| abstract
| - Jantine is over by the Claymore 2. He is half dressed in a flight suit, the rest is being put into the storage locker in front of him. Norton whistles tunelessly as he walks out onto the landing bay. There's an unlit cigarette dangling out of the corner of his mouth. In his arms, he's got a folded easel and a pad of butcher block paper. He sets up the easel and pad near the storage locker. The pad is blank. Dirionis yawns a little, one of his hands rubbing the upper right side of his chest a little. The parts of his skin that are not covered by his uniform show a small bruise here and there. He looks curiously at Norton with the easel and pad, trotting behind him at a casual pace to see if he was actually going to draw or paint something. Jantine continues stripping off the flight suit. He takes the helmet, which has been on the floor, and inserts it in the locker. He still has a ways to go on the suit however. Norton grins around the cigarette as he looks around the bay. A few of the marines from second platoon have showed up other than Dirionis. Turning his back on the easel and butcher block, he says, "We're going to play a little game." He looks over at Jantine, "You want to play, highspeed? It's a good game. It's called screw your buddy." Dirionis glances at the other marines a moment before looking at Norton and the easel, then to Jantine, not quite sure how to comment on the game. Jantine doesn't even look over. He keeps taking off the suit "Give me a moment sergeant" he says as he places more of the equipment into the locker. "That's cool, highspeed," says Norton. "We'll start without you, but you can join right in when you're ready." The grin is turned on the marines. "Here's how the game works. You guys buddy up. I ask questions. If you get the question wrong, you do pushups. If you get the question right, your buddy does pushups." Dirionis smirks at the sergeant, and then asks, " does the last one standing win anything?" As the 'game' is explained, Jan stops what he's doing. He shoots a troubled look over towards Diri, mouthing the word "Taz" after a moment, before looking back to what he was doing. He can't seem to remember for a few seconds, before he seems to regain his composure, and strips off the rest of the flight suit, meticulously placing it inside the storage locker. Norton is standing with his back to an easel where a pad of butcher block paper is set up. The pad's currently blank. "Yeah, hero, the last one standing wins a four day pass once the restrictions are lifted." He looks around, "Anyway, buddy or enemy up as you see fit." Ruin steps off the shuttle, stretching. "What's up?" he asks, seeing people about the landing bay. Dirionis slowly makes his way towards Jantine, looking back at some of the marines, observing there stature as if determining if they were a threat. He says to Ruin while passing, " A game. You'll see." Jantine waves to Ruin as he heads over towards the group. He stops as he reaches Diri and the rest of the group. "We're playing screw your buddy, Peanut," Norton answers Ruin. He looks over at Dirionis and Jantine. "You two a pair? You're a brave marine, hero, teaming up with the throttle jockey. I'll try to keep things simple for him. No reason to go overkill." He grins around the unlit cigarette as he regards Jantine. "First question is for you, flyboy. I'll try to keep them where our career fields overlap. What standard issue pulse sidearm is widely regarded as having the best range?" He pauses to roll the cigarette to the other side of his mouth. "That's a pistol." Ruin laughs quietly, and heads over to take a seat on the Haste's ramp. "Don't mind me," he says. "I'm sure I'll learn a lot." Dirionis chuckles a bit to Norton, shrugging as he waits, he glances at Jantine, stretching as if ready to do push ups. Jantine shrugs and says "The AAI 'Equality' DS Pistol" patting the side arm at his waist. He isn't confidant about it, but he's not cowardly either. "Now, you could argue that the Ungstiri hae the 630s series that is a fairly accurate weapon, but that's only in low or zero g. That's an operating environment that most of us are fortunate enough to not have to be engaged in combat the majority of the time. Fortunate because we'd shoot each other as we spin around in the void. The correct answer is, for all intents and purposes, the DS which is, lucky for us, the one we're issued with, so you're right," says Norton before he looks at Dirionis. "Hold on, though, hero, you got yourself a chance to negate the pushups that you are going to do if you answer this one right. If you get it right, you two are even, and I'll ask you another to give the pilot a chance to exercise. If you get it wrong, you push. As a marine infantryman, what's your mission in life?" Ruin tilts his head, watching the quiz show for a bit, and then goes into the Haste to retrieve his tools. Coming out with them, he sets to work on the engines with a little smile. Dirionis finds it hard to keep a straight face, chuckling a little at the question. " I'd have to go with...." He imitates Urfkgar as well as he can, " train all time. Kill enemy." Jantine smiles a little when he gets the question right, then watches Diri with intrest, chuckling as well at the Urf imitation. "Textbook answer is: to close with and destroy the enemy through the means of fire and maneuver to defeat or capture said enemy or repel the aforementioned enemy's assault by fire, close combat, and counter attack," says Norton before he pauses to roll the cigarette to the other side of his mouth with his tongue. "I'll give it to you, though, since you made your buddy laugh which is important. All right, this is the make it or break it question for you. What are the three basic tactical operations undertaken by marine platoons? When I say basic, I mean basic. I don't mean board a ship. I mean the purpose for boarding a ship. I don't mean battle drill one alpha. I mean the purpose for battle drill one alpha. I don't mean secure a patrol base. I mean the purpose for a secured patrol base." Ruin pauses, evidently intrigued by the Q&A session. His fingers move as he thinks to himself, lips pursed. "Ehhh...Uhh..." Dirionis pauses, looking up as if he could find the answer on the ceiling, then looks back at Norton. " I got nothin'." Jantine looks as if he's about to drop down to do some pushups, but then looks fairly startled at Diri's response. He looks over at him curiously. "Movement, offense, and defense, hero," says Norton. "Got to move to fight, got to operate offensively and, when the cards are down, defensively in the fight. Shoot, move, communicate, kill, defend, regroup, do it all again. I guess that means you owe me some pushups." He turns to Jantine, "When I say beans and bullets and point at a first sergeant, what am I talking about?" Ruin grins to himself and goes back to his tinkering. Dirionis chuckles as he drops down and starts doing pushups swiftly. A grin is on his face. "Quatermaster" Jan says, stealing a confused look down at Diri. "Here I was," says Norton as he puts his hands on his hips. "Told that our hero, PFC Callot, was just about the most highspeed, low drag grunt we had out here, and he was on the fast track for corporal and a team leader slot, but he doesn't know the basic things we do, or if he does know, he doesn't know how to put them into words. And, to top that off, corporal Osligoth doesn't know the basic military tenant that the first sergeant is the provider for the big ol' family we call a militia. He is the one in charge of keeping you in with clean socks in the field, getting the good moral boosting shows, and generally keeping you a happy, content lot instead of a bunch of malcontents with weapons." He makes a tsking noise around the cigarette. "It's a sad day for me, fellows. If I hadn't lost my tear ducts in a vicious custody battle with my ex wife, I'd cry for you poor lost souls." He sighs, "Get up you two, jokers. I'm turning this Q and A session around. Ask me questions. You got five seconds. If I don't hear a good, legitimate question about military operations in five, you're all going to beat your faces some more until a good one gets through your heads." Ruin sighs. "Beans and bullets," he says quietly. "Provisions and armaments. What any unit needs to be useful." Dirionis lets his smile fall off his face in an instant and offers a question out, " How many shots do the three most common power cells of a standard pulse assault rifle hold?" "What is the standard attack formation for a squadron of three fighters?" Jan spits out quickly, pretty much on top of Diri's question. Norton is standing in front of a block of butcher block paper set up on an easel near the storage locker. He tells Dirionis, "10 for civie purposes not that that holds true. 25 for most of the pogue mouth breathers, and a lucky few of the marines get the joy of a fifty shot energy cell." He tells Jantine, "Triangle, generally abreast, if they are attacking a single ship or from three angles depending on the approach vector. For variations of ship numbers under attack over two, I'd suggest more fighters." He looks around, "Next!" Ruin sighs; evidently this version of the session isn't as much fun. He picks up his tools again, returning to his repairs. Taeren enters the landing bay and gives the training session a wide berth, headed straight for the Outcast. Dirionis rubs his neck as he thinks of another. Another marine contributes, " what year was the NLM formed?" Dirionis speaks up after thinking, " what class of ship is the Franklin?" Jantine lets the others ask before offering his own "What is the fastest and most maneuverable military fighter?" "3001, and it's a wolf class frigate," says Norton. While these are good questions, do you know how to do basic fire and maneuver operating on fireteam, squad, and platoon levels?" He looks over at Jantine, "The Jackhammer, highspeed, and that's a good question, too, but it's one anyone can find in Tanya's. It's just route memorization to know the facts and figures on that stuff. Only reason I know is because there are some sitting over there." Taeren walks up Outcast's ramp and passes inside. Ruin - having quite lost interest in the Q&A - tries and fails to catch Taeren's attention. "Drat," he murmurs, shaking his head. "Ah well." Dirionis thinks a moment, then replies, " fireteam and squad...I've never heard of whole platoon tactics.." He looks at Norton, as if expecting him to teach it. "Class of the Riposte, it's armaments, and the location where the Militia found it at" Jan fires another question, undaunted by Norton being able to answer all of them so far, or the faltering of the marines. "What do you know about fireteam and squad first, hero," says Norton to Dirionis before he answers Jantine, "Probably the drift. Probably a kestrel. Probably don't care since I won't ever fire them." Ruin turns back, and then stops. Turns back to the Outcast. "...Permission to board, Captain?" he asks, facing the Outcast's bow. There's a pause, and then Outcast's running lights flicker twice. Ruin blinks, purses his lips, and then comes up to the ship to see if the doors will open. "You'd be surprised sergeant, I've seen a few marines act as gunners onboard her." He turns to face the Riposte "Two Mark IV turbocannons, and two Mark V's" he says, pointing them out as he says their names. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go sergeant" he turns to leave, and exits out the double doors. "Not me," says Norton while he looks to Dirionis. Dirionis ponders a moment again, " well, just the basics, are to stay in formation, which is dependent on the current scenario and enviroment. Common tactics are supressing fire, flanking..." "Yeah, hero," agrees Norton. He says, "The tree types of enemy are known, likely, and suspected. You ever heard that before?" Dirionis shakes his head to the Sergeant. " Nah, I haven't..." He hesistates before saying, " sir, most of the drills we ran through with Urfkgar were physical. Maybe, we should consider some training studying tactics and the like...Get us mentally prepared." Some marines nod in agreement, others scoff at the idea. Norton rolls the cigarette to the other side of his mouth. "Well, thank you, hero. Maybe we'll do that. Known targets are where you know the enemy is. This is basic stuff. You can't get to more advanced stuff without knowing the words, or you just all stare at me with open mouths like the mouth breathing jokers you are when I explain how things come together later. You copy? Good, great. Likely targets are, say, fortified positions or the window of a house you've been taking fire from. Suspected targets are where you'd be if you were the guys shooting at you. You're not sure they're there, but it seems like a good idea to put a plasma burst through the hedge anyway. Copy?" Dirionis nods, as do all the marines, and a chorus of " yes sir."'s are heard throughout. "I'm a sergeant," says Norton. "Look. I can tell you don't believe me, so I'm going to go into full military lingo to explain a basic mission. When, I'm done, you tell me what I said. Fair?" Dirionis speaks for the rest of the group, " Sounds good." "I'm going to make this simple," says Norton. "CO's put the poop out the all the PLs about suspected anti-militia activitiy taking place at Jasper Point. The PL's have got the OPORD from the CO, and they're spreading it through the levels. METTC factors are that you're going to be clearing out a bunch of hostiles in established positions in MOUT conditions full of hard to identify combatants and non-combatants. Movement to contact has your squad on point while another company was dropped in to establish a cordon around the apartment area where the suspected hostiles are habitated. Movement techniques are at your beck and call but formations are the order of the day with you moving in a modified wedge once you reach the release point. Prior to release point movement is dictated by terrain. Namely hills. Reconnaisance yielded no likely targets prior to the release point so you're traveling. No overwatch, bounding or otherwise. Your mission is to infiltrate, conduct a raid, and seize as much CCI from HPWs as possible." Dirionis nods along as he listens intently to every word. A new, rookie marine asks, " what do all those stand for, exactly?" "Commanding officer, in this case a captain as in most cases when used by a marine when speaking of the company commander," says Norton as he takes a can of dip out and starts to pack it. "PL is the officer who thinks he is in charge of the platoon. He's the LT, lieutenant. OPORD is operations order. It's the detailed account of what you're doing and how. It tells you who is doing what where. You don't need to know most of it. METTC is mission, enemy, time, terrain, civilians on the battlefield. MOUT is military operations in urban terrain. CCI is commander's critical intel. It's the information he sent you there for. Be it numbers, weapons, locations of other strong points, whatever. HPW is hostile prisoner, former warrior. I don't know. It stands for the badguys you managed to capture without maiming too badly." Dirionis nods to Norton and says, " please, continue." The newer marine looks like hes taking mental notes. "Thanks, hero," says Norton as he puts a pinch of dip in behind his lower lip. "Back to the basics. React to contact. It's simple. You shoot back in an effort to suppress while finding out just where the enemy is. You engage them and kill at least one. We're not asking for miracles. Maybe wound one. Your leadership needs to ID and count enemy and their weapons. You also need to communicate by calling out what it is you see with a distance, direction, and description. That's the three Ds. Anyone who has them needs to call it out. Everyone else needs to echo is so everyone hears it." Dirionis nods, hungry for knowledge, which is uncharacteristic of him. " In the next training scenario, everyone remember to do that." The marines grunt and agree in response. "Datapad says you need to get on line which is true depending on the terrain. You need to get arranged so that you're not conflicting with each others fields of fire while maintaining cover and concealment. The difference being cover stops rounds. Concealment just blocks vision. The team leader needs to keep track of where his or her marines are. Datapad says he or she gives fire commands. That's just a fancy way of saying they tell you what to engage. Different weapon systems will engage different things. As the user of said weapon systems, you should know what you're doing without being told. Think of the team leader as back up. In a well trained team, he or she doesn't have much to say," says Norton. "While this is going on, higher is figuring out what's going on. If they've got numbers, typically three to one depending on the enemy positions and weapon systems, they might order an assault. That's normally accomplished via a flanking move instead of straight up the middle. The PL should be getting fire support from any arty or air in the area if it is available. Once he's got a firm grasp on what's going on, he'll give orders to them, and he'll either use that as cover for a withdrawal or let them pound a while before you guys assault. It all depends on the situation on the ground. It's fluid. Our job is fluid. We might have to move to a better position, assault, breach a wall or mine wire obstacle, knock out a bunker, clear a building a trench, or banana peal our way out of there." Norton is standing by an easel with a blank pad of butcher block propped on it. He seems to be lecturing a group of marines that includes Dirionis. Dirionis continues to listen to the Sergeant's words, focused solely on the conversation at hand. Voliast emerges from the shuttle, having just disengaged Scheur from his lap. Delicately, his voice would echo in the air in the direction of Norton, Dirionis, and the others: ~When you are done whatever you are doing, I would appreciate it if you would swing by medbay for examinations. It should take about ten minutes, tops. Thank you. We don't want this spreading.~ He then proceeds off toward the main promenade, turning back to wait on Scheur. Volouscheur follows Iast down off the shuttle and off to the promenade, aura matte green. She's in her duty uniform, but doesn't give Norton and the rest much more than a glance for now. "As we continue to make things as simple as possible if perhaps not entirely realistic, you're a squad of marines. You've reacted to contact by the measures I just said. The lead team is engaging and suppressing the enemy to the best of its ability. The squad leader, the PL is with a different element, calls up to the PL and says he's going to assault since it seems to be a fairly vulnerable position the enemy is engaging you from, and you have numbers," says Norton. "So, the squad leader has assessed and reported while the lead team engages and suppresses. During the suppressive fire a lot of ammo and energy cells are going to be ate up. You have to make sure your shots count while still putting the fear of the militia into the bad guys. It's a hard compromise. You don't all want to be reloading a the same time, either, so you need to talk your weapon systems. It's pretty simple. You just rotate the firer around so that someone is constantly firing at the enemy position. Meanwhile, the other team in your squad will try to flank either through the cover of smoke laid down on the EP or behind natural terrain features or buildings." His talking doesn't let up during Voliast's interuption. "The flanking element gets on line when they arrive abreast of the enemy position, hopefully unspotted. They advance by IMTing. That is they hide, crawl, and generally remain unobtrussive. When they can engage, they engage and continue their advance. As the get closer, they signal the suppressing team to shift fire. This means they start shooting off to the opposite side a bit of the advancing team. As the advancing team gets upon the EP, they signal a lift fire. This means the suppressing team stops shooting. The advancing team drills any enemy who look lively through the head as they pass over the position. They clear it by kicking weapons away from bad guy bodies. They move quickly but thoroughly." Voliast steps out, waving back, Aura shading to light indigo as he goes. Dirionis pauses a moment, asking the guy next to him what Voliast said. " Go to medbay afterwards." Comes the quick response of the other marine. Dirionis then asks Norton what is a common signal to shift and lift fire?" Volouscheur just follows after Iast. "Commlinks, smoke, flares, anything unusual that gets noticed. Comms are normally primary while smoke or flares would be secondary if that doesn't work. Now, the suppressing team picks itself up and hustles carefully. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast to link up with the farthest person in the flanking element. They pass over the objective as well and make sure the flanking team did a good job securing the enemy position. They, too, shoot anyone who looks like a threat. They reach the farthest man in the flanking line and establish a line of their own, forming a ninety degree angle with the other team. The squad leader consolidates and reorganizes while the team leaders establish sectors of fire, get ACE - ammo, casualties, equipment lost or whatever - reports from the teams, and tells the people who is on their left and right and where on the left and right said friendlies are. Then, the team leaders report to the squad leader. You don't want to stay on the objective long, so the squad leader has been searching bodies while filling in higher on what just happened. If you have casualties, an aid and litter team is sent out to bring the to the objective. Enemy casualties are also collected by another two person detail. Their job is collecting CCI which includes prisoners and searching bodies the squad leader hadn't hit yet," says Norton. Dirionis chuckles. " And this is a basic mission, eh?...Some of us got a lot of memorizing to do." The newer marine that spoke up earlier cowers a bit. "Yeah, hero, this and MOUT is your meat and potatoes. It gets more complicated when you are hit from multiple places. Typically, that's the signal for a squad to take defensive positions or break contact," says Norton. "If the multiple positions consist of more than one person. Anyway, that's about it for now. I've got some bogus paperwork to attend to." He collects the easel and block of butcher block paper. As he walks off, he mutters, "Glad I didn't have to draw any pictures." Dirionis nods and gives a little wave. " Thanks Sarge!" He is suprised with how eager he was to learn more. He heads towards the lobby, as the marine group breaks up, heading in different directions, some writing notes down. This brightly-lit bay is cordoned off into four main sections: the waiting area, the operating room, the semi-private rooms for the bed-ridden, and the checkup room. While nowhere near state of the art, the medbay is more than servicable and extremely clean, even if the magazines are several years old. A set of double doors lead out to the Residence Deck. Voliast is seated on a medical bench, one hand blithely rubbing through Scheur's hair while he kisses her. Medical instruments are laid out with exacting efficiency, and the bay is its usual spotless self. Norton walks over to the receptionist and says, "What's this about? I already had two exams in the past three weeks." He sets a medical scanner on the desk. One of the fun things about Vollistans is both genders are allowed to have really long hair. Thus, Scheur is /also/ running her fingers through Iast's hair as they kiss, although she pulls away as Norton enters the medbay, to let Iast get up and deal with this. Rising fluidly, Voliast says, hearing Norton's question as the Bay is not huge in size, "Sorry to take up your time. It's just to check everyone for an infection that's going around. Since it's pretty contagious and we have a limited amount of innoculate, we have to test before administering it. Just a needle, five minutes of your time, and you're out of here." His aura is carefully suppressed so there is no sign of his glow. He waves to Norton and glances at the Scanner. "I'm good," says Norton. "Got all my innoculations on Greenville before I left." He turns and leaves with a smile directed at Scheur, "Keep on the good training, marine." Volouscheur just nods quietly to Norton, but remains silent. In fact, she pulls out a PDA, tapping at it before starting to read quietly. Voliast calls out: "Actually, this one's mandatory, and since it would be picked up -on station- I'm testing you just for formality. If you don't like blood testing, I can do it with the scanner though it'd take longer." Ever one to be quick on his feet, his own long-legged approach would bring him a reasonably polite distance closer, Aura flashing into vibrant green-gold existence as he stares after the Marine, waiting for his response. "Got tested since I've been here, too, doc, but thanks," says Norton as he continues to leave. Volouscheur remains quiet, letting Iast deal with this. She's still reading her PDA, seeming unwilling to get involved. Basically, Iast'd just be looking for anything of import as far as "Things that hurt the Militia that Norton shouldn't be doing", anything else, upto and including private but still illicit matters, he'd gloss over. Nope, no PANL lurking in Norton's head; although, there is the fact that he was a major in the LM, a failed marriage, and some 'lost' paperwork that led him here as a mere sergeant. The 'lost' paperwork is at the forefront of his mind currently with the strong desire to 'find' it. Voliast seems to nod to himself, but he still has a dermic needle in one hand, holding it up and intoning: "Come on, you don't even have to stay. I'll send you your results. Just the blood, then you can go. If you have it, I'll be down to you with a needle inside ten minutes." He advances after Norton rather quick. Norton merely gives the Vollistan doctor a single fingered salute as he leaves the medbay. There's something else about a fishing boat, Ruin, Leodhais, and Jasper Point. This, though, is a relatively minor thought in a mind somewhat preoccupied with the major thing, a training schedule, various battle drills, the equipment in the armory, etc. The connection between Ruin, Leodhais, fishing boat, and Jasper Point and the militia is minimal. Further thought probing would reveal said pair are considered by Nort as independent of militia and operating on there own.
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