Meet the Knuckle Draggers

Posted on Mon Apr 27th, 2015 @ 6:28am by Major General John Thompson & Major Patrick Smith & Major David Lorenz & Colonel Travis Harris

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Marine Briefing Room

* * * Marine Briefing Room * * *

The General left the Admirals office and headed right for the Marine briefing rooms, signalling for Lieutenant Colonel Harris to join him and for Major Smith and David Lorenz to join them shortly after. He smirked as he walked through the station wondering how these three like so many before would react to a new Commanding Officer looking like he rolled right out of the Academy. One of the curses, yet humorous gifts associated with being El-Aurion. Eventually arriving he entered the briefing room and grabbed a black tea from the replicator and sat down waiting for Harris to arrive.

Travis walked into the room and stood at attention just inside the door. "Lt. Colonel Harris, reporting as ordered."

John Stood and indicated to the seat beside him. "Please Colonel Harris take a seat. We have a few things to discuss before Major Smith and David Lorenz arrive."

Taking the seat, Travis sat and waited for the general to speak. If he had met the man before this, they may have had a bit more of an informal relationship when alone, but he had no idea what General Thompson was like. His best move at this point was to play it safe. So he waited.

Seeing the silence John took the cue and proceeded straight into business. “In case you're not aware Colonel, the Marine presence on the base is about to get an overhaul. The first stage of this is my appointment to oversee the Marine forces on board 900. Both foot soldiers and the fighter jocks.” He took a sip of his tea before continuing. “The next part is where you come in. While I have been around the mill a few times, especially where the pilots are concerned, I have significantly less experience in dealing with the needs of your current department.”

“I’m more than willing to do whatever you require to get you up to speed and to provide any assistance.” Travis had only been involved in command takeover once before and it was much easier. The general had been promoted up through their unit and knew the personnel and their history. He could only imagine how difficult it might be for General Thompson to have to come in and start from scratch with a thousand or more new faces and names. “Is there anything specific you might need right away?’

The General kept a relatively straight face, “I’m glad to hear that, and as a matter of fact there is. I’ve been given permission to form a Command staff here to cope with the increase in provision here and to help cover any future growth of the Marine presence. To help with the transition I would like you to become my XO.”

“I--uh, wow. I would love the opportunity, sir!” He wanted to bust at the seams, but he strained to keep his composure. “I won’t let you down, General.”

“Excellent,” John replied smiling as he stood and walked to the replicator. Tapping in his command codes a small box materialised. Picking it up he turned back to the Colonel. “I’ve talked to the Admiral about this and we both feel that it’s time you were given these,” he said presenting Harris the box open, in it full Colonel pips.

Travis stood, taking the box. “Thank you, sir. I..I feel like I should say more, but that’s all I can think of.” Instead, he saluted.

John stood to attention and returned the salute. “Well deserved Colonel. Now before the other two arrive I want to ask you what you know of them.” He sat back down and took a big swig of tea. “Firstly, Major Smith?”

“Superb pilot,” Travis started, returning to his seat. “He comes off as a bit quiet at first, but he’ll open up the more he gets used to you. And he doesn’t seem too concerned with speaking his mind--always with due respect, but I’ve not known him to hold back on his opinion if he felt strongly enough about it. And his men, they all like him as a commanding officer. He keeps them motivated, keeps pushing them and always expects to see progress.” He shrugged. “I can’t think of a better unit CO.”

The General nodded as Harris spoke. “Glad to hear. His file has a hell of a lot of red tape in it. But from what I can see it all just lents to solid flying and command. Though all this being grabbed by the Intel department here is going to have to stop I think.”

“Admiral Wegener seems to foster a bit of interdepartmental cooperation on occasion,” Harris replied. “I’d prefer we be kept in our more traditional roles as marines, but that’s just the way I was brought up, I guess, sir.”

“Cooperation is fine, just not when it costs a department it’s head for a prolonged period of time,” John replied. “Anyway. What about this Lorenz chap then?”

“Sorry, General, but I don’t know much about him other than the scuttlebutt I’ve heard and what’s in his file--the parts I can get to, anyway. He’s seen some action and was a company commander for a while.” He shrugged. “I don’t have access to any potential corrective actions against him so I can’t speak to that.”

“I don’t get much from his file either. So what does the scuttlebutt say? I promise to take it with a pinch of salt seeing as thats how much it’s probably worth,” John asked.

“Did some of his butter-bar time on the old man’s ship--uh, Admiral Wegener, that is. Kicked some ass during Chin’toka, did some time in a prison camp until he escaped with some other prisoners. I think he had some fun out in the Gamma Quadrant for a while.” He thought a moment, trying to remember anything speaking to Lorenz’s character. “I don’t believe he’s a hard ass, but I have heard that if you have some crazy-ass mission that needs a crazy-ass CO to take it on, he’s your man.” He shook his head and laughed. “Like I said, scuttlebutt, but I don’t know if there was anything he’d refuse.”

“Interesting all the same.” John stood and walked to the briefing room door and opened it. “Ah Major Smith. Please join us.”

Pat looked at the young man before him and did a quick double take once he seen the General insignias on his shoulders. “Ah - ok,” he just about managed to say as he entered. “Colonel Harris good to see you,” he said sitting opposite Harris whilst John returned to the top of the table.

Harris nodded. “Major.” He had worked with Smith several times before on joint exercises between the pilots and the grunts and he had come to respect the man quite a bit.

The doors opened admitting a sheepish Dave Lorenz. He had been in his quarters sleeping while waiting for the new Marine CO to arrive. when word came, Dave hurriedly dressed in some utilities that bore the NGSC logo on them and his scarred up jump boots, complete with pistol belt and a Mark III 3p phaser popular with Marines. Lorenz took in the fresh eagles on the shoulders of Harris and grinned. Harris had replaced him as a unit CO after his abrupt departure to help Jim Holbridge search for his brother, Wyatt. “I feel a little under-dressed, general, but the message said you wanted to see me.” Dave smiled, shaking hands with everyone present. He saw Patrick Smith in the corner and grinned at the man. “Sir, if you are looking for pilots, I know a few that have this turkey beat!”

“Lorenz good to see you,” Pat replied. “I highly doubt you know any who could beat me these days. Been getting my hours for a change. Tho I met a few lugheads when I was intel who had they not met an… unfortunate end would have fit right in with you ground pounders!”

Dave grinned at the reply, then looked seriously at the new general officer. Jim had generously shared NGSC’s database file on him, and the man had certainly been around, been there, and done that. David looked squarely at the general and said , “You wanted to see me, sir?”

"I did indeed. As you all knew each other in some capacity I wanted to have an opportunity for us all to be in the same place at the same time." He looked to Smith briefly. "Major Smith will retain Command of the fighter squadrons. Lorenz you are being assigned to the CO position of the Marine detachment, both of which fall under myself and Colonel Harris's responsibility. While I retain overall command I will defer to his expertise regarding the... ground pounders as Smith so eloquently put it as my backround is primarily in flying myself."

He pulled a stack of padds from underneath the desk and entered codes into each to pull up the relevant information. "As you can see we are due to get some new gear. What we have been using has been sub standard and for a front line base I felt that was unacceptable, hell the Ptolemy Marine CO Anton Markov has already tried to bend my ear over the gear we gave them. Anything in particular you folks need shipped in?"

Travis spoke mainly to Lorenz at this point, but also for the General's benefit. "The combat armor is well above specs, so no worries there. But the pulse rifles are aged and could use an upgrade." Turning to Thompson he added, "I had heard R&D have come up with a Type IV compression pulse rifle to replace the Type III's and we may be able to convince them to allow us to be their testing ground for its capabilities in real world situations. We'd need to keep the III's, of course, in case the new ones turn out to be crap." Back to Lorenz again, "Other than that, they all still love their Triple P's and some even modify them as they can to draw more power from them."

The Colonel snapped his fingers as he had an epiphany. "Transports! I forgot about those," he said. "I had been toying around with the idea of making a suggestion up the chain of command to get with Lorenz's old boss, Holbridge, to see about replacing our aging transport fleet. What we have will still do the trick, but I don't like the fact that the fleeters seem to get upgrades to their shuttlecraft like clockwork but we're stuck with designs that are well past their prime." He was speaking to all of them now. "Shields, propulsion, weapons and even the computers have been significantly upgraded...but not ours."

"I agree," Smith said. "I've still got contacts in the R&D and the Valkyries we have are two versions behind at least, and as the Colonel said shuttles and transports also behind. There's a new craft being developed thats ready to have a few testbeds rolled out called the Serenity Dropship. Modular design and reusable, pretty damned cool if I do say so myself. Could help with ground transport. For ship to ship we definitely need something better."

John listened as they both spoke through their shopping lists, "Ok then. Smith see if you can't get anything for me on those experimental transports and something for ship to ship. I'll sign off on getting updates for any other craft and Harris, same for those new rifles. If we can get this gear within a few weeks we will do an exercise with it."

Dave looked up from his PADD and grinned. "Pat, I can tell you that the Holbridge Shipyard has plans for some of the hottest fighters to ever hit the skies, including the Gryphon, Wasp, and Pericles-class fighters. As for transports, I am sure they can whip up some Arrow-class Marine transport mods until the Tomahawk-class designs are approved. Jim is en route to the Alpha Quadrant for the security overview of his shipyard, but rumor has it his operation is going to be expand to include weapons, munitions, and consumable supply production as well. I am sure the general can confirm or deny this." Lorenz grinned wider, then turned serious. "Before we go any further, I am curious to know what my rank is gonna be. Not that it matters a whole helluva lot, but the higher up you are, the bigger quarters and office space you get!"

"I'd love to get a look at them Dave, but unless they're taken into service by Starfleet I don't think there is much we can do," Patrick responded not sure how to go about getting them, his face showing that.

John smiled, "The perks to being a General. Send a copy of the details Lorenz to each of us. If i like them I'll push to get a test batch sent out. As to your last question there," John stood and went back to the replicator and entered codes again. Picking up the box he walked around to Lorenz. "Major, I think you are out of uniform."

The moment Dave had secretly lusted after for over a year was on hand. Dave took the box from the general's hand and opened it, staring at the gleaming gold oak clusters. I'm a major in the Corps again he thought, then smiled. "Semper Fi!" he shouted, drawing himself to attention to disguise the emotion he felt.

"At ease Major. If there is nothing else folks I have a crap tonne of paperwork you all kindly left me and I'm sure you all have something to do. The Colonel and I will be around at some point to... inspect the troops shall we say. Dismissed Marines," the General said standing by the top of the table

Dave nodded, saluted, and did a crisp about face, making a beeline for his quarters and the clothes replicator. It's gonna be so cool to wear a 3p on my hip again!

_____________________________________

Major David "Bulldog" Lorenz
Back In The Saddle

&

Colonel Travis Harris
Movin' on Up

&

Major General John Thompson
New Sheriff in Town

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Major Patrick Smith
High Flyier