The Republic Rangers - The Beginning - Act Three, Scene Two

[Winters 0]

It was a lovely afternoon and the officers were in a planning room, arguing.

"This should be discussed with everyone else; the ranking officers shouldn't plan the entire thing by themselves." Claire Lieussink pressed. She sat at one end of a round table, which displayed a hologram of the building floor plan.

"The Army works different from the Starfighter Corp. In reality, a Captain is a higher ranking junior officer that commands anywhere from eighty to one hundred fifty men. A major could even command a battalion. So including everyone in the planning process would actually be detrimental." Tom countered, holding a hot mug of caff in his hands.

"No need to argue who does the commanding, because we have a deadline." I walked to the media reader of the desk and popped in a datachip. At once eveyone rushed toward my side of the desk to watch.

"Attention false governmental leaders of Fondor!" Said a man, holding an E-11 blaster carbine, his face covered with a surplus Clone War era helmet. "We will kill one hostage every hour after sundown tomorrow, if we are not paid a quarter million credits to a Kurati bank!" He waved his carbine in a pathetc attempt to boost the faux air of danger. "We still main our original demands of having Fondor pull out of the Republic, having all Republic military personal retreat from Fondor and never step on Fondorian soil ever again!"

"We'll, that?s stupid." Lou said.

"They're an isolationist party." Ricard said. "They just want what they think best for Fondor."

"Which is exactly what is worse for Fondor." Tom added.

"They may be super-smart, but they wouldn't last against a full scale Imperial assault." I added, finishing the conversation.

"So, what's the POA?" Ricard asked.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you for asking." I pulled out a the datacard with the demads and put in my own slide presentation. Everyone moved their chairs toward the back of the small room, giving me space to present.

"It is going to be a cassic pincer attack."

"How can you pincer a building?" Lou asked.

"We'll, it's simple, you get these giant claws, like you-" I was saying.

"You attack from top and bottom toward the middle." Tom interupted. People nodded.

"How are you going to get on top?" Claire asked.

"It's a two step process; first, we snipe everyone on top of the building then use a transport to move two teams on to the top while two teams rush the main floor." I paused to let it mull around in everyones mind. "Four teams, one ranking officer per team. Bottom teams will be commanded by Captain Thomas Anderson and First Lieutenant Ricard Winters; top teams are led by Second Lieutenant Lieussink and me." I shifted to show the building's layout. "Thankfully and also sadly, the building has two sets of stairways. That means one team per stairwell per team set."

"I'm confused." Louii interupted. I held myself, dearly wishing to smack him in the face.

"How are you confused?" I asked as if he were a child.

"So we... we attack via the stairwells?"

"If we use lifts, we'll be funneled and thats bad." Tom said.

"Plus, it's a small building. Something we can easily run about."I added. Lou raised his hand again. "No, you don't have to fight," Lou raised his arms in happiness. "However you can join us if you wish." Lou shook his head.

"What is our transport?" Claire asked.

"You'll love this... an old yet in fine condition, LAAT/i!" Everyone except Tom looked at me as if I lost my mind; Tom's face was in his hands.

"We'll, they don't make a huge amount of noise. Perfect for insertion..." Tom said with a muffled voice.

"They're lightly armored, but enough for what we're going to do." Ricard reasoned.

"What's a LAAT/i?" Claire asked.

"What?" Lou said.

"It's ok; she's new to the army, relatively new." I said.

"You don't know anything about the Clone Wars?" Tom pressed.

"I know the basics, but I'm not a history professor." This made me mad. I inhaled deeply to deal with this. "What's wrong with him?"

"He was a history major at the Academy." Tom said. He walked over to me to calm me down.

"I'm sorry." Claire said.

"No, no, it's ok." I said, calming down. "Ok, the Light Armor Assault Transport, infantry variant, is what every elite military infantry unit needs!"

"It comes in blaster metal black or durasteel grey..." Tom added unenthusiastically.

"Who's going to pilot it?" Ricard asked.

"Did I mention it comes with pilots?" I continued. "I haven't any idea who they are, but I'm told that they're the best when it comes to flying a LAAT/i."

"What are the assignments?" Claire asked.

"Four attack groups; a ranking officer for each group, the only exception will be our sniper, Pfc. Liton Hivadze. Since we can not be evenly split, I'll be one man down." People absently nodded at this information. "Sergeant Arnaz Ver'eth will join me. Captain Thomas Anderson will be assigned Sergeant Aliaune Akon and Corporal Bedora Thiam." Tom nodded. "First Lieutenant Ricard Winters will be assigned Sergeant Jahn Nacka and Corporal Abruzzo Aastassakis." Winters nodded. "Finally, Second Lieutenant Claire Lieussink will be assigned Staff Sergeant Corbin Drayton and Private First Class Vernet Boney."

"May I ask a question?" Claire asked.

"Sure Claire, ask away."

"Why is it that I get the most and least experienced men?"

"Reason being; one, you're least experienced when it comes to army command and two, having a less experienced soldier with Tom or Ricard would hinder their assault on the ground floor." This explaination seemed to be acceptable to Claire.

Ricard raised his hand. "Where is Hivadze going to be placed?"

"There is a building the same height across to the north; he is going to be placed North of there. There is a shorter building between the two, only a few stories high, but it gives Hiva--I give up on his name; Linton, it gives Linton some space for him to snipe the upper levels, and more importantly, the roof." Ricard nodded.

No one said anything for a few seconds, "Very well, if no one has anything else to add, then I'd like to finish the meeting." I pulled out a data chip from a breast pocket. "If you have any questions, just ask." I handed Ricard the data chip. "Also, Ricard is going to be explaining this to the rest of the unit in a hour, please do come if you're not busy, for Tom and I will be attending."

Tom moved up beside me to tell me something. "There's only Claire and Lou, and Claire has to go since she's the 'ASL'" I waved of Tom and everyone but Tom got up to leave. Once everyone was gone, Tom spoke, "It's a good plan, epically the assignments, except the LAAT, but it's a different way of how to get to the top, but there is no other way to get to the top..."

"Relax Tom, for once, everything will go fine!"