A Glance In The Mirror - Part 1

Posted on 30 Jun 2016 @ 12:28am by Sergeant Major Arcenio Velez & Captain Korra Wen

1,439 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M13-C: Shattered Time
Location: MarDet Offices
Timeline: Current

[Deck 31 - Marine Country]

:: Prior to Briefing ::

In her humble experience, there was no such thing as "overprepared." With all that was going on with the Terrans, Korra felt it prudent to sit down with her CO and review the performance reports of her Marines. It was one thing to get a grade on drills: real feedback on her decisions and the actions of those under her command would be invaluable for future training regiments. She headed out of her small office towards the MCO's office. On the way, she popped her head into a larger company area hoping to catch Sergeant Major Velez. He usually knew the MCO's schedule. Korra also wanted an NCO's perspective. She had asked some of her staff sergeants what they thought, but it was always good to hear from a third party. She figured the former DI wouldn't be shy about giving his opinion. The ones she had in OCS sure as hell weren't. It took three weeks before they stopped calling her BAM and used her actual name. Her blue orbs swept the room, looking for the grizzled veteran.

Velez enjoyed his occasional surprise inspections, especially when his victims were in the middle of weapons maintenance following a live fire exercise with projectile weapons. Having tortured the two platoon enough he left them to live in fear of his return. Leaving Bravo Company's assembly area he stepped into the corridor to see one of the senior company commanders looking in on the Alpha Company area. "Spying on the competition?"

Korra scoffed. "You know my First Sergeant, Yng Orin Zin? The Pahkwa-thahn? He's pretty good at keeping Alpha Company squared away." That was true enough. Her staff sergeant was essentially a sentient Velociraptor who smelled vaguely like burnt toast. He didn't usually have to tell Alpha Marines anything twice. On a personal note, Korra was the kind of OCS Marine that put all the contents of her seabag in individual bags. The closest thing she could get to revenge on DIs was denying them their favorite pastime: scattering a candidate's items all over the barracks and bellowing at them to pick it all up. "Actually, if you and the CO have a moment, I wanted to get some feedback on an exercise we just did. I had the computer put together a combat simulation." She dug out a padd and held it out to him. "Here are the details. The short version is, we boarded a mock Terran vessel, fought our way to the ship's brig, and extracted prisoners. I was hoping you two could give me something to think about before going into an actual operation."

He didn't even bother to try and hide his amusement, and with a smirk he replied. "I wonder what gave you the idea for that ? That aside what makes a Terran boarding op any different from any other?"

Korra shrugged. "Fighting Terrans would be like fighting a warped version of yourself. So I started working these Terran drills into my training regiments before I came to the Achilles. Think of it like the Marine version of chess players playing against themselves. Plus it had been a while since I've done a boarding simulation. The last three times I did this were planetary. Two months ago, I did a sim based on the Terran version of the Cabanatuan Prison Raid. Well, the computer's best guess at what that would be like, anyway."

Velez thought on the concept, taking it a bit further. ~Fighting yourself...with all the performance, surveillance, and holo-records combined with each Marines psychological profile the computer would be able to generate one hell of an opponent.~ "That's one hell of an idea. What better way to sharpen skills and eliminate flaws than by facing yourself. And here you've been keeping all the goodies to yourself and your company."

She scoffed. "Goodies? What do I look like, a Lance Corporal?" Korra swept a blue-black wisp of hair away from her eyes. "I brought it up to the other Captains a few times. They said they'd take it under advisement. Translation: 'piss off, I know what I'm doing.' I think they're useful though. Sunny Zoo of Ancient Earth said something about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy."

Ordinarily, that statement would sound bitter, but Korra's husky voice remained conversationally neutral, like a newscaster reading off the latest baseball scores. She had gotten accustomed to people not taking her seriously, and she really couldn't blame them. Her record as Lieutenant "Butter Bars" Wen spoke for itself. Her history of rubbing COs the wrong way didn't help. They couldn't court martial her outright: she never disobeyed orders. She merely obeyed them in ways her CO's had not anticipated. She did amass enough non-recs to ensure her job security as a Captain for a long time. Her former CO would never outright tell her, but Korra had a strong hunch he pushed her transfer padds through to get her out of the Marine Corps' hair without an actual discharge.

"Anyway, would you and the Major mind looking at them? I don't think it's the same class of ship we boarded and I'm sure the computer took a few artistic liberties in how the Terran's fight, but there might be something useful there."

Battle drills were a standard practice but facing and learning to beat yourself could be invaluable. "Not only will I bring it up to him I will give it my complete enforcement." Even though he was not an officer he was THE most experience Marine aboard. The smart officers relied on and sought out the advice of senior NCOs; and she struck him as a smart officer. "Captain, I think its safe for you to get started on your program...grab Frey from Recon if you need help with combat scenarios."

Korra raised inquisitive eyebrows. She wasn't sure if Velez liking her idea was flattering or terrifying.

Before a reply was even possible a call came over the comm. =/\=Sharpe to Captain Wenn=/\=

=/\=I'm here, Major.=/\=

=/\=The Commodore has called a meeting of the senior staff and I am currently...indisposed. You are to go in my place, make my apologies and report back immediately. Take the Sergeant Major with you if you need.=/\=


:: After Staff Meeting ::

Korra did a quick mental inventory before heading to the MarDet command center. She sat awkwardly in her desk chair: the furniture was not designed with the bulky EV-C Mk IV “Vac Cammies” in mind. The cylindrical gravitational compensator fitted just below the small of her back didn’t help matters. She may have been over prepared, but she wasn’t about to let her enemies stop their boarding op by venting atmosphere or playing with the ship’s gravity controls.

She grabbed her issued equipment from the quartermaster before heading for the offices, and completed her SWISS calibrations. The Service Weapon Integrated Sight System synced with a small targeting sensor built in to her weaponry and displayed it on her combat visor HUD. If the two weren’t in perfect harmony, she’d have a hell of a time trying to hit anything with a weapon lacking external sights.

“My SWISS is ready to go, got my Vac Cammies, my Grav Compensator...” she thought out loud. The only thing left was to make sure Alpha Company was ready. She wasn’t worried about that. First Sergeant Zin undoubtedly had her Marines tuned up like Steinway. Korra stood up and grabbed her kinetic direct fire support weapon and held it behind her back. The weapons coupler mounted on her back-plate grabbed the weapon with a sharp ‘clink,’ and she headed off to give Alpha Company one final look over.

Once she entered, she spotted the miniature T-Rex she called Sergeant Zin. “Ready to go, Sergeant?”

He spun around to face her. “Errah, Cap’n.”

“Good.” She looked her Marines over and liked what she saw. Fully equipped OD/In, or Orbital Drop Infantry, were an impressive sight even by Marine standards. True to their nickname, “Odins” descended from the heavens to bring hell on earth. Korra slapped Sergeant Zin on his left pauldron. “I’m gonna check in with the Major and let him know we’re squared away. If anyone needs to chat with Padre before we disembark, now’s the time.” Korra wasn’t extremely religious herself, but Lance Corporal Patterson a.k.a. “Padre” always seemed to have some pseudo-spiritual words to take the edge off of a person’s nerves.

Zin nodded and turned back towards the company as Korra headed out.


TBC

 

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