Ch 2 headed to Dinosaur Swamp

[Tori]

"Hey Richardson? Here's a suggestion. You should get parachute qualified. If you get over your fear of leaping out of a perfectly functioning transport, then just sitting in one ain't a big deal anymore. You could go to air-assault school too. Helos defy the laws of physics. If you get right with riding in one of them eggbeaters, a death's head seems like a limo!

"As far as a barf-bag, Six, all I can find is XO's headgear!"

[Dome]

"Thanks Tori, I'll think about it when we get back. I'm not gonna puke so don't worry about that."

[Tori]

The little cat grinned a fangy grin, that her human was okay. Rather than shout a human war-cry, she shouts one that is unique to the fishing cat, "Rowwowowowow!"

[dakota]

After nearly an hour, the Skylifter made it's side trip, and the damaged vehicles were off loaded and crates of supplies were brought aboard. At some point, Shep had slipped away, only to return with a couple maps. " Aerial shots, topographical and contours. We may have a problem though. Guy said a hurricaine is brewing and may hit tomorrow. Things might get really soggy going."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"More high ground." Socrates sighs, more to himself. "May I see the topographical, and such?" He asks Shep. "I want to get a handle on the route there. Also, any mention of hostile forces and monsters?"

[Dome]

"A hurricane? This mission gets better and better." After some thought, "actually if we go in during the storm, it could give us some good cover."

[sasqaricious]

Autumn is glad that this armour is environmental now more then ever. At least until she gets to work if anyone goes down she will be able to stay dry!

[dakota]

" and I'll be keeping my helmet on, too." Shep said with a scowl, glancing at Sam as he handed off the maps to Socrates," Not sure if Ft. Machias is on there or not. It's somewheres around here. Must be that blue dot that isn't marked." shep pointed to a dot near the ruins of the prerift city of Tallahassee.

[Renekin Skywalker]

"We'll know when we get there." Socrates says, paying a lot of attention to the map. "Where's the hostage camp?"

[Tori]

Tori heard Richardson suggest attacking during a hurricane, and wondered if the team really understood the topography.

"Respectfully Six, an assault during a hurricane is a bad move. The bayou country of Louisiana had really one passable thoroughfare from east-west, and that was the old I-10. That's pretty well the new shoreline now, and I-10 was built on a causeway between Lafayette and Baton Rouge." Tori points to the new coastline with the tip of her claw.

"Many of the causeways pilings are reported to be intact, though the bridge deck is schwacked. On the east side of the Mississippi, we have sites like Gulfport, Keesler AFB, and Mobile, which, though bombed out, still have a few hardened structures for ports and some roadway from I-10, but most is swamped. NAS P-Cola and Eglin have some usable infrastructure... With Nola gone, we have pieces of the I-12 bypass, which disappears into swamp. This means we have no ingress via land victors.

"A Hurricane has winds in excess of 70 knots. That means air is not an option We can't ingress via helo, nor can we call in fast movers or gunships for support. If we manage to get there, and rescue the prisoners, we would have no means to extract them quickly via helo. Samas and sky cycles would be thrown into a foxing meat grinder. And don't ask any of us to parachute in a hurricane. Just give us the cyanide now.

"Then some of y'all may say we should ingress by boat. 'bout the largest craft we have on hand that could navigate them bayous is a Barracuda. R'member hurricanes capsized craft of destroyer class, and the 'Cuda ain't that seaworthy. " Tori thought she made her case well.

"On the other hand, a hurricane is going to schwack their defenses like all get out. Any radar and communications antennas are gonna to fly all the way to Arkansas. Any structures will be weakened, and their guards will be split by work detail to rebuild, repair and reinforce. If we follow b'hind the hurricane-an hour between the southeast quadrant and the first squall line, in maybe a helo assault ,or go on Barracudas. We can exploit their weakest and sorriest condition. C'eptin that, our best chance is to WALK 500 klicks, down a broken road, and wade through a muddy-floored swamp during a hurricane."

[dakota]

" I'm sure the Captain will make the right decision how we pull this off." Trassk replied, adjusting his grubby cap. " We won't know for sure where the prisoners are until we get an update. L... Cap, did I read right that it was reported near the coast?"

[Tori]

"From a navigation standpoint, flooding might be best," Tori said, being a qualified coxswain. "We're looking at mangrove swamps along the shore and cypress swamps inland. Any flooding after the storm would be a blessing. It would raise water levels over obstacles, and wash some of the heavy vegetation and other debris from channels out to sea. It would hamper underwater ops, because we would be fighting the current. As long as another squall line doesn't come in behind the man storm while we're in the water, we should be okay for riverine and littoral ops, sir."

Tori stood behind Socrates studying the map. So much of the land was swamp. A few features stood out to her, both were ancient bases for the American Air Force, Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, and the old England AFB/Alexandria International Airport. Running through each was a road, marked I-49. An interstate! That meant an elevated roadbed, and some of the best paving since the Appian Way. The american Empire built them to evacuate cities in nuclear wars, move supplies quickly, and to serve as emergency landing strips for jet aircraft. Best of all, the road ran right smack into Lafayette. The two old air bases were north of the coast, meaning they could possibly land and ingress via land victor down I-49 before the storm tore them up.

"We could possibly put down via death's head here or here," Tori said as she looked at the map, pointing at the two old bases with her semi-retractable claw. "Then we could take Death's Head jeeps down 49 to Lafayette, and go the rest of the way by boat, or by what high ground we can find just after the storm blows over. As soon as they pop their heads out into the open, we raid, rescue our guys, and call for extraction by helo from one of those points, or whatever carrier is prowling the Gulf right now."

[Dome]

Richardson stays out of the conversation. The captain will give him orders, and he will follow them, simple as that. He leans back and watches all the others as they go over the operation ahead of them. Gone was the tension from earlier, now they all seemed to be coming together for the good of the mission. He takes a peak at the doctor, and he can't help but wonder how she is going to do while on the mission. He hopes that the exfil is filled with all the team members plus the prisoners they are going to rescue.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Socrates, seeing Tori dominating the insertion discussion, relinquished the maps until Sam needed his input. He was suprised that Tori was pushing CS gear at all when he originally wanted an undercover insertion.

Richardson's idea did have some merit... "Shep, can we be strangers lost in the storm, inserting on the edge of one of the villages near to the goal, and entering as the storm hit?" He asked. "THen we could use the hurricane to our advantage. If we want to get to the troops before a slave ship, we want to get to them before they can clean up from the storm."

[Tori]

"I absofegginglutely agree with Socrates. We should do our best to wash up as dumb travelers getting shipwrecked, not rolling up wearing a skull and crossbones, sir. If not, we should look like mercs that are anything but deadboy. The less CS we look, the better. If we ride in on a lifeboat, then okay, and a Death's head jeep is made by NG and Wellington, just cammy it in any shade other than black. If' we're goin in by boat, I say we show a pirate flag, or take another brownwater craft besides the 'Cuda. If we strike after the storm, we should not be wearing skull heads. We go in native or we fox off! I still don't like floating up helpless. I have a bad feeling these foxtards might be splooges or other foxfaces who would slave us up as quick as nothin'."