STF

Ready Room - How Good Do You Look In Stripes? (TAG CO, XO)

Posted April 12, 2021, 11:49 a.m. by Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) (James Sinclair)

Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in Ready Room - How Good Do You Look In Stripes? (TAG CO, XO)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) in Ready Room - How Good Do You Look In Stripes? (TAG CO, XO)

Posted by Fleet Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Ready Room - How Good Do You Look In Stripes? (TAG CO, XO)
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Mardusk tapped the comms in his office right after River left. =/\= Security Chief to Skipper and XO. Ma’am, Sir… Gonna need a word with you both here in about thirty minutes. I’ll meet you in the Ready Room. =/\=

At the designated time, the turbo lift doors opened and the gigantic Orion stepped onto the bridge, PaDD in hand. Mardusk walked to the door and fist-bumped the chime and waited, nodding to the Security officer on duty. “Grant, how you doin’? Rachel and Rebecca doing ok?” The young human smiled and said “Settling in great, Chief. Thanks for asking.” Mardusk nodded once and then faced the door.

Mardusk, CoS

Jen had been looking through his logs and thinking to add another. They were not particularly different from the status reports he had to file, however, in combat situations it was typically someone else doing them and he signing them. These ‘navy’ logs were more like a diary; apparently the navy wanted to have something for others to use as cures for insomnia. When he received the note from Mardusk his antennae moved in a curious swirl; the note was cryptic at best. However, as the time neared he shut down his console and headed toward the Ready Room. Idly he thought that the human ship builders had space to spare as they designed the ships; Andorian cruisers typically made multi-purpose rooms rather than one for this and one for that. But then humans were simply odd beings.

Entering the Ready Room he found himself facing Mardusk looking in his direction. Thinking he may be looking past him Jen glanced over his shoulder to see whether there was anyone else coming, then back to the Orion. “Commander,” he said in greeting.
- Jen, XO

Mardusk looked down at the XO and said simply “Sir.” in his low rumble of a voice. “Appreciate you taking the time, Commander. Hopefully you and the Skipper won’t take too much exception with what I have in mind.” he said with a slight grin.

Mardusk, CoS

Jen assessed the tone as best he could and replied, “Well, you know us Andorians and Tellarites, we have elevated taking offense to an art form.” He glanced back before the doors swished shut to see whether the Captain was coming. “After all, everyone needs a hobby,” he continued. “By the way, what are your hobbies?”
- Jen, XO

“Punk rock and drinking heavily, Commander. I’m a simple man.” Mardusk replied flatly. He then looked around and asked “The Skipper is in there, isn’t she?”

Mardusk, CoS

Jen had heard the ‘noise’ from Mardusk’s bar. “Nothing simple about punk rock.” So that was what they called it. He had traveled through many a soldier’s bar and improvised halls in the field and had heard a lot of discordant music in his day. This ‘punk’ seemed to be more intensive, at least to his antennae. “I’m sure she’s not been kidnapped by the Borg. Woe be to them if she was.”
- Jen, XO

Kelly walked into the room with a frustrated expression on her face. Clearly something was bothering her. Seeing the XO and security chief Kelly shook her head as her scowled deepened. Kelly knew why they were here or at least assumed they had heard about the latest incident with Miss Maybelle Spunkler.

“Before you start I have dealt with it,” she moved towards the replicator. “She swore it’s never going to happen again but you know her. Best intentions but eighty pounds of choas. Maybelle said she found some weird netting outside of the Marine area and some rope outside of security. I assume that was the supplies that were reported missing by the Marines and security you planned to use in your last training exercises. They were building a training course.”

Jen seemed to have missed that in the reports .. his antennae shifted slowly.

Kelly took a seat at the table sipping her coffee. She frown was slowly turning into a half smirk. “We found her, Mikey, Raul, and Torga with a nail gun in that abandoned room on deck 41. Apparently they were playing some game called Borg Tag where they practice evading the crew as if they had been assimilated in a boarding situation. She said and I quote you can’t be too careful and Mr. Mardusk always says there is a plan for everything and if you don’t have one make one. What are you teaching that kid?” Kelly no longer could keep a straight face. Of all the problems on the ship the ones with Maybelle always resulted in the best stories.

“She claimed that they would be the last line of defense if the ship was taken over because they are tiny and can fit in air vents or ducts. That kid hero worships you and Styxx. You know that right?”

Kelly Bordeaux

Actually, that sounded like fun ..

Mardusk took a seat as Kelly rambled. He knew better than interrupt, that would just drag it out. During her soliloquy, Mardusk cast a glance at the XO that said Hope you are used to this by now. and waited for her to tire herself out. Once she was done, Mardusk grinned.

Jen caught Mardusk’s look and returned a small shrug.

“Well, first off Skipper; allow me to congratulate you. Your cardio is definitely paying off. I would have had to breathe at least twice in there. Well done.” and he gave her a wink. “But none of that is actually why I am here.” and he took a deep breath.

“So I almost threw Styxx in the brig and charged her. Now, before you both lose your s&^t, I didn’t. I said almost. Seems we had a bit of a rumble between some of my crew and some of hers. In the process of dealing with that, phasers may have been fired. And some civilians may have been hurt. Report is in both of your comms, and here is a copy for review for each of you.” and he handed each a PaDD with the report of the incident at Mike’s Place. He leaned back and gave them both a moment to review.

Jen looked through it thoughtfully, antenna focused. Security and Marines. Not that ‘that’ ever had come up in the history of competing disciplines … “May have ..” Jen offered. There was a big difference between was and may.

Once they were done, Mardusk said “In the process of trying to get Styxx handled, we came to a point where the age-old issue of Marines versus Security came into the arena. Now, I know that this issue is older than any of us. And I know that the Brass of both services have kinda set up both groups to fail when it comes to this particular issue… that being are Marines part of the ship’s defense contingent, and if they are what do they do and if they aren’t what do they do when not assaulting the Big Bad Guys? Now Skipper, you know my stance here. But for laying everything out on the table for the XO, I want to make my position clear: Marines are not part of ship security.” and he looked directly at th’Jir. “And sir, this is why I say that: Marines are not permitted to enforce the law or regulations, nor are they trained specifically to defend a starship from hostiles. Like I told Styxx… if the bad guys are on their ship, Marines are more capable of dealing with that than my Security teams. I have no delusions about that. But when it comes to defending this ship? Yes, the Marines can fight… but repelling boarders isn’t really about about fighting. It’s about systems and surveillance and working knowledge of how this ship functions… what the priority areas are… how to use the ship systems to make the hostiles impaired.” and he looked at both Kelly and Jen. “Marines spend years training to take the fight to the enemy. And they are damn good at it. But Security teams spend just as long learning how to protect… and that isn’t the same thing. Its a different priority set, different tactics… a wholly different mindset. And Styxx and I, we think, have come up with a way to put that to the test.” and he stood up and walked to the display screen and activated it.

Jen’s lips set in a thin line. Let it be security to take offense at a brawl and make it into a job fair. He was more concerned with the overreaching of weapons. Better, at least to him, to have an engagement and growing mutual respect than some kind of uneasy truce. He admitted that he looked to the screen with some skepticism.

An image of the Atlantis came up and Mardusk said “We propose a test. A contest of sorts. Marines versus Security. Holodeck program. Hostile boarding action. Marines will repel the boarders their way… Security will do the same. Exact same parameters, exact same settings as an actual boarding event. Winner is determined by a set of factors. Time to repel, contain, or destroy the invaders. Number of personnel lost. Number of non-combat personnel lost… that’s an important one. And lastly, number of sensitive or secure areas and compartments breached by the boarding force. Whoever scores best in each of these areas wins. Whoever wins the most areas wins the whole thing. In the case of tie, you two decide the winner. Styxx and I have already determined what that means, by the way. Just a friendly wager. What we want from the two of you is impartiality. We want you to referee the contest. Each group will have access only to the systems they would normally have in the event we are boarded, so no one should be able to bend the holodeck parameters to give them an edge that doesn’t exist normally. You two track and score. At the end, we will have a visual of how the groups are differ.” and he took a seat.

“And before its brought up, yes… both of us have been told that cross-training would ‘help’. That isn’t what this is about.”

“I’m not interested in cross training. That is counter productive,” Jen said in cautious agreement.

The big Orion sighed. “So? Think you both would be willing to put this on your calendar?”

Mardusk, CoS

“Okay, you say that repelling boarders is a security job while assaulting an enemy ship is the marine’s job, then consider an exercise of both disciplines doing what you say is the job of security? Is this to prove your point to the marines?” He frowned again. Evidently he was not seeing it and, perhaps, letting his past get in the way if he thought more about it. Sure, such a test could be done but to what end? “The exercise puts the marines at a disadvantage for by your own admission Security is trained to contain issues on the ship.”

He thought; evidently Mardusk had the sense that Marines were a mobile assault group alone. “That exercise would be, as the Terrans say, apples and oranges. Marines may be applicable to assault a position if they are able, but they are also exceptional in laying defenses. One may not be able to dig a trench on a starship but there are other options. I would adapt the exercise myself to the strengths of each group. In this case allowing the marines to defend sensitive areas giving the opportunity for security to marshal and repel. Both can work together, and should, but in their own swim lanes. I think each seeing the other group in action would build up more of a mutual respect than an unbalanced competition.”
- Jen, XO

Mardusk had anticipated the response the XO, and it wasn’t at all out of line. “There is a huge issue there, sir. For the Marines to effectively defend sensitive areas, they would have to have access to those areas. And I can’t do that. And I mean literally… I can’t. You and the Skipper can’t, either. Marines are not part of Star Fleet in that way. They are, by necessity, their own branch. They don’t have the same chain-of-command. They don’t answer to Star Fleet Command, they answer to the Marine Corps Force Marshall. And the Force Marshall answers to the Commander-In-Chief. And we can’t give access to restricted areas to non-Star Fleet personnel. It would be easier giving an Academy Cadet access to Section 31 archives than it would be for me to get Styxx and her Marines access to the Warp Core or torpedo storage. I’m not being argumentative, sir. Really. This isn’t me refusing… this is just the way the system is set up. And to your statement of me proving a point to the Marines? To answer honestly… but partially… hell yes. Absolutely. Because, sir, I’m quite frankly sick and tired of the Marines all over Star Fleet looking at Security and saying ‘Well, we fight too. So we’ll fight for-slash-with you because we are bored a lot.’ To be blunt, Commander… that’s bulls&^%. And it discounts the years of training and specialized skills and knowledge my teams have just because both groups can fire a damn phaser. That makes as much sense as me saying to Styxx ‘Hey, I know you guys are being sent planetside to defend that colony that has absolutely no Star Fleet personnel or facilities involved from the Jem’Hadar, but why don’t you guys chill a bit and let me and my crew handle that for ya? We haven’t had a lot going on.’ That would be insulting to the role the Marines play… just like it’s dismissive to us.” and Mardusk turned off the screen and sat down heavily.

“This isn’t about who is better. Its not about who is more capable or more adept or more ferocious or more bad-ass. It’s about protocols and procedures… it’s about rules and regulations. And I and my teams are here to enforce those… because that is our job. Asking us to make exceptions puts holes in our security… it hinders our abilities to keep the ship and it’s crew and residents safe. And I get it, I really do. Being a Marine on Star Fleet vessel must be absolutely boring as all hell. But at the end of the day, sir… with all due respect… that’s just not my problem. And making it my problem is not on my to do list. I would love to be able to have the Marines as part of the ship’s defenses. But that would put them under the command of Security, answering to me. And quite frankly sir… I just don’t think Marines should take orders from someone who isn’t a Marine themself. And I’d be willing to bet that the Marines would feel the same way.”

Mardusk, CoS


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