[Ready Room - Deck One - USS Detector]
The trip back to Padassa was relatively uneventful for Captain Chisulo when compared to the action in the last few days. The Detector and Qashqai arrived, and met with Major Kinn, Captain Vishas, and the Klingon commander present at the station. After a brief meeting, it was decided that the Commodore and Major Kinn would stay behind with the Qashqai to negotiate control of the station, while the Detector would report back to UNITY to plan an assault.
Tedros Chisulo read over the various intelligence reports Kinn handed him before he left the station. Much of the data on the station's systems had been purged during the battle, but the HUMINT from the captive agents was very valuable. According to fleet movements Padassa was not the only station the Romulans held in Quorom space, and in fact there appeared to be a much stronger fortification deeper in an anomalous region. This base would have to be the primary target if the Taskforce had any hope of weakening the Romulan war effort in the region. But to plunge in headfirst would be foolhardy, Chisulo would have to devise a diversion. And maintaining a foothold in Padassa would be a high priority a well.
The Captain crossed over to the couch and laid down lengthwise across its expanse. He had given the Captain's Quarters aboard to Commander Summers and young Martin Guzman, deciding they deserved the privacy and co fort much more than he after their recent ordeal. He would settle for the minuscule couch in the Detector's Ready Room. He watched the stars stream by outside his window, imagining the countless conflicts occurring beyond. He wondered if it would ever end. Had he survived the Dominion War and the tortuous interrogations of the Vorta's only to die in this war?
He remembered back to the Battles for Aeran III and Charos VI when this war began. He reminisced about his mission to Narendra with Commander Kortag'h and Ambassador Ayanami where they captured a Muhareem and killed a Klingon General that was cooperating with the Romulans. He thought back to his counter attack at V'Tar, where the Romulans had decimated a colony with their Thalaron weapons.
The Romulans were more willing to be ruthless in this war, and that troubled Chisulo. Normally they would have captured V'Tar and forced the populace into labor camps, utilizing their services to further their war effort. But instead they wiped the population out in one massive genocidal attack, and didn't even deploy enough troops to commandeer the colonies resources.
The attack didn't make strategic sense. Sure, it hurt Federation efforts int he area, but it didn't take advantage of the potential gains to the Romulan's effort. It felt more like retribution, an act of vengeance; but what sort of justice would the Romulan's be seeking against a traditionally pacifist vulcan colony near the border? V'Tar had been in many occasions against the increase in Federation patrol presence along the neutral zone before the war. If anything, the Romulans should be grateful to the colony, Chisulo would think.
His deliberations were disturbed by the chiming of his computer. An incoming message had arrived.
He crossed the room to the terminal and accessed his inbox. Ambassador Ayanami, Brigadier General Sharpe, and Captain Rodgers had all agreed to his request for an audience upon the Detector's arrival at Unity. Now all he needed to do was finalize his plans of assault before their arrival. Sleep, he decided, could wait. He would have his proposal ready upon arrival.
[End Log]
Captain Tedros Chisulo
SSF First Taskforce Tactical