John, sitting by him self with a bowl of goulash in front of him and a pile of Padds to his left.

A spoon in one hand and a Padd in the other, staring intensely at the Padd at hand, slowly forking the contents of his bowl, a spoon at a time. His old, grizzled face, full of concentration as his eyes methodically inspected the contents shown on the device that he was holding.

The Padds in question contained the latest status reports from all ships in this operation. They all have been waiting 2 years for this operation to take place. What happened to Thrinacia and the gate was an embarrassment to say the least. Everyone who worked on the Gate project saw all their hard work taken away from them by those who would take arms up against the Federation. The Cardassians and Romulans did well to keep us from using the gate in our quest of exploration.

Like everyone else, John wanted this operation to take back Thrinacia and the gate to be a success. He wanted to commit to memory the operational state and progression of state of each ship to memory. Knowing yourself is half of the battle, and thus he wants to ensure he knows what ships he has, their capabilities, capacities and states before heading into this conflict.

John placed another spoon into his mouth, only just noticing that it was cold. At which moment, he glanced at the other Padds he had waiting to be reviewed. The other Padds have a number of different intelligence reports of the sector they are in. Knowing your enemy is the second half of the battle.

“A battle is won before it’s ever fought”, as Sun Tzu once put it. Our preparations for this battle have been thorough. However, the Romulans and Cardassians are not easy opponents to know, for their abilities in intelligence and information warfare are certainly not to be underestimated. This was the only thing in John’s mind that he saw they will never fully know, and are likely to be the cause of many casualties that lay ahead.

Interrupting John’s thoughts on their preparedness, his combadge chirped. Tapping to acknowledge the communication.

=^= Admiral, a group of fighters are coming into land in shuttlebay 4 and Admiral Malloway has requested for your presence=^= the voice from the commbadge stated.

=^= Ah, they have arrived have they? Thank you Lieutenant, I will be on my way then. =^= Morgan replied.

Morgan tapped his commbadge again, and picked up the remnant of his meal in his right hand and the Padds with his left hand. Making his way to the replicator to recycle his meal, departing the mess hall for shuttlebay 4

John entered the shuttle bay with the pile of padds in hand to see the fighters docking and Admiral Steve Malloway awaiting.

As John approached, one of the pilots from the lead fighter approached Malloway, and extending his hand for a handshake, saying "Admiral, permission to come aboard?"