Here come the Marines

Posted on Mon Nov 16th, 2015 @ 12:28am by
Edited on on Mon Nov 23rd, 2015 @ 1:16pm

2,317 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 90 - The Great Relink
Location: USS Tirpitz

For the last 72 years when the Marines went to war, they rode in all types of ships that were hastily put together to move a MARDIV to a conflict. Though they served their purposes for a while; they were not specifically designed for the needs of a Marine Company, Battalion. Regiment, or Division.

The Marines found that they had to work around the ships facilities, made do with galleys that were not geared to feed an entire company at one time, their Holodecks were adequate, but could not fit in an entire Battalion for training, and their armories were less than adequate for the ordnances needed to sustain a Marine Division or a Battalion in the field for months. Also the ships being Starfleet did not present a Marine Corp image.

Among the issues put forth by the Marine Commanders was the need for a ship that could transport their Marines, that was specifically designed for Marine Combat Operations, not one that was hastily rigged to transport, but a ship that had something that none of the other Starships had.. “Marine Gunfire Support”.

What the Marine Commanders wanted was a totally separate weapons system from the ships defensive and offensive system. A weapons system that could operate independently from the ships own defensive and offensive weapons, a system that could deliver enough force to destroy the enemy’s shields that was protecting high valued items. That would enable the Marines to land on an enemy planet without incurring massive losses of personnel and equipment.

Starfleet had long since moved away from using the older weapons of the 20th century, and had long since gone over to energy beam weapons, shielding and photon torpedoes. But with the Marines now beginning to relearn the tactics of Ship to shore (planet) amphibious landings, the use of shipboard phaser system was woefully inadequate in planetary environments where their shipboard phasers were sometimes nullified by sudden and unexpected magnetic or ion storms; or the atmosphere made it dangerous to use energy directed weapons, to support the Marines.
During an advanced Marine Corp symposium on Marine amphibious assaults held at Marine Headquarters, Quantico in 2345; General Kenneth Obasanjo who was the chief of weapons development, and when not on duty was a part-time military historian was in attendance. As the Chief of weapons development, he was there to talk about the problems with the lack of a sustained bombardment by the Marines.

What came out of the meeting was using old naval technology, and marrying it with modern technology. The result was the EmKRG or Electromagnetic Kinetic Rail Gun that would be used to fire a naval round at targets, namely the newly developed shields now being used by enemy military powers.

Shields were nothing more than vast energy fields that dissipated the force of a beamed weapon away from a starship, fortification, or even cities. But they required a massive amount of power such as a Warp Engine, that the Marines did not have.

What they wanted was a weapon system that could be installed on the newer class Marine Deployment Cruisers, it was easy to use, had the capability to support their landings, while not taking away the power from the other defensive and offensive systems during a battle in space, and could be able to send in enough steel to destroy any type of power grid, shielding, or phaser/disrupter power sources.

In 2385, the first of the EmKRG’s were now being tested. The barrel was developed along ancient Battleship rifles 16/50 caliber meaning that the barrel was 66 feet long.

The ammunition were divided into two classes; the MK36 Shield Piercing, a 2700 lb, Ablative Armor-1 covered Tetraburmium shell casing. The face of the projectile was case hardened coming to a point.

The second was the MK95 HEAP, a High Explosive Armour Piercing, a 1900 lb, Ablative Armor-1 covered Tetraburmium shell casing, containing an explosive compound that was good against lightly armored vehicles, and troops caught out in the open, or hiding in bunkers more than several hundred feet.

What made the EmKRG rifled guns a game changer is that firing the heavy rounds from space, the Electromagnetic force propelled the projectile at a terminal velocity of over 75,000-80,000 kps/mps, and traveling through a planets atmosphere built up a kinetic charge. Once the shell entered the planets upper atmosphere, it produced large a sonic boom, while its ablative armor coating would begin to slough off, now with the shells build up of kinetic energy as it traveled to the surface, whatever it struck was soon vaporized, resulting in massive collateral damage.

Not even 56 one-inch Tritanium/Duranium composite steel plating placed back to back could stop the power of an EmKRG round. The reason the EmKRG worked was that energy shields are good against other energy based weapon where they dissipate the along its axis, thereby reducing the full potential of the beamed weapon. But a projectile traveling at more than 98,000 mps/kps literally tears a hole through the shielding since the shielding was not meant to stop a projectile

From the early data from the years of testing, Starfleet Scientists, and the Corps of Engineers speculated that the total force projected at impact was in the range of 4 x the amount of a Polaron Torpedo. And as a Gunfire Support weapon in support of the Marines, the Marines could spend a few hours in their Fireflies waiting until the bombardment ceased. By the time the entered a so-called shielded area, there was nothing left, except burned out, and blackend landscape, along with the thousands of defenders who managed to hide deep into tunnels.

Once routed from the tunnels or deep caves, they were nothing more than "babbling, and drooling figihters, who lost the will to live, and with their blank stares, bleeding from their ears, and noses; they were managed with little resistances, as a few Marine MP's would load them up into the Enemy Prisoner of War (EPW) ship for transport to one of a hundred of EPW compounds.


LIVING ON BOARD WITH ALPHA COMPANY

For several months while the Tirpitz was completing its shakedown/sea trial cruise, Marine scuttlebutt had it that among the 3 Regiments in the Division, the 2nd Battalion 327th Regiment would be the assigned Battalion on the Tirpitz, but when at peace, or not on a mission, a company would rotate every 30 days on the Tirpitz. During that time the Company would live aboard the Tirpitz. During any alert, or a combat deployment the rest of the Battalion would come on aboard.

Currently Alpha Company was the alert company now living on board the Tirpitz. For all companies living on board the Tirpitz for their month, meant that everything in the Marine Inventory had to be repaired, tested, replaced, and cleaned. From the empty dorm rooms of the vacant Battalion, to the countless hours spent, working on the onboard tactical equipment needed to sustain the Marines during an armed conflict for at least 90-120 days or more.

When Lt. Frank Diaz, Company Commander of Alpha Company first walked aboard the Tirpitz, he and the other Marines found out how different the ship was from the others, and here was a different language spoken on the Tirpitz. After the Company had found their berthing space, Hondo had all of Alpha Company's officers accompany her on a walking tour of the ship.

COMMANDERS READY ROOM

Speaking to the group of officers before their tour of the ship; Hondo said, for now I want to familiarize you with how the ship functions; as you noticed that there are no color coded Starfleet division colors. On this ship everyone is a Marine, even for the Marines who were transferred from Starfleet to the Marines.

You’ll notice that everyone here wears Marine Green. No officer wears the rank of a Starfleet officer, its all Marines, so it makes it easier for everyne to talk to each other using their rank. However the only exception is that Officers are sometimes referred to by the word “MR”, to mean both male/female genders.

The Commanding officer is referred to as Captain, and the Executive Officer is referred to as First Officer in some cases.

All Marines will wear their uniforms as indicated, bloused and starched. WE do observe the traditional color change from MARPAT is from January to June, and DESPAT is worn from July to December.

With that in mind, is there anything you will need to know? As you folks begin to train and get familiarized ship, you’ll find out there are differences to a Marine Deployment Cruiser, than a Starfleet run Marine Deployment Cruiser.


SHIPBOARD OREINTATION

For officers of Alpha Company, the size and immensity of the Tirpitz was astounding. Some of the officers including Frank had been on many Starships that ferried Marines to a battle, and was disappointed with their accommodations. Many were cramped Starships with little space to where the Marines had to bunk down on portable cots in the passageways.

Even trying to get out to their Fireflies was hard, since the art of amphibious warefare (ship to planet) was a lost art that was now being revisited. With a small Holodeck, the use of it for the Marines were sometimes curtailed for the use of the crew who had to share it with the Marines. With no firing ranges for their long range wepaons, gyms, training rooms, ready rooms, and a place to store extra equipment made life harder for the Marines; but the Marines were very hardy.

Here on the Tirpitz, the officers were surprised. Though the ship was huge, it did have some limitations. The entire Battalion was now divided into company areas. On the Port side of the ship was Headquarters 2/327, Alpha Company, and Bravo Company. starbaord side was Charlie Company, Weapons Company, and their support company consisting of Medics, Military Police, Engineers, Heavy Anti-Armor, Scouts, and the Intelligence Unit of the Battalion.

Below the Marines deck was the Fireflies hangers, where all 18 Fireflies were stored on newly designed launch racks. The system beat the older one where the Fireflies once loaded had to wait their turn to exit the Marine Carriers. Here there were three horseshoe loading/launching racks, where three Fireflies were already loaded with the combat gear of their platoons on each rack. The 56 man Fireflies all sat on a cradle, that once were loaded, would be launched sideways into space through large doors on the port and starboard side of the ship. The new launch system could expel all 18 fireflies in battle formation in less than 20 minutes, whereas the older system of going through the stern, and having to maneuver to form up took more than 30 minutes.

Continuing the tour Hondo took all of the officers through another doorthat was guard by a Marine. Entering the vast empty deck, they noticed the large number of Shells on the side, each painted a different color. In the center of the deck was a large gunpit for the three 66 foot “16-inch /50 caliber naval rifles”.

Whistling at the size of the three guns, the Officers along with Frank asked “Ma'am ” what are those”. Hondo only smiled and said; "Gentlemen what you see is a system that is going to save your bacon, when you begin Amphibious Operations".

Hondo said this is going to keep you folks alive when you hit the beach, it’s what they called back in 1940-1963 Naval Gunfire Support, or a punch in the gut. These, what they called Naval rifles are going to be your ace in the hole. They are used to destroy enemy fortifications protected by deflector shields, current and up to the Bubble 14 Shielding that will be in use on SB400.

Once these rifles get a fire mission from the Marines in the field, they can within 3 minutes of being called, begin a bombardment of three shells, per rifle, with a 10 second gap for reload, and begin to fire three shells per gun with a total of 18 shells in 15 minutes.
Each shell weighs in approximately 1900 lb to 2700 lb apiece, and come in three versions; a Shield Piercing, Anti Armor Anti Personnel, and Underground Plasma ordinance.

The rifled projectile out at a distance of 34,000,000 kms from the target will fire the projectile that will travel at nearly 125,000 mps, through space. Once the ordinance hits a planets atmosphere, it will continue to fall as the gravitational pull of the atmosphere begins to heat its ablative armor-1 exterior. Once the ablative armor coating sluoughs off, as the shell begins to build up kinetic energy. Once the heavy shell strikes a target, it literally tears a hole through the energy field vaporizing it and the objects that it is protecting.

We also have a Deep Bunker Plasma round that is used primarily against heavily defended and deeply buried command posts, troop concentrations, supply depots, and anything the enemy thinks is worth protecting down in underground bunkers. The Plasma gas will expand to over 4 x the amount of space; roughly five miles in all directions. Death is in milliseconds as the oxygen is sucked out, and hot plasma gas is now flooding any compartment space. Whatever is inside will have their insides fried.

All of the officers began to inspect the guns, and as they all stood there, they were already thinking on how the naval rifles could help them when they assaulted the beach (planetary specific LZ)

Finally with the tour over, Hondo said; Gentlemen it is now 1845 hrs, you have till 0600 hrs Monday to get your people ready for training, so I would suggest that you let them blow off steam this weekend, because for the next 30 days, there will be no letup even though the training day falls on the weekend. Training will be from 0600 – 2000 hrs

Sometimes during the next 30 days we’ll arrange for you to see a Firepower demonstration on the naval rifles.

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