Duty Log - ColTowers - "Preparations"
Posted on 241505.26 @ 6:53am by Colonel Adam Towers
Mission: The Krigoran War [GQ]
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"The trouble is taking enough that we're properly provisioned, but not so much that we aren't mobile." Sergeant Wexler said as the rest of the team was carefully stowing equipment in their bags.
"Thank you for that revelation, Sergeant." Someone else called out.
Towers ignored the banter, focusing on the desk in front of him. He had several devices laid out and a bright work light shining on them. Sergeant Edmunds, Towers' ever present shadow, was packing the rest of his bag for him.
Towers glanced over at him for a second and then looked back. He often wondered if Edmunds was some agent of Sharpe's, sent along on damn near every spec ops mission Towers went on to keep the Colonel out of trouble.
Of course, he'd never know for sure because Sharpe would take on a battalion of Jem'Hadar before he admitted that Towers was anything more than a "somewhat valuable combat asset". And Towers wouldn't think of excluding Edmunds from this kind of mission, because the young Sergeant had a knack for it. Sharpe might have labeled Towers as his most experienced SOC operator, but Edmunds was easily as skilled. He just didn't have the years yet.
The Marine Corps of course had standard issue explosive devices. Every explosives expert ever trained knew how to set a standard detonator, peel an adhesive cover, stick the object to the wall, and run behind cover squealing like a stuck pig.
During Towers' time at Quantico, he had learned to "tweak" the capabilities of these devices. He was never one of the pranksters that put firecrackers in other people's lockers or other idiotic pranks involving small bombs. He simply liked to tinker and make things better. Which still, if you think about it, sounded slightly psychotic considering he was tinkering with things that explode violently.
Screwing tight the casing on one last cylinder, Towers looked up finally. A few of his men had been watching, interested, their own packing complete.
Everyone had their rifles, a hand phaser, combat knife, and ghillie suit. Towers had studied the terrain on the other side of the river from orbital scans and ordered the suits replicated accordingly. They would help the team blend in. The advanced fibres used to create the material also created a bit of a scattering effect, helping to hide them from sensor scans. Older designs had incorporated materials that simply blocked sensors, but that had proved deadly as opponents could just look for 'dead spots' in their scans and carpet bomb whatever sniper was behind their lines causing problems. Towers' team would just not give a clear signal to any tricorder or scanning device.
Towers had opted against his team carrying any heavy automatic weaponry, and had only insisted on each man carrying one LAW micro torpedo launcher, which could be used as they were intended against armored vehicles, or if they had to do damage to a structure and were unable to get close, the LAWs could be used as a backup. Unlike their earlier predecessors, these launchers could be reloaded with additional spherical projectiles, and were extremely light and easy to carry.
Which was the goal, as Sergeant Wexler had put it. Stay light. Stay fast. This operation was meant to be surgical.
Because once the Krigorans realized they had a ten man team behind their lines causing havoc, the shit was going to hit the fan.
Rations, first aid kit, spare socks... Towers went through the rest of the pack silently. Not that he didn't trust Chase, but he needed to double check it himself.
Nodding, satisfied, he wiggled the explosives pack into the bag and closed it, casting a glance around the room.
"We go up in twenty. Anybody needs to use the head, do it now." He said. One or two others laughed.
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Colonel Adam Towers
Commanding Officer, 5th MEU
Starfleet Marine Corps
