12: Battlegroup
by Chaos_eternus

In the shadow of the events and chaos of Disclosure, the first Battlegroup is formed...
And sent straight into action!

Thirty-Four

"So, how do we do this?"

"Carefully," Peters replied dryly, "this needs to be an effective group but we cant compromise home defence to build it."

Thompson snorted, "Whatever happens, home defence isn't going to be a strong as I would like."

"Still," Peters tapped at her display, " Atlantis for the number one slot obviously."

"That has been the original intention since we knew we were going to get her," he replied, "no change there,"

"How many ships from the original group will we be able to use?" O'Neill asked, for once not joining the meeting by transmission but actually being present in the room.

"None," Peters shrugged, "I don't know the full extent of the damage, we only have what has been reported and the yards boys always find something the crews missed but four of the ships are going to be in the yards for quite some time. Persephone needs a hyperdrive replacement and that is definitely not a quick job, Overseer… well, she may well take even longer. The only one that doesn't appear to need a major refit is Searcher but she will still need some yard time and even though we will be rotating a good proportion of the crew out I still think she should be kept home for a while before a new long term deployment."

"And the Ha'tak they captured is going to need the once over too," O'Neill grimaced, "already got Intel clamouring for access,"

"You do intend to allow that?"

"Of course," he replied, sending Peters a mildly affronted look, "but I'm not going to allow them to tear her apart. She's not an Anubis level Ha'tak but she's better then a standard and that means she usable without much refitting. Strip the gold, replace with armour where necessary, and add some pulse laser batteries then rest boils down to fittings."

"Quite," Thompson replied agreeably, "Now Indomitable may be bringing the most fatigued crew back from Minbari Alliance territory but they still need to be rotated out too, not to mention the ships in action against the Aschen with that Alliance,"

"We don't have ships to rotate them all and create a battlegroup," Peters noted.

"Not at once no, certainly," he replied, "but nonetheless, in both cases they have been deployed for quite a while and crew and ship both need some TLC."

"The longest trip is to Minbari alliance space," O'Neill pointed out, "but not much time difference between the two deployments."

"Well, its three ships in Vulcan space, Devonshire, Endeavour and Dawn of Justice , that's a Dauntless, a Prometheus and a Maktenos type Ha'tak, " Peters shrugged, pulling the ships reports on her screen then sending them across the screen onto the massive flat-screen mounted against one wall of the briefing room,"

"And in Minbari space?"

"Four now, Interrogator, Prometheus herself, Independence and Dawn of Valour," again, she sent the ships stats onto the flat-screen monitor, "one Dauntless, two Prometheus and another Maktenos type Ha'tak."

"We don't have enough ships to rotate all of those about," Thompson groaned.

"And both groups screaming for reinforcements," O'Neill noted.

"Don't have the crew, don't have the ships," Peters commented dryly, a glint of humour appearing in here eyes, "if you can't take a joke…"

Thompson chuckled and O'Neill grinned, both mentally adding 'you shouldn't have joined' to the age old saw.

"But the ship situation will ease within the week," she added, "Latest report from Edonia crossed my desk just before I came down, Potemkin a nd Peter the Great are set to launch within the week."

" Dauntless I's?" O'Neill asked.

"Indeed," Thompson nodded, "but we are talking about a month of shakedown time before they're considered operational."

"Most of which they cant do in Edonia due to the relatively confined nature of the location, so after passing safety and the spacesafe designations they'll join the next freighter home."

"Have one work up in Alpha Centuari, one in Sol," the aging General mused, "releasing one Dauntless from each."

"That means General Hammond and Stingray and the latter is a type II," Peters shrugged, "no other Dauntless class ships assigned to home defence at the moment."

O'Neill looked vaguely pensive at this, "that's not funny."

"No, its not. But personnel and money are stopping the navy growing as fast as we need it too,"

"Not to mention losses, four warships, six patrolcraft, enough fighters to form ten full squadrons just since Thundersdawn had her keel plate laid, not to mention the SGC's losses before that,"

O'Neill grimaced, grimly acknowledging the point, "I think we need to form five new patrolcraft squadrons."

Peters frowned, "we have eight craft under construction, but three are already assigned to replacing losses."

"Five left to form a new squadron," Thompson nodded, "any particular reason?"

"Alliance territory for two, home defence for three," he leaned back in her chair sighing, hiding a wince as he realised his leg had started to go dead, "one squadron each for Babylon 's two and three, reinforce Edonia, Earth and Alpha,"

"I assume you mean a squadron each," Thompson groaned, "I can see your point, they don't use as much crew as a warship, albeit each crewmember actually has to be more thoroughly trained and it would increase the tactical flexibility but hell; that puts us back to money and personnel."

" Babylon two is going quicker, the Aschen so far haven't made a concerted effort to stop her construction, so she would be ready to take a squadron first."

"I don't think we've 'spent' the bulk of the resource stockpile the Cheops represents yet either."

"It's a tempting idea and I thank you for pointing out we need another patrol boat on the slips to make a full squadron," Thompson found himself grimacing once more, "but money and personnel are, as always the issue. Not to mention, I think the new birds have already been earmarked for home defence."

Peters frowned, "they're proper patrol types not the system defence variants. They would seem to be a bit of a waste."

"Given that we have just one more squadron for Earth and Alpha Centauri it does make a bit more sense," Thompson shrugged, "but I do see your point."

"Doesn't solve our main question, the 1st Battlegroup and ensuring ship and crew rotations," she replied, trying to bring them back onto the main subject of their meeting.

"We can't do it," Thompson shook his head, "not yet. Not without cancelling the battlegroup, because the ships we use for that are the only ones we can use for rotation, we have what; thirty-one warships total, two more coming shortly but ten of those are in need of repair or refit. Twenty-one ships we can consider operational and five major defensive points to cover as well as the reformation of our only offensive taskforce."

The room fell quiet for almost five minutes as this was digested and flaws searched for in its logic.

"Then we need to increase the number of support ships we have so we can at least ensure the supply of parts and personnel to deployed ships," O'Neill finally continued, then grinned wryly, "whoops, don't have the money or personnel for that do we?"

"Well," Thompson shrugged, "we have Gaia funded, we have the type IIIa defensive platform under construction and the funding for the type IIIc is now in the bag. The support craft yard at Cape Canaveral has come online and there is a plant for type I and II defensive satellites coming online. There are seven new warships on the way and two refits as well as enough patrol boats to bring the existing squadrons to strength and start a new squadron. We have enough shipyard space free that we can send all the ships of the battlegroup straight into refit for a quick turn-around. The situation is not as bad as it could be."

"You forgot two," Peters noted, "the Swedes are in and the upcoming budget review from home which from what I have heard from the PM actually looks a little promising."

"Well, it might be worth asking Davis to get his team working on 'borrowing' some more Tel'tacs, "

Peters pursed her lips, "capture missions are always more risky then simple destroy but we only have two at the moment and we can certainly use more. I think it's a good idea General."

"I'll speak with Davis ," Thompson agreed, tapping a note into his PDA.

"And once more back to the question…" O'Neill grinned.

"Well, we have Atlantis and given that we have ruled out a rotation at the moment, that means we can also add in General Hammond and Stingray to start."

"I see," Thompson sighed, "I'm not sure a lot of people will be happy with replacing two veteran ships with two green crews still on their shakedown,"

"Both of those ships have been on home defence for a while," Peters shrugged, "a change can sometimes be as good as a rest."

"True,"

"There is Seeker… "

Frowning, Thompson considered this, "that's a Sentinel refit…"

"There were two in the original formation and both did well enough apparently, will only leave five fully operational warships guarding Earth but Searcher isn't supposed to be in the body and fender shop long,"

"That's only four ships still," O'Neill noted, frowning, "Peters, can you put the complete shiplist on the screen?"

She nodded and tapped at her console for a moment then the main display flashed for just a moment.

"Oh fuck," O'Neill commented, after gazing at the screen for a few moments, "we don't have anything else do we?"

"No," Peters sighed, "I don't think we do."