their left breast. "You'd wonder if the Tholians want to invite us on a date. Hannah, do I have you to blame for that?"
Lieutenant Commander Hannah Hale, Eccles' chief of security, responded with a completely inappropriate stuck out tongue as she grinned back. "No sir. Reports on my promiscuity with other species are greatly exaggerated, mostly by mean old captains who hold a grudge. I like to go hot, but not that hot!"
A soft chuckle spread around the group gathered around the table, Eccles himself smirking. "I'm shocked, Hannah. Shocked and dismayed. Well, everyone, setting aside our discovery of the one sentient species that Commander Hale won't mate with-" ("Hey!" Hannah protested) "this really is a best case scenario so far, better than we could have guessed. Therefore, under the circumstances, I believe that we can proceed with the next phase of this operation. We begin the first assault in two hours, everyone, at 1300 hours, following the assault plan. Alpha Company will go in first, clear the defences and secure the fortress exterior. Let's get this done and come home in time for tea and medals. Dismissed."
So ordered, the group began to file out, talking quietly as they left. After a few moments, though, Eccles called out, "Lieutenant Griffin, Commander Hale! Stay a moment."
He waited patiently for everyone to clear out, leaving just the three of them in the ops center. When the actual fighting began, personnel would staff the consoles on the exterior of the room handling various matters from sensors to communications to logistics, all to ensure that they weren't reliant on the ships in orbit. Without those people, the ops center felt oddly empty for a building that was only an hour old.
"Mister Griffin," Eccles said first, now in a more serious tone. "I didn't want to talk about this among everybody else, but it needs to be discussed. Thoughts?"
The cool-headed lieutenant replied with a tone so banal that he might well have been talking about the weather. "The Tholians are conserving resources for the exterior defence, sir. They didn't have enough troops to disrupt our landing operation and so they are going to break our spirit. They will inflict maximum casualties on the first assault wave."
Eccles sighed, glancing at his own security chief, who looked supremely uncomfortable. "I may not like the bastard, boss, but he's right," Hale said reluctantly. "It's the only logical reason to not counterattack us while we're landing. They don't have that many people, so exposing them like that would've been costly for them too. They'll focus on us in the canyon, and that means that Alpha Company is going to get shredded with little to no damage to the enemy."
"But the data from that attack will be critical," Griffin continued in the same relentlessly dry tone. "We'll be able to modify the subsequent attacks by Bravo and Charlie companies to adapt to their defences as soon as we know what they are. The sheer mass of a hundred people charging at once will force the Tholians to use everything they've got."
Hale winced, her lip curling in disgust. "You've got issues, Lieutenant. How screwed up must you be to throw away lives for data? How the hell did you even get through the Academy psych screening?"
"Hannah," Eccles said in a soft but firm voice that immediately quietened her, and Hannah smiled in contrition. "Under the circumstances, then, I will lead the first wave. Those people will need good leadership in that canyon. They're all smart enough to know what's going to happen in there."
A beat passed. "No sir," Griffin said quietly. Eccles gave him a sharp look, but Griffin was unaffected. "Respectfully, Captain, you're the operational CO and the man best equipped to lead this attack. Captain Schmidt has never seen battle, nor has Captain Halk, and Captain Copeland's allergy to the local pollen would kill him in minutes. It has to be you. After our people see what happens to Alpha, they'll need something truly special to go in there again. You're the only one who can provide that, sir."
Eccles sighed, leaning on the holotable. "And who would you propose lead Alpha, Lieutenant? Commander Gahmol hardly has an inspiring presence, regardless of his competence."
Griffin didn't hesitate. "Lieutenant Commander Hale, sir," he said curtly, nodding at the blonde. "You're skilled, capable and a natural leader. From what I've heard, you also might just be good enough to survive in there. Alpha will need you in that assault."
Hale groaned. "Are you seriously buttering me up so that I'll die heroically? You know, I'm not normally crass, but you are such an asshole!"
"Hannah," Eccles repeated in the same warning tone as before, drawing another apologetic look from her. Hale considered for a moment before finally shooting Griffin a glare of pure poison.
"He's right, boss," she said darkly. "We need you for the other assault waves, and we need someone to lead the first charge. That's me. It sure as hell isn't Mister Grumpy over here. And...well, maybe I'll survive. We got the mortars, we got air support, we got all our gadgets, and the Tholians haven't fired a shot. So...maybe it'll go well."
Eccles merely smiled sadly, looking upon the woman with fondness and sorrow in equal measure. "Very well. The order is given. Captain Schmidt has been hailing the Tholians non-stop since we came into orbit, so if they respond before we begin the attack, I'll delay it. If they choose to surrender, or at least to negotiate, we can get out of this with no bloodshed."
Hannah nodded, smiling. "And then we all get medals, promotions and vacation on Risa. Sounds good to me, boss. Skamm could use a vacation, you know. Being your XO is stressing him out." She then looked at Griffin, and her smile vanished in a heartbeat. "I'll see you once this is over, Lieutenant, assuming I'm still alive. You owe me a lot of drinks for this. I know a Vulcan geologist on Deneva who'd be perfect for you. She's a walking computer too, doesn't care at all about stupid things like feelings."
Griffin merely raised an eyebrow, and at Eccles' small gesture of dismissal with a tilt of his head, he made to leave. On the way, however, he paused at the door, looking back at Hale.
"I appreciate the offer, ma'an, but I'm married." He held up his left hand, showing off the wedding band, and then walked out. Hale and Eccles looked at each other in disbelief.
"What kind of screwed up bitch would marry him?" she said in whispered shock.