Meeting the new Marine Exec

Posted on 22 Jan 2014 @ 6:28pm by Captain Rebecca Post & Major Richard Sharpe

1,753 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M11: Feet to the fire
Location: Captain Rebecca Post's Office, USS Achilles
Timeline: 1000hrs, After Arrival at Earth

Having made his way from the transport that had brought him and Kassi aboard the Achilles, Richard had gone his own way to the marine decks on deck 12. His orders had specifically stated that once aboard, he must present himself to Captain Post, the CO of the Achilles detachment. To that end, he wandered down the hallway, his duffle over his right shoulder, PADD in his left hand, as he walked past various doors.

He finally came across the door that had stenciled in black against the gold stripe "Marine Commanding Officer". Dropping the duffle onto the deck beside the doorway, he straightened up his uniform tunic and tapped the chime - waiting for permission to enter.

With her new Recon OiC recently coming aboard Rebecca had managed to draw her thoughts away from her missing brother and had at least checked the ship's manifest and discovered that her detachment was expecting at least one more officer, her second-in-command. Thus when her chime sounded for a second time in the hour she was at least a little bit more prepared.

"Enter," She called out.

As soon as the doors opened on her vocal command, Richard walked purposefully and smartly into the room, coming to parade attention before her desk. His feet snapped together with an audiable 'clack'. "Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, reporting as ordered!" He said, with aplomb and purpose - exactly as a marine should. He had absolutely no idea what kind of officer this Captain Post was; by the book, relaxed, casual, authoritarian, dictatorial... any could apply. He'd seen his share of petty tyrants wearing bars, so he'd come to expect the worst and hope for the best. The realistic only way you could navigate this course safely was to go by the book yourself, until you knew where they stood. That meant parade ground practice until otherwise told. He clasped the PADD with his transfer orders firmly in his left hand, as his right came to a full salute.

Rebecca once again sized up one of her new officers entered the room, just as she had a short time earlier and once again she got much the same impression. But then incompetents rarely managed to get through Marine Corps training so whatever else one might say about him, it was unlikely he couldn't do his job, and from his bearing he looked to be a good Marine, something that Rebecca valued highly. She stood up and returned the salute crisply.

At least this time she knew who the hell the officer was!

"Welcome aboard Lieutenant, stand at ease," Rebecca said as she settled back into her seat. "You're transfer orders?"

Richard stood at parade rest briefly, then handed the PADD over to the superior officer. He didn't need to say anything, and the golden lesson he'd learned at training was never say anything before a superior officer, unless you had to.

Rebecca glanced down at the Padd and confirmed that they were valid, it was pretty much a formality, although she would never forget the time when she had seen a hapless Marine report to the wrong ship, although to be fair it had been a practical joke on the part of some of his fellow Marines.

"Alright, everything appears to be in order, have a seat please, Lieutenant" Rebecca nodded, then gestured at the seat opposite her desk. "Now, I'm afraid I've not had a chance to review your service record, I'd appreciate it if you could give me the highlights."

Richard, not being a self-promoting egotist - since he hated those kinds of people bitterly, was unsure how best to proceed, but it was fairly easy to rattle off his previous positions without sounding too egotistical. "My first assignment out of the academy was as a Platoon Leader on the USS Bozeman. I did my one year rotation there, mostly under the tutor-age of the platoon Gunny." He admitted. There was no shame in it, since nearly every single 2nd Lieutenant was wet behind the ears, and learning from experienced non-coms was the best way to learn.

"After my stint on the Bozeman, I was headhunted by Colonel Green for the Five-Oh-First SOC, special operations command." He added quickly. "There I was assigned as a team sharpshooter for a few months, then as a special operator after I passed my qualifications. After eighteen months as an operator, I received my promotion to first, and was assigned as a team leader. I've just completed a six month rotation as such, and have received orders to report here." He summed up four years of service in roughly five sentences.

Rebecca nodded thoughtfully, a Special Operations Marine, even more specialized than the Recon marines that she had in her detachment, this was certainly something interesting. She couldn't help but wonder what he was doing back here, as far as she was aware those who served in Special Operations tended to remain there, unless there was a specific reason. She glanced across at the photo of her Marine brother with her other family pictures on her desk, he had served as both a recon marine and in special operations during the Dominion War but had accepted transfer back to the mainstream, but never talked about it. She didn't like to pry into this sort of thing, god knew her own experiences were something she didn't like to talk about.

"Any particular reason why you didn't stay with Special Operations?" Rebecca queried, then clarified. "I'm not looking for details if you don't want to talk much about it, I've been there."

"Mission went bad." He said, suddenly finding his boots very interesting. "I lost three of my five man team. I... couldn't face my unit after... so I requested transfer."

"Understood," Rebecca nodded, there was nothing else that had to be said, she knew what it was like to lose Marines, and she knew the consequences of defeat first hand. "Well, we've got quite a few new Marines coming aboard at the moment, some filling long-standing vacancies, others replacing those rotating out, suffice it to say that there is a substantial amount of admin work to be done, unfortunately."

"I am aware that my role as Exec is mostly an administrative one." Richard replied. "Although I would like to state here and now, I would like to get back into the field. Am I replacing someone directly, or has my billet been empty a while? Because I got this assignment within two hours of applying for transfer anywhere."

"Of course, with such a small detachment I need every Marine I can get my hands on, you'll get your share of field work and combat I assure you, Lieutenant," Rebecca nodded. "As a matter of fact, more than likely you'll command the line section so I can oversee both the line and the recon elements if it comes down to a pitched fight."

Rebecca paused.

"I'll be frank, Lieutenant, you're replacing an officer who was less than helpful, indeed although he was 'competent' he didn't exactly do anything more than precisely what was required of him," Rebecca replied. "As a result his latest FITREP was not exactly glowing, and that combined with a lack of recommendation will probably limit his future career progression, as a result I put in a request for an Executive Officer as a matter of urgency, probably why you got pinged so quickly."

"I'll endeavor to do what I can, ma'am." He said. "What specific duties did you wish me to address as your Ex-Oh, and what specific functions will you be assuming as your own domain? This way I avoid stepping on toes."

"Put simply I want you to be the buffer zone, quite frankly I've got enough paperwork to keep me more than busy without having to deal with every Marine that gets into a drunken fistfight on liberty," Rebecca replied. "For the most part I want you to handle the dissip, if they require a NJP or more serious disciplinary procedures then bump them up to me, the same goes for routine personnel issues, I'll trust your judgement in those matters, if you can keep the day-to-day things ticking over, I'll keep the Platoon administered."

Rebecca smiled slightly.

"Don't worry about stepping on my toes Lieutenant, if you do I'll let you know but I'm not going to be pissed about it, and if anything attracts my attention I'll probably stick my nose in to see what's going on, in any event it's going to take a period of adjustment to build the CO-XO relationship," Rebecca added. "You'll probably want to work closely with the Sergeant Major, he's been invaluable in covering for my previous exexs failings, other than that we'll be running some training drills planet-side before we depart, I want to get us working together as a platoon, the best way to do that is with some field exercises with the entire platoon involved."

Richard nodded, taking mental notes of everything she had said. So he was the equivalent of a first sergeant in regards to dealing with disciplinary matters. That made sense, given that this was a small-knit unit, not a large company affair. It was two separate entities under one unified command. It was going to cause logistical issues, but not that problematic. If a couple of pin-heads got into a fight on shore-leave or any other minor infraction, he'd have to be the one to deal with it, and decide on the punishment. Anything significant went to Post, thereby freeing him from that burden. It was liable to brand him as the bad-cop, but he could also easily make himself the watchful 'father' of the unit. He certainly had experience now, so could do that, although he suspected that the Sergeant Major would take the accolade of 'father'. He was certainly going to be bending the man's ear a lot, that was for sure.

"Very well ma'am, if you have nothing else, I'll try to find my rack and hope that some scallywag hasn't stolen my duffle from the hallway." He gave her a small smile. "I assume I have an office around here somewhere too?"

"Yes indeed, down the corridor I believe," Rebecca nodded. "Dismissed, Lieutenant."

Richard stood from the chair, came to attention, saluted, and then crisp-marched out of the office.

Captain Rebecca Post
Marine Detachment Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Achilles

&

1stLieutenant Richard Sharpe
Marine Detachment Executive Officer
U.S.S. Achilles

 

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