Omega Team

Posted on 27 Jan 2013 @ 5:10pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Captain Rebecca Post & Staff Sergeant Philip Kasmierski

1,775 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M9: Rest, Recovery, and Reflection
Location: Marine Country - USS Achilles

ON:

Finally in the marine offices aboard the Achilles Rebecca was settling into her office. Since her arrival a few days earlier she had been forced to effectively do to the office version of hot-bunking with one of the other Captain's on the station, given the sheer amount of personnel aboard the station it was hardly surprising. In either case it was good to finally get an area totally to herself and she had set about molding it to her own liking. It was a small space, given that space was at a premium on a Prometheus-Class Starship, but it was nice enough. She had a desk facing the door, complete with computer station, upon which she had placed a family picture, ironically everyone on it, herself included, had been in some form of uniform whether it be Starfleet or Marine Corps, but then she came from a service family and wasn't afraid to show that. In addition to the desk there was a lone recline chair next to a small roof replicator, intended to provide a more comfortable seat in which to relax, or hell even sleep if there was something going on that precluded heading back to her quarters. On a small side table with a number of drawers she had placed a few things that were important to her, her comission of course, her Christopher Pike Medal for Valour and the Starfleet Distinguished Service Medal, both awarded for her service and sacrifice on Kalimor, but there were also a few other pieces of personal items that meant a lot to her for whatever reason.

She heard the chime to her door go, and wished that like her brother aboard USS Gladiator she could pull a marine sentry, but unlike him she only had a platoon to play with, not a double-strength company for pity's sake.

"Come on in, doors open," Rebecca called as she put the last of her effects into place


Sergeant Kasmierski walked in, noticing that the CO had just finished hanging a certificate on the wall.

So she's new too, he thought as he snapped to attention. "Ma'am, Sergeant Philip Kasmierski reporting, ma'am. Off the Villalobos," he added, then mentally kicked himself as he threw a salute. She had his file, she could read.

Once she returned the salute, Kaz continued. "There's five of us. Pretty much what was left of the Villalobos Bravo Recon Team. I don't know what you've been told about us, but we held the engine room and the secondary bridge after the main bridge was blown"

Rebecca braced to attention and returned the salute from the enlisted recon marine. She couldn't help but notice that he seemed awfully defensive about the conduct of his team back on his old ship, so she wondered if there was something that she had missed on her perusal of his service file. Gesturing to a seat for the marine to sit in she returned to her desk and grabbed the PADD in question.

"Welcome aboard the Achilles,," Rebecca said politely. "Please, have a seat."

Kaz took the seat as the CO started going through a PADD on her desk. It had to be his service record, he thought, though she probably wouldn't find much in there. The Lobo's crew were under investigation, so that was a big black mark.

There wouldn't be anything about how the intel geeks took Whelan to God only knew where for a week long interrogation. As if an eighteen year old kid was going to know that much. Though considering Sarnek was a Vulcan, Tenaka had gone through a SERE course, Caldwell had a psych course under her belt, and he was the highest ranking, maybe the geeks had been hoping Whelan would blab. Blab what, he didn't know.

He sat back in the chair, mentally running through his to do list. Except for this there wasn't that much left. Maybe take everyone on a holodeck exercise day after. Schedule some time, do weapons maintenance tomorrow...

"Alright Staff Sergeant, this is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard," Rebecca scowled placing the padd back down on the table. "I want to know your side of the story from the Villalobos."

"Okay," Kaz replied, planting his hands on his thighs. "I don't know a lot of it. Like how we ended up where we were or anything, that's the Helm and Navigation, and they're dead."

"We were on an alert, prepared for boarding, but not really expecting anything. The Lobo was set up for exploration, so it was the two recon teams and Security. We were doing drills, figuring we'd gotten the samples the Science peeps wanted, so we were heading to SB 57 to report in. We're chilling, because we figure mission's done, so we're just doing drills and stuff."

"We went to red alert halfway through a sim the Sergeant Major was running. We – that's me and Staff Sergeant Mkoye – get told that we've two Kziniti ships on our tail and we're to prep for boarding. So yeah, we do just that. We – us and the security guys trot out all the trappings and when they blow in through the shuttle bay, we're waiting for them. Yeah, they could have blown us into atoms, but I guess there was something on the Lobo they wanted, so they boarded us." He frowned, then continued.

"We got overwhelmed. They got to the bridge and pretty much wasted everyone there. Me and Tenaka, we figured that if we could get to the engine room and the the secondary bridge, we might be able to hold them there. So off we went, us and the like ten or so Security guys left. It was Chief Petty Officer Moran and Lieutenant Branth in Engineering who assumed command once we figured out what we had left in the crew."

"So Lieutenant Branth gets hardcore for a Betazoid.†She gets Tenaka to radio over to the Kziniti and tell them that she'll blow the Lobo's engines and their ships to the Betazoid hell if they don't back off. Petty Officer Moran gives her a talking to about not making threats we can’t back up. They basically tell her to go screw herself because they figure she’s not going to do it."

He smiled, remembering what they decided to do instead. "So we get clever. Lieutenant Branth, CPO Moran and me, we figure out a way to use the secondary transporter unit to zap a bunch of us around the ship. We take out a shi-bunch of their boarding party, and Tenaka manages to get her radio to call the cavalry to come in. It was the Schwarzkopf and the Victory – two big ships. The Schwarzkopf ends up taking us to SB57 while their backup helms guys fly the Lobo back, because she's pretty messed up."

"We get to the starbase, and the Intel guys grab us almost immediately. They asked us all basically the same thing – what did you see, what was your mission, that kind of crap." He rubbed his hands on his thighs. "But they had Private Whelan the longest, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because he's my armorer, but the Kzinti had a pretty standard set of weaponry, from what I've seen of the Lobo's computer footage. Whelan's not dumb, but he's a kid, he don't know that much. Then JAG runs us through the wringer, and I start hearing the rumors that Lieutenant Branth, Petty Officer Moran and maybe me are going to be court-martialed. But that makes no sense. We saved the ship."

With that he sighed. "That’s what I got, ma’am."

Rebecca had lent back in her chair as she listened to the story, a frown slowly developing on her features as she took it all in. It sounded like a right royal charlie foxtrot, and that they had been lucky to save the ship. She was inclined to agree with the Staff Sergeants assessment that there had been something on the Villalobos that the Kzinti had wanted, after all what the hell were two recon squads doing on a science vessel, especially during a time of war where their skills would doubtless be needed elsewhere, it would also explain why the spooks had grabbed them so quickly. She couldn't see what angle JAG was coming from however.

"Is there any word on what the charges will be?" Rebecca questioned.

Kaz's mouth twitched. He'd heard a few things, but nothing definite. "Ma'am, what I have is rumor, and you know how accurate that is. Petty Officer Moran knows someone at JAG on SB57. She told him that it would most likely be endangering the ship and for Lieutenant Branth, conduct unbecoming along with it. Personally, I'm hoping they just drop it. Or go with letter of reprimand to not follow on to next assignment. But well, I think it's already followed me." He gave her a wry smile.

"Well that all sounds like a load of crap, it sounds like JAG is on the warpath for some reason or another," Rebecca commented with a sigh. "Well, Staff Sergeant, we can't do anything until we get formal notification of any charges, but I'll personally make sure the Corps backs you a hundred per cent, in the meantime as long as you follow my orders and give me nothing but your best, we'll have no problems here."

Kaz paused. Had he heard her right? He still had to schedule an in-processing physical with Medical; it would probably be a good idea to do that right after this.

"Ma'am, I'll give you what the Corps taught me to do - a hundred and ten percent. Question, though ma'am. Did I get promoted? Last I checked, I was still a sergeant."

"You did, I've got two Recon teams under my command, the other team is commanded by a Staff Sergeant, I want Omega Team to also be commanded by a Staff Sergeant, to avoid any sort of issues," Rebecca replied with a slight smile reaching into her desk and walking around the desk, indicating for him to stand. "I'll be frank, I didn't like the feeling of the official report of the situation you guys found yourselves in, so I put in the paperwork to push through your promotion, giving something of a verbal two-fingered salute to any detractors, so don't let me down would you? In any case, congratulations on your promotion, Staff Sergeant Kasmierski."

Rebecca smiled as she held out her left hand, upon which two staff sergeant pins were placed.


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Captain Rebecca Post
MCO

SSgt Philip Kasmierski
Recon

 

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