Task Force 93 Briefing - Part 1; The Romulans

Thrace

OOC: This briefing will take place in 3 parts over the course of today to allow for questions.

[Starbase Bravo - Meeting Room A]
[Day 03 - 0900 Hours]

Kara took a moment to take in the room as she stood at the back of the presentation area with her attache, a young Bolian officer, in equally measures of eager and annoying. There was literally hundreds of officers, top brass and political representatives from various member and non member worlds gathered at various seats, tables and standing space further to the back within the large open conference room on Starbase Bravo. These officers infront of her were about to be formally updated on her senior staffs work and achievements over the last several months working towards this moment, the moment Kara had been waiting on for nearly 14 years.

Standing on her left was her Executive Officer for Task Force 93, Commodore Juliet St.Clair whom she couldn't have operated 93 without over the last few years, building a strong working relationship and personal relationship with the smaller lady. Task Force 93 was not only spread pretty thin, but had a large area of operations to cover and support. Kara and Juliet had taken a two pronged approach with Kara directly overseeing everything West of Deep Space Six, focusing on the fallout since the Romulan Supernova while Juliet had overseen the East of the Task Force, dealing with the more "stable" elements of the Task Force. On Kara's right was Vice Admiral Robert Dowd, a larger, older man who was Bravo Fleets Director of Communications whom Kara had spent the last 6 months working closely with on their announcement today and strategic planning on the follow up.

As Kara's gaze caught the eyes off her husband, Captain Roman Valdez at the back of the room standing next to his colleagues and close friends, she remembered his advice over breakfast 'find me, focus on me and remember you have been getting ready for this moment longer than we have been married' allowing herself a brief smile before being motioned by her attache as he stood up on the stage to her immediate right and leaned into the microphone on the podium "Everyone, Vice Admiral Kara Thrace, Commanding Officer, Bravo Fleets Task Force 93"

Raising her hand to silence the various chatter and conversations going on around the room coming, Kara activated her auto-cue and monitors behind her and began to address the room "My fellow officers, as you know, Task Force 93 has taken the brunt of the fallout from the supernova that occurred in the Romulan Star System 12 years ago, under resourced and at times, fire fighting throughout the various sectors and systems" Kara paused to pour herself a drink of water from the flask sitting on the podium "I would like to take the opportunity now to thank all of you, every single member of this fine Task Force for all their hard work, dedication and resource-fullness in not only operating the Task Force but getting it ready for the future" pausing to allow the room to follow in her lead of an applause for every officer within the Task Force past and present to be recognised for their hard work before taking a drink from the glass infront of her.

"Now" she began motioning to the screens behind her showing a flyby image of Devron Fleet Yards "as you know, Devron Fleet Yards were contracted to aid in our rescue effort with the Romulans, following the tragic incident at Utopia Planitia and the cancelling of those plans, we had the mammoth task of not only finishing construction of the newest yards in the quadrant but also taking it with ramping up our construction and resupply efforts to support our rebuilding effort" as the image of the flyby changed to show actual vessels docked or under construction within 2 of the largest structures at Devron "I am pleased to announce to you all today that the yards are now operating at 90% efficiency with efforts well underway to have that to 100% by the end of the month, many of you here will be travelling to the Devron System in the coming weeks to take one on of these fine vessels yourself and I look forward to meeting you there"

As Kara tapped a few commands into the panel on the podium, the screens again changed, this time to displaying the logo of the 3 separate Romulan States "I would like to remind everyone about the classified nature of this briefing as we are about to cover off the latest intelligence to date we have on the 3 key Romulan factions; the Romulan Star Empire, The Romulan Free State and the Romulan Republic. Relations with all three separate powers within what was the Star Empire is tenuous at best however I can confirm just for this room that our preferred focus on building a future relationship is with the Romulan Republic, based out of New Romulus, the Republic is the most democratic of the 3 major factions within the former empire and one that has signalled to us that they do not wish to pursue hostilities, starship commanding officers are encouraged wherever possible to continue to build on this relationship informally" Kara paused for a another drink to wet her now extremely dry throat, clearing her throat before continuing "The Romulan Free State, as far as we know have set up shop on the planet T'Met, close to the former Romulan system, the Federation has official treaties in place with the Free State specifically focusing on their captured Borg Cube within their space known locally as the artifact. Our current relationship with the Free State must be protected as best as possible to secure our work on the artifact liberating former Borg drones" As the image on the screens changed from the deactivated Borg Cube to that of the logo of the Tal Shiar "we know that the major supporter of the Romulan Free State is the Tal Shiar, how have spent, to the best of our knowledge, the last 6 years rebuilding their fleet which is putting pressure on our ability to maintain cordial relations. Lastly for consideration is the Romulan Star Empire, a direct replacement for the original Empire, still lead by the exact same Praetor at the time of the supernova, largely due to the support of almost the entire Romulan Navy, granted they have not had the resource to build newer or more modern ships like the Free State, this force is still large enough and hostile towards the Federation that it would give any starship commander, cause for concern if they encounter one"

Completely draining the glass of its entire contents and tapping a few commands into the console of the podium "I have just sent a packet to each of your with Starfleet Intelligence latest data on all 3 however I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone in this room that the Treaty of Algeron is in full affect with all Romulan factions and should be upheld wherever possible, Starfleet or the Romulans cannot afford a major conflict in the region. Bearing this in mind, you must use your best judgement when it comes to the smaller rogue or pirate factions throughout Romulan space, particularly within the former neutral zone. These rogue factions have not adopted the Treaty and are in open rebellion against each other and the three major factions" Kara punched her last set of commands into the panel as she was coming to the end of her part and she could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the launch initiatives "which brings me to my last point of consideration and awareness" she said as older style Romulan Birds of Prey were show on the screen, engaging in a hit and run attack on the USS Excelsior "the Fenris Rangers, operating mainly out of Fenris on minimal resources, the Rangers are trying to protect any inhabitants within the former Neutral Zone on both sides of the coin, the rangers however are not recognised or supported by the Federation. We have discovered over the last several months to not underestimate the rangers lack of more modern technology as their resourcefulness is second to none and should be approached with the same caution that was used with the Maquis of the 2360's and 70's

"Thank you for you time this morning, If I can take a few questions?”

LadyBlue

Rourke had tried to make sure he'd got a good seat for this particular briefing; even if the Romulans were neither his area of personal experience nor where he expected the lion's share of his concerns on Endeavour to stem from, he'd still listened intently to this part. It always did to watch your back on the frontier. Especially with Romulans. He raised a hand. "If we've had incidents of the Fenris Rangers getting into hostile engagements - if we're approaching them with caution - what's been their motivation? Are they just fending off people they deem as a threat to those they think are under their protection, or are they engaging in Maquis-style theft of resources from both sides of the border?"

Thrace

Kara quickly ran her mental rolodex as she tried to put a name to the face "good question Commander...... Rourke" saved at the last minute as the Endeavour's CO name popped into her head. "our actual intelligence on the Fenris Rangers is.... limited to say the least, which is why we are suggesting a cautious approach" Kara tapped a few commands into the holo screen in front of her to expand a few images and VT's of Fenris Ranger encounters over the last few months "as far as we can tell, their primary motivation seems to be protecting planets and colonies within the former Neutral Zone in close proximity to Fenris however what isn't clear is if these planets want or even need their protection... the limited encounters we have had suggest they do but this hasn't been confirmed" Kara changed the display to that of older style ships; a Romulan Bird of Prey a Federation Peregrine Fighter and a Klingon B'Rel Class Bird of Prey "as you can see from the ships we have so far encountered that the rangers are utilising... well they certainly aren't top of the range but have been stolen and causing us some headaches on both sides of the border. Although these ships are what we would consider obsolete, they do appear to have been upgraded, specifically on weapons and shielding, as for who has helped the rangers do this or why is still unclear, Starfleet Intelligence has suggested that there are several Ferengi weapons dealers working in and around Free Cloud"

BF_MJ

Sitting around the middle section of the room, Captain McCallister listened intently to the admiral's opening remarks. The remarks regarding the three separated Romulan nations, had made the captain wonder a few things. Raising his hand after the admiral had spoken about the Fenris Ranger, McCallister posed a question. "Admiral, what exactly are our intentions with the Romulan Republic in building further relations with them? Are our allies joining us with a similar approach?"