Lockdown ((Matthews/Caine))

[C.T. Caine 0]

Caine tapped her commbadge to close the channel with Commander JoNs, her expression pensive.

 

After her slight loss of control towards Captain Calestorm, the Agincourt CSEC was back, more or less, to her usual businesslike focus, but the job they had to do had just gotten a little more complicated. JoNs wanted to do a semi-undercover recon run inside the bulk of the city itself in the hopes of nailing down the location of the terrorist group who had destroyed the conference location; it was a good idea, and as JoNs had once been a security officer herself, Caine had more confidence in the command officer's ability to pull it off, but it added another level of complexity to a situation that was already quite mired and cloudy.

 

She glanced towards Owen Matthews who had been standing next to her listening to the conversation. "Catch all of that?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow.

 

Owen simply nodded, lost in thoughts of his own. He had been tempted to suggest accompanying the XO on her mission. But he somehow knew Commander JoNs wouldn't have let him. However, what she asked of them was...not quite impossible but definitely not easy either. "Two of my squads are on their way here. How many of your people are here?"

 

"I have two squads that I can recall from patrol out in the city to work on the lockdown...I've also got two on the ground here, or those of them that weren't gassed, though until about two minutes ago I was hoping to have them relieved and let them get some rest." Caine frowned slightly, then puffed out a half-laugh. "I'll have to see if Agincourt can pump a caffeine line here."

 

"Right, I'll ask Medusa if we're going to get some extra leave cos we're working our butts off down here," Owen grumbled. "We need a map of this place and make a plan. I have no idea how we're supposed to lock down this whole area. Any suggestions, Junior?"

 

"Circle up around it and join hands really tight," Caine quipped. "Let 'em try to run through red-rover style." She shook her head slightly then added more seriously, "It's not impossible; the Commander only asked for about a twelve-block square area. We can bust into smaller teams and get a perimeter around the area -- we'll never prevent everyone from moving around inside, but we can at least keep them from getting out until the cat is ready to pounce."

 

"Very funny, Junior. I'll laugh when I have more time." Owen was really not happy right now. Not only did some friggin' terrorists blow up the conference hall but Captain I'll-bomb-everyone-even-if-they're-friends was starting to get so annoying Owen knew that the next time he'd see her he wouldn't be able to guarantee he wouldn't whack her over the head real good. Someone had to sacrifice themselves and beat some sense into that woman after all. "I don't like the idea that some of those freaks might already be in there and causing trouble for JoNs. She'll be on her own and I'd like to make sure she gets back in one piece."

 

Caine nodded slowly, not bothering to get fazed by Owen's aggravation. The younger man was frustrated and she certainly didn't blame him; she had just finally gotten her own frustration down to a low simmer and was saving it for a place and time where it would do more good. "Ideally I would have liked to send more people with her in a team but she was emphatic that she wanted to go this alone -- and hell, it could be worse; she's ex-security and not one of the docs or something...I get the impression she's capable of taking care of herself. We can get a few people inside the city at strategic points as well for immediate backup in case we're called on." She paused, and then looked thoughtful again, and this time the expression was laced with distaste. "We've also got the Jackrabbit's security to call on, which gives us a little more personnel to work with, though still not enough for a full lockdown."

 

"How about we send the Jackrabbit folks into an unpopulated area of the city and drop some stuff on them? Let's also make sure their CO's with them so she'll know what a lungful of gas feels like," Owen replied, then paused, perusing a PADD that a young security officer had handed them. "Can we have a few snipers somewhere? You know...just in case." He shot a questioning look at Caine.

 

Caine smirked faintly at Owen's first comment. "You'd have no complaint from most of us about gassing Calestorm, I think, but I'm afraid it might divert from the main purpose...we'll save that for the shore leave you mentioned. As for the snipers...if you can figure the most strategic places to locate them, I don't see why not."

 

"Hmm...lemme see..." Owen studied the map for a while. "I'd say if we position them here, here, here, and here we got 95% of the area covered," he said indicating four locations on the map. "We'll just have to hope that the Commander either doesn't venture into the remaining 5% or that if she does she'll be able to look after herself."

 

Caine shifted slightly to peer over his shoulder at the map and then nodded approval. "Sounds good -- way better than nothing. I'll get my boys to work on setting up the outer perimeter and you can sprinkle your people through as you see fit. We need to get moving before the rabble-rousers have too much time to go to ground."

 

"Agreed," Owen nodded. "We need to act swiftly and we should also make sure the whole thing is over before the general public notices what's going on. If the "rabble-rousers" find out what's going on we might be their next target and I don't feel like it."

 

"Not to mention that Starfleet hardly needs any more help getting a bad name at this particular colony," Caine said grimly. "Agreed...we need to get in place quickly and avoid attracting too much attention to ourselves. General orders: 'Stay quiet, stay alert, stay awake, don't get an itchy trigger finger,' and hopefully we can avoid any more explosions before they're necessary."

 

"Alright, I'll arrange for some sprinkling in of my people and I'll arrange for the snipers. The rest is up to you," Owen nodded. There was a brief pause, and then he looked at Caine with a grin. "You know what we should do?"

 

Caine had already half-turned away and paused at Owen's words. "What?" she asked, turning back.

 

Owen's grin became a little wider before he finally spoke. "How about we hijack the Jackrabbit and leave her crew stranded on this planet for a while?"

 

Caine barked a laugh. "I'm sure they'd get excellent hospitality...no less than they'd get on the Agincourt herself." The left-side of her face compressed in an expression somewhere between a smirk and a wink. "Captain Calestorm knows how to make herself friends."

 

"She sure does," Owen agreed. "See ya out there, Junior." And with that he turned to relay the orders to his squads and brief the snipers.