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Star Trek Enterprise:

Here We Stand

Chapter 03

Raiding the Rhineland

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Horatio made his way to the nearest turbo lift, and up to the foyer, there he met with the squad leaders for his operation. There would be eighty-four Star Fleet Security personnel on this assignment not including the JAG and the ancillary members that would have bumped the numbers to around one hundred and seven.

He was in overall command of the troop and would be going in with them. The lift doors opened, and he made his way past the front desk where he hung a left and along the corridor to the rear of the building there, he would meet the squad leaders.

He stopped at a portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley the Duke of Wellington. He was painted in his full regalia and with his white plumed cocked hat in his hand. He was in traditional British army Red Tunic white breaches and tall cavalry style thigh high jackboots. Behind him was a cannon pointed at a foe far in the distance.

He ran his hand down the frame causing the painting to slide to the side leaving a red wall, with no visible parting for it to be a door, with the Star Fleet Security insignia in the centre of it. A section of the frame on his right turned and revealed a touch number pad. He entered his command code into the door after a second the red wall parted from the centre, and he entered the room.

The room was designed as a command and control centre for the entire planet, and it was hoped a few decades ago that it would never be needed. Unfortunately, it was needed several times, but with this, the largest operation Star Fleet Security had made either domestically or in foreign operations theatres the room had been reactivated again.

He was the last one to arrive as the two-platoon commanders were all waiting for him along with the two Vulcan officers. The squads that had been assigned the mission were also in attendance around the table, but thankfully they seemed eager to get going.

The room was huge with a table in the centre that had a hologram of the earth lazily spinning around. The lighting dimmed as he entered and assumed the position at the pedestals in front of the table.

"Good morning." He greeted the two-second lieutenants, indicated by the two boxed insignia one in black the other in silver, first holding out a hand, the junior officers shook his hand before he turned to the Vulcans, he held up a hand and split his fingers in the traditional salute. "Greetings." The two bowed slightly with a nod "are you all acquainted with each other?" he asked

"We thought it best to wait for your arrival." It was the neutral voice of the male Vulcan Son'ak. He was a lithe, tall man with dark hair and a light honey complexion.

"Excellent." He replied. "Lieutenant Son'ak, Sub Commander T'Pol." He indicated to each one separately with a hand so the Second Lieutenants could tell them apart. "meet Second Lieutenant Hogan and Sammartino formally of the Marine Assault Command Operations Now Star Fleet Security." They both held out their hands over the tables through the hologram to the Vulcans who slowly moved to shake them bot used to the physical aspect of human greetings.

With the greetings out of the way, he moved into the meet of the briefing.

"Welcome to operation Schlieffen." He said as the hologram of the earth zoomed into Germany showing the Rhineland "this operation is considered Classified and Top Secret; the particulars are not to be made known until the Admiralty board decides is that understood." The small group nodded.

"Understood." Came the strong Irish native accent, he was from Donegal. He had been in the service most of his adult life only transferring over to Security when the UE senate decided that they wanted to downsize the military as they felt they were moving beyond the need for one. He was big and broad, having worked his way up through the ranks.

"Understood." He was also a large man though shorter than his Irish compatriot. He had taken up powerlifting before joining the service and was a thick wall of muscle that hid a brutally cunning tactical mind. The only reason that he was not higher in rank was that he didn't like paperwork and was beginning to wind down his service.

"Outstanding!" He said before pointing at the map. "this mission is a snatch and grab with a twist" he said, "we will be operating within Earth Space." There was murmuring "I know, but this is a sensitive operation, we are not pulling a Colonel Green and seizing anything other than our objective, that is German National Metal Works." He said quieting the murmuring "Star Fleet has reason to believe that person or persons have been actively sabotaging components meant for the new NX-Class Cruiser." There was a defining silence that meant he had everyone's undivided attention. "Vulcan High Command believes that it may be Andorians though that is currently unsubstantiated. But one thing we do know is that it's happening and it's happening there."

The computer showed a complete blueprint of the Works all ten miles of metal production everything from Crude Iron all the way up to highly refined Duranium. It wasn't the largest of the metal works on the planet, but it had won the contract handily from under the Italian competition that was very fierce. The Works had been founded Pre-World War One in 1832 and had survived three world wars and everything in-between.

"We are going in to secure the whole works all ten miles. We are to arrest everyone there from the janitors up to the CEO. This is a Blitz operation, and we will have our weapons on Stun I want no accidents or surprises. Everyone lives, so that way, the job of the investigators is easier is that understood." A pause and a light were murmuring about the stun order. "I SAID IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!"

"SIR YES SIR!" the thunderous roar made the Vulcans wince, almost imperceptibly, at the volume. They studied the information presented diligently as it was presented. They seemed to be able to follow the briefing easily he would know as the meeting came to an end.

"we will be splitting into several teams, four teams for each gate. Then two teams for every building, one working top down the other bottom-up for the offices. We will be moving in at the shift change on the foundry floor. A second team will be assigned to pick up anyone not in or on holiday." He stood at attention "Questions?"

There were none.

"then get ready, we'll be deploying ASAP." The Security teams made there way out of the room, leaving only Horatio and the Vulcans behind as the door hissed to a close the lights turned up, and they were illuminated.

"I was given to understand that you would be meeting us at the works was that in error?" he asked.

"It was not." Said Son'ak in a clipped tone his voice held a surprisingly deep baritone.

"Ambassador Soval though it would be better if we helped given our Tactical expertise in urban operations." Said T'Pol

"I shall thank him for his forethought on the matter." Horatio said, "do you have any questions about the operation?"

"you plan seemed sound if loose in operational detail." Said Son'ak

"I like to leave room for my officers to adapt with any situations that crop up. After all, no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"indeed." Said T'Pol

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[12:00]

The staging area was situated two levels below the weapons vault in security operation sub-level 3. It was an open area used as a hanger for shuttles that were used in more tactical operation or MACO missions. They were slightly slower but had better armour and were maid for orbital insertions and in some cases Orbital Tactical Jumps.

The shuttles held a maximum of seven people with one pilot, so they had a lot of shuttles ready to go they would first go into orbit then do one orbit then move down to Germany. They'd get a good view of Asia before going in full speed to the Rhineland.

As they got on board, Horatio did one final weapons check as the gullwing doors closed and hissed to a fully airtight seal. He re-holstered his weapon and tapped the shoulder of the ensign.

"take off," he said. Both Vulcans had decided to go on his shuttle, so he made sure that everything was done by the book. The ships all took off, and as they exited out of the operation bay, he led two chevrons of five shuttles with his ship in the lead and one bringing up the rear. They moved quickly and with the precision of a stunt team doing formation dancing in the air.

He observed the blue of the sky begin to fade as the stars came into view the ship vibrated as they left the atmosphere and plunged into the void. The whole flying circus hung there for a moment as the world spun below them, before the pilot gunned the engine, moving at high speed they then plunged back into the atmosphere, like a dolphin at the bow of a sea ship.

They were back in the atmosphere and over Asian air space. The sensors pinged them at Beijing, but their security clearance let them blow through the usual security checks before they were moving over Kazakhstan after passing Mongolia.

They changed course before hitting Ukraine they pulled a hard G manoeuvre they came around and through the black sea than up the former Balkan states. Over Austria and into the Rhine using the River they skimmed at high speed low enough that any long-range sensors would take a while to lock onto them.

Moments later, they met their objective.

He pressed the comm button on the main console.

"synchronise chronometers." He said, adjusting his own.

"roger."

"Execute." With that single command, the shuttles pealed off to there assigned locations and objectives. His shuttle touched down and he the Two Vulcans and 5 enlisted security men burst from the door and began their operation at the foundry.

They used the Emergency shut down button located at the entrance seldom used these days as with modern safety equipment and technology it was almost impossible to injure yourself working even when transporting the liquid metal.

[12:35]

In minutes, all the workers were corralled, and the especially aggressive ones were stunned and taken away from the group. A sudden beep drew his attention he pulled the device from one of his chest pockets before activating the brushed steel of the mic came up, he spoke quickly.

"Go." He said holding the device

"We have two hostiles heading your way they are armed and dangerous."

"Description?"

"human-looking, they tried to contact someone to get away, but they were unable." He nodded

"understood." He then asked, "what are they wearing?" the sudden burst of weaponry drew their attention, and the prisoners were about to stampede to get away from the firefight. "Stun them," he ordered "and you two with me." He indicated to the Vulcans, and he began to run to the sound of the guns.

Hugging the wall, he took a peek from around it and saw two men in suits hiding behind some miscellaneous container barrels and firing on his security squad. He immediately recognised the weapons as being Cardassian in origin. He saw his men fall back into cover he made his move flanked by the two Vulcans.

The amber beams of their weapons impacted the men, but the strange shimmering stopped them. Noticing that Horatio adjusted the power output then threw a stun grenade, he knew that the stun field wouldn't work, but the concussion should be enough incapacitating them for some time.

As the explosion went off the shields flickered and died, he then shot the two with heavy stun knocking them out. He grabbed the communications device.

"This is Smith, hostiles down, keep your guard up check everyone." He said as he holstered the weapon and pulled the scanner from high thigh pocket. He scanned both knowing what to expect but wanted to hide his reaction as the bio scan began to register. "the hell?" he showed the scan to T'Pol "you ever see bio scans like that before?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Hebitians?"

"what is a Hebitian?"

"there a Pre-Warp reptilian species similar to your own Cobra's."

"if they're a pre-warp society how could they be here?" he asked but before she could answer they vanished. "what the hell" he scanned the area where they were and found nothing no trace of transporters or anything else like they blinked out of existence. "what did your scanners show?" he asked the Vulcans.

"an increase of Chroniton particles." Said Son'ak

"what's a Chroniton?" he asked, feigning ignorance fairly well.

"until now, a theoretical subatomic partial that exhibits Temporal Properties."

"ok, how did they escape using that?" several of the security teams converged on their position.

"at this time unknown." The Vulcan seemed mesmerised by his scanner energetically tapping away at it the beeps of the device were fast blurring together.

"well, this is one for the CSI guys, I think we should focus on the metallurgical issues now." He turned to the team, "go through this place gentlemen leave no stone un-turned no locker checked, and no particle of this pace unscanned collect everything."

They nodded and moved off.

"They may not get everything with the tactical scanners, but it's a start for the engineers." He said to T'Pol as Son'ak remained attached to his device like a 90s kid with a Gameboy. "he's gone" he said waving a hand in front of him "yeah, no one's home right now." He said to T'pol.

"he's a dedicated scientist." She replied

"Aye, shall we head to the computers see what's been done by the Hebitians." She nodded, and his team moved off to the administration building.

Horatio sat behind one of the desks of the in the computer lab. It wasn't a static clean room, but it looked like the scientists had kept the place in immaculate condition. T'Pol was going through the computer files diligently as was he though for completely different reasons.

He opened an older file and began to input a new formula from his own memories; it had similar properties to that of Minbari hull armour. The artificial graphite would allow for better protection from energy plasma weapons. Along with what he knew of Federation hull plating the new material he had determined would boost the efficiency of the Hull Polarisation by twenty-five percent. Without arousing suspicion of the Vulcans. He hacked the computers chronometer and adjusted the time of the saved file.

"T'pol," he called "take a look at this." He moved the office chair away on its casters so she could take a look.

"it appears that this was the original armour design." She said as she flicked through the files, "the current armour plating is sixty-three percent less effective."

"and the ships outer hull is ninety percent complete." Horatio said using both hands to facepalm then wipe down. "another thing I'm going to have to fix." He sighed "alright, let's prepare for the inquisition." He pulled out his communicator

"Inquisition?" she asked.

"a joke" he responded, she raised an eyebrow and went back to the computer.

"I see." She said as she returned to the computer. "this design is remarkably efficient" she said, "not similar at all to what they originally submitted."

"their contractors Sub Commander." He said, "they had probably designed three or four generations of armour that would build-up to this so they would have contracts for the next decade maybe more."

"and now?" she asked.

"we're taking this one," he said indicating to the screen "We'll have several foundries making them at the same time so we can get the hull finished faster." He said as he pulled the communications device from his shoulder.

"This is Smith," he said into the device. "anything to report gentlemen?" He asked

"Team two here, we've found no other hostiles all scans read normal humans."

"Team three here the same."

"Team four nothing out of the ordinary here."

"anything out of the ordinary?" he asked again.

"no, Sir." Was the almost universal response

"Sir, the CSI teams, are here and so is Admiral Forest."

"send them up to the main science laboratory."

"Aye, Sir."

Horatio sighed well things took a turn here he thought as he waited for his commanding officer and the CSI teams to get up here.