Juggling Responsibilities

Posted on 27 Jun 2014 @ 2:16am by Captain Rebecca Post & Major Richard Sharpe
Edited on on 27 Jun 2014 @ 2:17am

1,645 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: M12: For Duty or Honor
Location: MCO's Office
Timeline: MD3

Rebecca sighed as she leant back in her chair, sipping on a mug of coffee as she went over the paperwork. Of course the new duties that the Admiral had ordered the Marines to take on, the posting of Marines for Sentry and Security duty, meant that she had a great deal more work to do. Setting the new rotation schedule, not to mention additional training sessions to refresh the Marines memory of what to do in the situation, after all Starship duty wasn't exactly known for Sentry Duty, not when combat wasn't the more likely, and thus more important to be ready for, aspect. But she didn't have to do it alone, and it was a good chance for her new MXO to prove his worth. Leaning forward she entered a few commands into her console and summoned Lieutenant Sharpe.

The summons reached the Marine Executive Officer, who was as taxed an individual as could possibly be at this point. He was not only the XO of the marine detachment, but he was pulling double duty as the deputy head of Security. So he was doing all the paperwork associated with both departments - and trying to keep on top of things. Over the last few days, he'd pulled 18 hour shifts to try and get it all in balance, with barely any rack-time. He was running on coffee and good intentions. Sighing at the interruption, knowing that it was inevitable, he refastened his uniform undershirt's collar back to where it should be, and put his jacket back on.

Checking that he was smart and presentable in the mirror prior to departing his office, he then left and arrived at the MCO's office in good order. He tapped the chime and waited.

"Enter," Rebecca called. "Ah, Lieutenant, thank you for coming so quickly."

Rebecca gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"I'm sure you can guess why I've summoned you, I know you weren't best pleased about the entire affair but unfortunately we've got our orders from the Admiral and we need to carry them out," Rebecca commented. "Aside from the actual logistics of the thing I want to see if there is a way to make things easier for you, I know your workload over the past few days has been horrendous, and no one could keep it up forever."

Rebecca leant back.

"Before we get onto the logistical planning therefore I want to make you this offer," Rebecca paused. "You can pick a single NCO, of whatever rank you wish, to be your personal assistant, they'll handle some of the workload on both sides."

Sharpe nodded as he sat down. "Thank you sir, I'll bear that in mind." He said. "An assistant to filter the workload into priorities might be of some considerable help. Right now, I'm getting inventory reports alongside critical assignment rotations, and I'm paranoid things will get missed - and mistakes made - hence my rather unsocial hours."

"Indeed, then having an assistant to proof-read, as it were, might also be an advantage, especially if you are tired and might potentially make mistakes in any event," Rebecca commented. "Make your choice then give me the name and I'll draw up their new billet, in the meantime I want to talk about how we organise this."

Rebecca sipped more of her coffee.

"All things considered the likelihood of these Sentry's actually seeing any action is unlikely, the Security detachment is more than capable of handling normal law enforcement aboard ship, it's not like we're all a bunch of thieves and murders after all," Rebecca said wryly. "So if we can pull it I'd prefer to make sure that whilst pulling the task of supporting security, they are actually helping secure the ship if anything happens."

"I've been working on that." Sharpe said. "Posting permanent sentries everywhere is completely impractical, as well as pointless. During green alert conditions, I've arranged for marine sentries outside of critical and sensitive areas. We don't need them outside the mess hall for example, but having a pair of sentries flanking the doors of the turbolift on the bridge, would be smart." He said.

"I've also arranged sentries outside engineering, sickbay, the Admiral's office, the Admiral's stateroom and sentries outside all weapons lockers and armouries. With detachments to handle the shuttlebays." He said, opening a file on a blank PADD he took from her desk, and then presenting the MCO with the PADD.

"I'm also assigning an NCO to be a section supervisor, and he'll make sure the sentries are where they're supposed to be, not slacking off, and crucially - haven't been incapacitated." He said. "That way, if our people get taken by surprise somehow, someone will be along to check on them routinely."

Rebecca nodded.

"The bridge and engineering certainly sounds sensible, they are the two areas that can really hurt us and aren't places we can seal off remotely without making them entirely impractical," Rebecca commented. "The Armoury and Shuttlebay also makes sense, as does a Sentry for the Admiral, although personally I'd prefer one or two of them to just follow him around, I don't know if we've got the manpower to station Sentries outside his office and quarters."

Rebecca sighed.

"My main concern is that we've not got a lot of people in our detachment, and that we'll end up spreading ourselves to thinly, the last thing I want is to be contesting a boarding whilst half the detachment is spread across the ship, it's just inviting defeat in detail," She said. "If possible I want to keep cohesive units on rotation, that way if we are boarded even if one squad is dispersed on sentry duty, the other squads will be intact and ready to respond, along with the Recon Squad of course."

"I've tasked two squads to sentry duty, leaving two squads for rapid deployment." Sharpe said, agreeing with her concerns. "Add to that, security will be handling most responses to incidents, and our people will be tactical reserves."

"As for following the Admiral... I don't think he'd like being hounded everywhere he goes. One sentry outside his office, and two outside his stateroom would not tax our capacity - and protecting the Admiral is our highest concern after securing the critical areas. I've already tasked security with the computer cores and other non-critical areas. I guess I could pull the marines off sickbay, and put security officers there instead. That might spread the load."

"True, but at the same time the Admiral needs protecting in between Office and his Cabin, and I'm sure the Marines can make themselves scarce and ensure that if someone wishes him ill they can, well back him up, he is a Klingon after all," Rebeccca commented with a slight smile, not something she did often these days. "The idea of a Marine following the Captain about his ship is not exactly a new one, it goes back as far as the Age of Sail on Earth, but then the risk of a mutiny was helluva lot more substantial than in Starfleet... I'll mention it to him and see how he responds."

Rebecca frowned.

"As for Sickbay... I'd say for routine duty we have security officers, if there is anyone important, or potentially hostile, in there we can quite easily rotate them out," She added. "In any event it seems we've got a pretty effective deployment schedule... now I want to talk about refreshment training, most of our Marines are experienced Starship Marines, and on most ships sentry duty isn't a standing requirement, so I want to run through a few scenarios."

"You want to teach the marines to stand still?" Richard asked. "We could just ask any DI from Quantico to come aboard and teach them that. That's basic 101, stand still, don't move until I tell you."

"Very funny Lieutenant, no, I meant that we need to teach them what to be on the lookout for, in the close quarters of a Starship they'll have very little time to respond to any potential threat," Rebecca replied dryly. "Thinking about it, we could probably do with some additional hand-to-hand sessions, hell we may as well do some CQB sessions, if we're going to split up some of our squads I want to give them the best chance to survive until reinforcements can arrive."

"If that's what you're after Captain, we'd best off letting security train them." Sharpe said. "That's basically what they train to do, spot potential threats before they can happen. They're probably in the best position to instruct our people than we are."

"Indeed, if Security deals with the 'law enforcement' side of things and gives them that training, we can focus on making sure that our people are the best equipped, and trained, to fight their position if they have to," Rebecca nodded. "Alright, well we've covered a good deal here, Lieutenant, anything else?"

"Just on the point of a personal guard for the Admiral." Richard replied. "I believe the Admiral is likely to shun such a bodyguard as an offense to his prowess as a warrior - and then take to wearing a Bat'leth everywhere he goes on principle. Neither of which would be a suitable outcome. I strongly recommend we don't consider a personal guard."

"I'll certainly take your recommendation under advisement, Lieutenant, although the observing the Admiral's reaction might be value enough," Rebecca commented wryly. "In any event, thank you, please make the arrangements as we discussed and get yourself that Aide, otherwise, Dismissed."

Richard rose from his chair with parade ground proficiency and snapped to attention. "Yes ma'am!" He then marched neatly from the office.

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

First Lieutenant Richard Sharpe
Marine Detachment Executive Officer
U.S.S. Achilles

 

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