“Complete the exchange with the N’Tani, debrief their researcher once we get them. There are still ways to approach Fenring with subterfuge, as well. Any plan that doesn’t involve an overwhelming force will have two primary facets to them:
“Problem one is insertion. Ways to address this: Build up a very high velocity then shut down all power systems that aren’t involved with keeping the crew alive and glide in an insertion team dark like throwing darts at a target several light minutes away. There’s still the possibility of commandeering pirate vessels with working cloaking devices if we can, or finding if someone in this universe has working jump drives like the Ximni of our universe. The objective here is to minimize the window between when we are discovered and when we can begin conducting recovery operations.
“Problem two is deception. We need to minimize the number of forces we would be dealing with rather than the entire sector fleet encountered when recovering the rest of the senior staff. These include but are not limited to: Attacking installations in the surrounding sectors to draw away the active defense fleets which leaves those permanently assigned to close defense and patrol, disabling the nearest jump-gate to hinder reinforcement of the system, and using some number of the supply caches that Lt. Beaumont and I charted throughout the Atlantis system. We could turn them on, a few at a time, and have them broadcast signals with electronic emissions matching our ships as closely as possible. Even if it’s just an IFF broadcast, that would be enough to draw ships to investigate. They would undoubtably engage and destroy any cache we activated in this fashion, but its trading materiel and supply reserves rather than risking any of our ships and personnel in an engagement – even if that engagement was just a feint.
“What we lack most is intelligence about the actual fortress itself. A high speed insertion into the system with an unsubtle sensor scan would be one option, but it exposes risk. We could also offer bounties or reward for information about the base, including intelligence, scans, personnel rotations, or any other information the marine commanders would find useful for infil and exfil with LCDR Mundy. Either to an enterprising, underemployed, or disaffected member of the ISN assigned to Fenring or from a local independent information broker. Each comes with risk of inaccuracy or counterintelligence, but is a far safer option with regards to our materiel and personnel. Nor does it preclude escalating to recon runs if our purchases are insufficient on their own.”