//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16 
// Story: CTF Haymaker 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

"Not that I want to roll in hot on a foreign head of state," said Candless, "but if things go south in the meeting with Dragon Lord Torch, we need to have a plan."

He turned to Spitfire, who sat beside him at the table.  "How big did you say this guy was?"

Spitfire turned her head and repeated the question in Equestrian to one of her lieutenants who'd met with the dragons.  She replied, "Big."

Pausing to consider for a moment, Spitfire went on.  "Knowing what I've heard about him, and knowing what Harriers can carry, I don't think anything short of a Maverick or a five hundred pound Paveway would seriously injure him."

The rest glanced at the conference room map, referencing the terrain.





Colonel Morita spoke up.  "Can we ask him to meet us on the border, and by the seashore?"

On the other end of the teleconference screen, Captain Lombard took his meaning.  "O'Kane could support that with five-inch and SM-2's."

"And with the much closer meeting, we can also use tanks and Cobras with TOW," Candless finished.  "Now we just have to get the dragons to come."

"What if they won't?" asked Group Captain Hogan.

"Just Harriers escorting Ospreys, and try not to start trouble," Candless decided.

The commanders began to pull the plan together.  Spitfire sent sent another mission of pegasi to arrange the meeting.  Meanwhile, Candless told one of his aides to get the State Department on the phone.  This was above his paygrade.

In days of yore, the on-scene military commander was often the official representative of the government.  It was often a sailor, given the distances involved.  Maybe Captain Lombard knew how to negotiate a multinational peace conference, but if he had modern telecommunications, Candless was going to use them.

The talk turned to how to arrange the meeting itself.  Exactly where to hold it would be a little difficult.  According to scouting reports and drone footage, the East River, which trickled out of the mountains, wasn't too deep by the time it reached the sea, but the coastal road was pretty much just a series of shallow places to get across it.  They couldn't very well have a meeting in the middle of a flowing stream.  But then whose side of the border would they hold the meeting on?  

"We don't have a Seabee detachment, but if your construction Marines could build a runway, maybe they could build an island in the middle of the river," Lombard suggested.

It was an idea.  However, there were fifty miles of still possibly damaged road to get construction equipment there.  Instead, Candless ordered the CH-53 heavy lift helicopters in the MEU air wing to transport it.  Those same helicopters would probably also be busy ferrying building materials to make a comfortable meeting place.

Although, if Dragon Lord Torch was really that big, then it might be difficult to slap together a building large enough to fit him.  Candless also hoped the meeting wouldn't take so long that he would be expecting a meal.

He sighed to himself.  No greater enemy, no better friend-

-catering extraordinaire.