Follow Through

Posted on Thu Nov 3rd, 2022 @ 5:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Chief Petty Officer Julius Law

Mission: S1 Episode 4: The Cloud
Location: Sparring Room
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1615
2235 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Lyra made her way down to the security offices with haste. This meeting wouldn't take long, but she was quite eager to get back to work on her assignment. To have such destructive power within their reach - within her reach… she had hardly felt such a need to pursue something in her life. Such a weapon could annihilate the enemies of the Empire in an instant and bring the quadrants to heel. This opportunity was not to be squandered under any circumstance, but she could spare the fifteen minutes to see to the beginning of another necessary weapon. She stepped inside and breezed past the crewman manning the desk even though he had quickly stood and greeted her. Moving down the hall with ease, she took a turn and walked directly in through the double doors of the sparring room. She was immediately greeted with the sight of someone hitting the mat caught in a complicated body lock by their opponent.

"Well done." She said and the doors closed behind her. Her voice startled the combatants and they untangled themselves from each other, the other crewmen and NCOs immediately snapped to attention. Offering them a nod, Lyra immediately looked to Julius. "With me, Law. The rest of you keep practicing."

She turned and walked back out, heading for her office.

Julius crossed his arms under his chest, his brown skin and powerful muscles visible in the center where his white sparring garment wrap stopped. With his eyes, he tracked the entrance of Cassiel and the movements of his trainees with relative disinterest. He had been working them hard, but per her request, he hadn’t injured anyone.

“Keep practicing the takedown one at a time. Remember, interlace those fingers to keep your opponent from escaping and take him to the mat. No negotiation. Remember, in the real world, people fight dirty. I’ll be back soon.” He said, his baritone voice booming in the echoing room. He then turned and followed Lyra out into the corridor and back to her office. When they arrived, he stepped in, his strong arms still crossed, and looked at her with reserved expectation, waiting to see what it was she wanted. Before she spoke however, he cut in. “I haven't broken any of your toys.”

"Congratulations for doing your appointed duty. Sit down." Lyra replied dryly and took a seat behind her desk as she told him to do so. She tapped the desk display console, bringing up the information she wanted, and then finally looked to Julius. "I'll keep this brief; I have a new assignment for you. This morning I received the go ahead from Captain Petrov to assemble a new elite force of security and marine personnel which will be trained for specialized missions. I've selected you to lead it, Sergeant Bryana Locke will be your second." She turned the monitor toward him so that he could see it, and then continued. "I have selected several potential candidates to fill out the other roles necessary for a squadron such as this. You may construct your team out of this list as you see fit. This squad - known as Shadow Squad- will be a team of seven which will be rounded to eight if and when I or another capable officer join you during missions. Your focus will be on reconnaissance, guerrilla based combat, and stealth extractions; you may also be expected to perform black ops missions, though those will likely be fewer here in the Delta Quadrant."

"Questions so far?" She prompted.

Julius listened to what she was saying with mostly no reaction, but when the younger woman started to reveal the details of this new team, his face turned slowly into a dark and satisfied smile. Now, this was something that would matter that he could sink his teeth into. He suppressed his joy and continued to comb through the information, the smile becoming thinner as she spoke.

"What's the chain? Directly to you? The XO?" he asked, his tone more commentary than a real question. He had no interest in playing lackey to whatever moron was chosen as her assistant department head. "Are we autonomous, or is the team going to need to pull double duty in our original posts?"

“‘Questions so far’ generally means questions about the information you have been given in a conversation thus far as you will be getting more information afterwards.” Lyra pointed out, not exactly seeming annoyed, but almost mildly disappointed. She did notice his expression shifting and was pleased to see it, though she didn’t show that either. “You will be reporting directly to me. Your team will be taken outside of the normal chain of command - but if this is abused in any way by any member of the team, I will be incredibly unhappy. The Captain, the XO, and myself are it. You will be autonomous barring obvious emergencies. You will all also be moving in together and sharing quarters. You will have your own private training areas, mess area, and recreation area. The trade off is you’ll be living down near the marines, but they shouldn’t bother you. You’ll also be given priority use of one of their holodecks, but they will use it when you are not. It is not to be used for recreation, just training.”

“Here is a list of candidates for you to look at for your team. These are the options, pick from them. The only one that is not optional is Bryana Locke who as I said will be your second. You may make your own schedule for the team and submit it to me for approval. You are going to exist as a unit with very little time away from each other. It will be an adjustment for many, but it is necessary.”

"Same quarters? Like, as in one room, men and women?" Julius asked, looking both amused and skeptical. "I hope you're having operations reinforcing some of the beds, because its hard enough to stop nonstop banging in a team with different lodgings. When you're together 24/7, things get weird fast."

He looked down at the list, scrolling and attaching names with faces. He had many questions, but not before she answered his comment.

"No, they won't, because it is part of your job to not let that happen." Lyra replied seriously and looked hard at Julius. "This team needs to be sharp and focused. You are brothers and sisters as far as all of you are concerned. You don't fuck your brothers and sisters and get to continue in normal society. There are plenty of other people on board to satisfy those needs which they can go and do on their recreation time, but not together. If I find out that any of you - including you - are fucking your own squadmates, I'm happy for you, but you will be immediately removed from the squad. If I have to make it into team sausage party or team taco to make sure that doesn't happen then I will, but I really don't want to. If you, personally, try to hide such activities in the squad from me and I find out, I'm going to make you the personal trainer of the Marshalls' baby boy and that's it."

"I understand what you're saying." he said, his grin going away completely, replaced by his typical grimace. "I'm not interested in being the kink police, but I'll take it if that's what's required of me. Turning it into a team of all men wouldn't necessarily solve the problem either. I'll make the rule clear and, if I see people starting to make eyes at each other, I'll start knocking fucking heads together."

He spoke matter-of-factly, without any particular intensity or passion.

"What makes you so sure about Locke? Some deal with the marines?" he asked, curiously, not displaying any particular doubt about the choice. "I've never worked with her, so I don't know what she's capable of."

"Keeping the peace to an extent. With this being a joint squad, a marine also needed to be in a position of authority." Lyra slid her hand along the desk in front of her, her mind drifting in three different places at once suddenly and then she snapped back. "She has a clean record and is noted for being hardworking and easy to get along with, but no nonsense. Strong sense of Terran pride, quick thinking. If there are any problems though come to me and we will sort them out."

"Assuming I can't figure things out myself, I will." he said with an even tone, seeming satisfied with her response on the subject. He looked down at the PADD again. "Marines have medics, so obviously it should be one of them in the role. Harp is a capable marine, at least according to his last combat eval...but he has a few writeups of fraternization issues. Probably not a good bet for this team if you want people keeping it in their pants. Feng is our other option...what do you make of him?"

"Feng is a good kid. Eager to please; kind of a puppy, but useful. I actually did a bit of training with both him and Petty Officer Winters a few days ago. He's strong as a bull and well versed in hand to hand. A decent shot, but not the best. The others can cover for that though." She offered up, thinking about her time on the holodeck with the two and then returning her attention fully to Julius. "I'm more than willing to tell you the people that I would pick, but I didn't want you to feel like it had been taken out of your hands fully."

"I didn't know you could think that way, Lieutenant." he said, a joke without a punchline and without a smile. She wasn't known for her respect of the autonomy of others. Neither was her boyfriend. "We should go with Feng. And Connors is a fuckin' weirdo, but he's our best munitions guy."

"Yes, best keep that a secret, really. I only think that way for people I trust and who won't make me regret that trust." She then looked at Julius, her expression very much taking on that "spooky bitch" tone as he often thought of her. "Which you won't do, will you?"

Julius grinned. It was dissagreeable and defiant, but his words weren't.

"Why the fuck would I do that, ma'am?" he asked, rhetorically. "I might be a muscle-head, but I'm not stupid. I know my limits."

He looked down at the PADD again and read off names in the next few categories. After a few seconds of consideration, he nodded and looked up at her.

"de la Fontaine for Engineer makes sense to me based on her availability and hand-to-hand ratings. Not sure if she's knows her shit with mechanics, but she can kick ass. Winters has my vote too. She's a hell of a shot. A good choice for sniper."

Lyra didn't bristle at his grin. He was right, he wasn't stupid, and so it wouldn't be at the forefront of her mind of things to worry about. "She is sound on her engineering acumen as well. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be listed under that big bold title of 'engineer'." Lyra replied dryly. "Yes, Winters is a good shot. Bit of an attitude with those who are not her superiors in rank though, so watch out for that."

"I eat attitudes for breakfast. She'll bend or she'll break like the rest." he said, shrugging. He'd never met a student or a team member he couldn't make walk the line. He was convincing that way.

“I’m sure. Just giving fair warning.” Lyra shifted in her chair then, ready to be done with this meeting. “Do you have anymore questions at this moment?”

"Yeah, when can I get started." he answered, his eyes shifting toward his students sitting on the other side of the room. "Otherwise, I'm just wondering when you're going to show yourself down here for a sparring session so I can show you I can still kick your ass."

“You haven’t kicked my ass in a long time, Law. Won, yes, but kicked my ass absolutely not.” Lyra smirked and shook her head. “You can start today. Go say goodbye to your children and tell them daddy found better kids he wants to play with, then get to it.”

"I don't like making pretty girls cry." he said, sticking his chin in the air slightly and showing the broadness of his chest under his white martial arts garment. "Thanks for the leg up, Lieutenant. I won't forget it."

Lyra stood suddenly then and began to walk toward the door. “Best not, otherwise you’ll find it cut out from under you.” She gave him no chance to respond to the veiled threat and warning combined as she walked out of her office and headed back out to focus on something much more worth her while: the raw power of destruction.

He watched her go, quite literally, his eyes moving to her swaying hips. Once she was gone, he turned to the students on the other side of the room and cracked his knuckles.

"Bad news, boys and girls..."

END