With Our Shields, Or On Them

Posted on Wed Sep 30th, 2015 @ 12:41pm by Colonel Danny Lennox & Major General Thomas Jackson & Major Percival 'Percy' Morris & Master Warrant Officer Gaius Aquila & Sergeant Maal son of Torg & 1st Lieutenant Taz & Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Ermey & Gunnery Sergeant Agtx & Corporal Warner Schmidt

2,724 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 89 - Futility's Return
Location: SB 400, Dock 13
Timeline: MD2 1900hrs, Following 'Rest for the Weary'

ON:

Starbase 400

The USS Saratoga maneuvered into her dock, unscathed from the battle she came from, save a depleted compliment of torpedoes. But inside her bowels, the dead and wounded laid. Those that were not wounded were still fighting the battle inside of their heads, and they would be for years to come. As soon as the pressure doors opened, Marines and their Medics started carting out the wounded first. Among those Marines was Giaus Aquila, who insisted in pushing General Jackson's gurney. His MARSOC Team assisted in bringing out other wounded. The Corpsmen had Jackson stabilized, but in an induced coma. The blood loss and organ damage were severe. It would take at least 30 minutes alone just to unload the wounded. The look in the eyes of every Marine coming off the Saratoga was beyond horror.

For Captain Magbangan she had already gotten word that within the hour the USS Sarratoga would be docking with 2nd Battalion, and that the 3rd and 1st Battalions would soon be released from lockdown, to return back to Yellow status, then green status once it was official that SB400 would be back to green status.

But for now she was going to be busy. Hondo had already been notified that the condition of 2nd Battalion was not pretty. Out of 1100 men and women; the battalion suffered over 100 dead, and over 200 wounded; and out of the walking wounded to the more serious, there was one group that would not be enjoying the fruits of their labor, and it was the one group of Marines that would never be the same, for they would continue to fight the war in their heads from behind a padded cell, as they sat with the look of absolute terror.

For now they would be fighting the war forevr in their minds, and these Marines were the ones that Hondo saw being taken off, sedated and put inside an ambulance for the short trip to SB400's massive sickbays.

Saluting the passage of the Marines in the ambulances, she put her hand down and now as both her and SGTMAJ Wilkins stood by on the sidelines, remaining 800 Marines, some with bandages covering minor injuries began to march out of the Saratoga smartly, as each of the Marines passed on by for a regiment formation, Hondo and SGTMAJ Wilkins saluted them, and with a sad look in her eyes, Hondo finally saluted the last of the Marines as they all formed up into what was once a Battalion strength formation.

As they formed up into company formation, Hondo could see the wide gaps in each of the three line companies, Weapons, and a few other organic units that had been attached to 2nd Battalion.

With the entire Battalion now lined up, Hondo who expcted to see the Battalion Commander, the Battalion SGTMAJ were both seriously wounded and was now over in SB400 sickbay with the other wounded, when a distrutor blast had taken out his command post, killing half of his command staff, the personnel in the TOC, and the BN Commander and SGTMAJ who were both in conference.

Now 2nd Lt. Edward Simms, the Battalions Executive Officer was now the only command staff for the Battalion. The other officers were also wounded, leaving both A Co, and C Co w/o a command staff, along with platoon leaders, and the NCO's and Enlisted who were either dead or among the wounded.

Once Lt. Simms had the Battalion now standing in formation, Hondo went up and introduced herself, as she began to speak for a few minutes she saw their eyes, many still had that fear in their eyes. keeping her speech down to 10 minutes, she told Lt. Simms that once the Battalion returned back to the Battalion area, they would immediately be placed on Maintenance Status for the next 30 days.

For the next 30 days, 2nd Battalion would have time to grieve, bury their dead, regroup, and fill the large gaps in their companies with new replacements to include officers and NCO's. For the NCO's in the unit there would be promotions, and once the new replacements were now assigned to 2nd Battalion, they would immediately go on full training, relearning basic squad, platoon and company tactics. The officers would all go through along with Hondo, and they would review all of the videos of the entire campaign. From the individual fire team members, to squads, platoons, and companies. All of the tactics were dissected and gone over looking for flaws that would need to be corrected before the Division went back to war.

With Marine Personnel now being alerted of the shortage of personnel, they were already flagging the orders of Marines now waiting for their new duty assignments. Along with the enlisted, 20-30 brand new 2nd Lieutenants that just graduated from the Marine Academy were already finding orders to the 327th Infantry Regiment.

During the 30 day maintenance status, the platoons were being watched closely for signs of PTSD from the Marines who had been in th fighting. Once identified they were relieved of duty and placed in a special rehab company that dealth with cases of PTSD. Here each Marines was ordered to attend the daily mandatory counseling sessions, and they would be there for at least a four month period. Once the counselors had determined that each individual Marines could return back to their individual platoons they were all made to feel as though they had never left.

Besides the PTSD, all of the companies of the 2nd Battalion were all given lessons on excessive drinking, with Alcohol treatment specialist speaking of the increased use of Alcohol to help the Marines. This as also the time when a large number of Marines would be susceptible for more alcohol and drug abuse, and with the memo to the Chief of Security, maybe the Regiment would not have so many alcohol related crimes.

Now it was time for the units to resume alert status, and after looking at 2nd Battalions losses, Hondo decided that 1st Bn would be on full alert status, 1st Battalion which had just been taken out of lockdown was now the first Battalion to resume alert status. With alert status all of 1st Battalions Fireflies were now loaded with all of their assigned Marines field gear. Including everything they needed to prosecute a military campaign, were now lined up outside the barracks the Fireflies were guarded 24 hours a day by armed Marines.

The reason for this was once the balloon went up, there would be no time for anyone to load their vehicles, and get the entire Battalion out in time. Waiting for hours to load up was not an acceptable option, and a 30 minute move out was considered the best for a Battalion on full alert.

3rd Battalion was the next to go, and they had the same mission, but they had to report to the Battalion and be ready to move out in less than 12-24 hours. The Battalion on maintenance status would follow but they had a wider latitude of 12-144 hours.

But for now, she would go to SB400's Sickbay to see on the condition of the General. Sickbay was busy with the wounded now being taken care of and additional surgeries now being done under better conditions, she found the Generals Aide de Camp who told her that the General was sill being seen. Leaving word with the Aide de Camp to let her known when the General was out of danger.

Then she turned down one corridor to visit her wounded Marines..

T'Lyn was treated for minor injuries then left sickbay and headed back to the Marine Department.

Maal was one of the lucky few not to be injured, he had stood guard over General Jackson protecting him until the medics got there to help him. He was standing there leaning against a wall in the Marine Department awaiting word on the General.

Lennox had already reviewed the readiness of the 4th Regiment. They had lost some personnel, some good people, some friends of his. He was proud of his Marines, those that returned home and those that gave their lives.

Acompanying Lennox was Sergeant Taz. Taz had been a member of 1st Marine Regiment aboard the Pegasus-B with Lennox, Ermey, Agtx, Schmidt, and others for years and when Bremer took over as CO of Starbase 400 and the 1st Regiment was joined by other Regiments to become the 1st Marine Division, Taz had been one of the most dedicated members. Taz had been up for promotion a few times, but there had been someone somewhere up the chain of command that had denied the promotion. His record was eximplery, so Lennox and many others believed his promotions had been blackballed because he was Krazzle. This time was different.

Lennox and Taz entered Sickbay. They checked on wounded members of the 4th, then walked over to the General. Lennox handed him a PADD, it was a battlefield promotion for Taz to be promoted to Second Lieutenant and Executive Officer of the 4th Marine Regiment. All it needed for Jackson’s approval. Taz had no idea.

Morris had fought a hard mental battle on the ride home. He barely led the Saratoga home - Lennox would probably have done most of the bridge orders. His mind was elsewhere. He wanted to be in sickbay with the general, but it was too dangerous. In fact when they got back to SB400, the order still stood. Morris remained at the docking ports for a while, beginning to hum out orders to drown out the emotions. The real sadness was the fact that he was completely unscathed, and yet so many had been lost.

Percy made it back to the Marine barracks and was checking items off. He looked at the commanders and squadron leaders as they rolled through, confirming reports. He began to tally things up and it was not a good report. Things could have been better, but hundreds were killed and hundreds more were injured. He shook his head and sighed, leaning into the podium in the briefing room.

There was no formal meeting called, but some of the surviving heads from the planet would have been by there. "Alright," he said to no one in particular. "I need all the regiment commanders to assemble in 30 minutes, if possible." He mustered all the strength he had - all the straight-thinking he could find. He had a report to deliver.

Sergeant Worth, while a medic by trade and the one who treated General Jackson on the planet, had begun to stick by Morris. Was she watching for his own fatigue, or perhaps just truly helping. She was indeed helpful. "Sir, there is a new regiment commander for the 327th on board. Shall I include her?"

Morris squinted. "Uh, yes," he stuttered. "All of them." He went back to his datapad report, before remembering the courtesy, "Thank you, sergeant."


30 Minutes Later, Marine Briefing Room, Deck 10

In non-critical area of sickbay she met the other 200 wounded Marines who had injuries but did not need long term care and would be back to full duty status within five to seven days.

As she visited her Marines , Hondo suddenly received a com link from SGTMAJ Wilkins who said; "Skipper, you just got a call from the Division XO, Major Morris, "he's requesting that you and the other commanders of the regiment to meet him in the Marine Briefing Room". "Hondo said, SGTMAJ what times is the meeting?"... "NOW skipper". "it should take you less than 5 minutes to go down to main Marine Briefing room on Deck 10". Hondo said 'Magbangan out".

It didn't take Hondo long to find the briefing room but as she approached she saw hundreds of people crowding the hallways still in their dirty uniforms and wearing parts of their battle armor to the briefing. Some had not put away their phaser rifles and now as the Officers were now going inside they saw Hondo who in her pressed uniform was now entering the back of the room, and soon Hondo sat down, at the back; taking out her PADD and now waiting for the briefing to begin.

Giaus may have not been a Regimental Commander, but he was head of the 1st MARSOC Group. Again, reluctant to leave Jackson's side, he went to the after action briefing. He owed it to Jax, and he owed it to his team, including the few friends who did not make it back. Still wearing his battle worn combat uniform, he entered the Marine Briefing Room. He noted a Captain he has never seen before. He gave her a nod, and took a seat. As he sat down, he prayed that he would not fall asleep.

T'Lyn was already arrived at the Marine area when the call came in so she walked into the Marine Briefing Room and quietly took her seat not speaking a word. She just nodded to the others in the room and noticed the new marine in the room.

Lennox arrived with newly promoted Second Lieutenant Taz with him. While the briefing was mainly for the Senior Officers of the Regiment, Lennox wanted Taz present to see how things were done so he could gain some experience and insight he might need if he ever had to take over the 4th Regiment or another Regiment. Both took seats after giving respectful nods to everyone else present.

Sitting in the back of the room, Hondo who was just watching everyone begin to come in for the hastily thrown AAB, and remembered these same After Action briefing when she used to hold them after coming back from a mission. As the former commander of the 47th SFMEU these briefings were never good to hear; losing good, officers, NCO's and enlisted Marines all with many years of experience, was hard especially among the Marines, but here she was, and she would just sit there and listen to how the Regiment had performed. From that she would have an idea on the capability of the 327th Infantry Regiment.

Seeing T'Lyn sitting there, she nodded, acknowledging her presence, and like T'Lyn she just sat....

Morris was standing the whole time, but he was preoccupied. It was obvious, although he wasn't moping or sulking. He was just distracted. As the commanders and leaders entered and sat, he noted their presence in the log and began shortly after. "Alright, thank you." He had to clear his throat.

"I'll take oral reports in a moment, but I just wanted to say something first." Percy finally began to make eye contact. "We lost a lot of folks today - some 700-plus gave their lives or took a hit. That's 20%." He paused. "We're all going to feel this, and all your men and women are going to feel it. We need to be compassionate to them, give them time to heal."

Morris stepped from behind the podium and paced. He began to preach, although one might safely assume a lot of it was advice for himself. "We cannot get caught up in the grief or the losses. We remember them, we will honor them as soon as the chaos calms, and we will forever remember their sacrifice."

"This is war," continued the major. "This is the marine way - we fight, and give our lives, so that other may live theirs."

Percy stopped at the center and made contact with each of the officers. "Even our own general was severely injured. The great leader he is, he took one for the greater good, just like any of us would do. So as we recuperate, rest, remember... know that it is our duty and our privilege to give ourselves up willfully. That is what a marine does - that is what Starfleet does."

Morris let the words sink in a bit, remaining silent before turning and going back to the podium. "Now then, let's dig into the details." The reports went around and their numbers came out. They had a lot of work to do in the weeks ahead, and when the debrief was over, they got to work. Time for grieving would come later - for now they had to recover, which was often times just as taxing as battle itself.


OFF:

RSS Feed