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Cptn Swain

Barnacles and Jarheads

The Marine Barracks hummed with activity as the juniors were put through their paces by Sargent Jace Salon. The short, stocky human's voice echoed across the hull of the training center. Like a well oiled machine, the grunts of the 26th Marine Company worked up a morning sweat, going through PT while the officers did the same. Having finsihed his own PT early, their commanding officer, Major Cloud Makisu watched on with a towel around his neck and a bottle of water in hand.

Even if they were, in his opinion, serially underused, they were well trained and ready to hurl themselves into any danger that arose. He took no small amount of pride in knowing that he had some of the best trained soldiers in the quadrant short of the Jem'Hadar at his command. Smiling to himself, he took a swig of water as a most unexpected voice caught his attention.

"They look impressive, Major."

Makisu blinked and for a long moment was unsure if perhaps he'd be pushing too hard during PT. "Uh," he said, turning to face what he was sure had to be a figment of perhaps dehydration. "Thanks, Captain."

As he turned, he was in fact faced, in the flesh, by the long-haired, lithe Captain Asher Swain, dressed in aerobic attire, clearly having been up doing some PT of his own. It wasn't that a Captain swinging by for an 0500 PT session was entirely unusual. In fact, Captain Corizon had rather enjoyed swinging by during martial arts drills to, as Makisu put it, 'put some Jarheads on their asses and knock them down a few pegs.' However, he'd never thought he'd see a science geek up this early, one, and two coming down to say hello to the grunts.

"If we'd known you were coming..."

Swain waived a hand. "No worries, Cloud. I don't stand on ceremony anyway."

Makisu nodded, relaxing, if only a bit. Brass always made him nervous, and brass that had never been in the security/marine field even more so. Sure they were all soldiers, but brains like the Captain weren't expected to be well... expendable and so, for whatever they might like to think, usually had slightly different perspectives on the uses of force. Still, he was more than willing to be surprised by the Captain.

"I assume," Cloud said wiping his hands off on the towel and putting his bottle of water down, "this is the first time you've commanded a ship Marines posted aboard full-time?"

Swain nodded, regarding the Marine respectfully. He'd had a handful of experiences with them in the past, but nothing major since Command began rapidly expanding the Marine force with the Marine Study Program. He'd read plenty, of course, about the program; both the for and against arguments and had, frankly, not come to a conclusion either way. There had been plenty of resistance to the idea of expanding Starfleet's force of dedicated killing machines and ground forces, especially given the tenuous peace that now existed in the alpha quadrant, but on the other hand, the lessons of the Dominion War were hard to ignore. In prolonged ground engagements, Starfleet troops had fared poorly in comparison to their counter-parts on both sides of the alliance, as all of the other major combatants had dedicated ground forces trained in surface combat. Starfleet was, as one Admiral had analogized, much like the British Empire's forces: hell in space, but not really equipped to actually fight man to man for any length of time on the surface of a planet. So, despite of the contention, Command had proceeded forward in baby steps. They had also attempted to assure that they minimized the tensions between Starfleet Security forces and their new marine brethren. The distinction in mission, Swain noted, still seemed a bit hazy in regards to normal starship operations but that was a thought for someone else to figure out.

"Yes," he said. "Cassini had not been assigned them, though I think with the refit, they might get a small detachment."

"That will be fun for their barnacles."

"Barnacles?"

Cloud smirked, having caught himself using slang to the brass. "Just a name the Marines have taken to calling the Goldshirts."

"Oh," Swain said with a grin. "I get it."

The two exchanged smirks before they fell into silence as Sargent Salon picked up the intensity of the drill after someone failed to meet his exacting standards of forms during a particular manoeuvre.

"Most of the cadets at the academy would be dying at this moment..."

"Cadets," Swain said laughing. "I think most of the Ensigns that aren't security would have passed out by now."

Makisu smiled proudly, his purple Dachlyd eyes glinting off the lights of the training room. He glanced over. "Would you like something to drink other than water, Captain? Tea, coffee..."

"Mmm," Swain said contemplatively. "No thanks. I just got done working out, want to get a shower before I grab breakfast and head to the Ready Room to get some work done. I thought I'd stop by though and see the Marines for myself. Captain Corizon was very lauding of you and them."

Corizon's abrupt departure still stung, if only a little and Cloud nodded solemnly. He'd trained with the Captain as a cadet, and learned a good deal about command from him over the past two years, and though they were never close -- he suspected that Corizon never let anyone get too close -- he didn't like how the situation had gone down. Still, he knew Swain couldn't help that and he'd not meant to open a still sore wound.

"Thank you," he said. "If you'd like to see us do some parade drills... I could..."

"That would be rather interesting," Swain said with a wide smile. "Maybe we could arrange something with Security... have a little competition...."

A glimmer lit up the purple eyes of the Major. "Why Captain," he said. "That would be a wonderful idea. Assuming Commander Messner has the fortitude to accept; but aren't you the one supposed to be encouraging cooperation between our two units?"

"I don't see anything wrong with a little healthy competition, Major. Besides, it will give your two units a chance to show the crew what capable, well-trained, individuals are on both sides. I'll work on this idea a little more and when we have a chance and things are a little more settled in, I'll give both of you a chance to shoot it down, or accept."

As Sargent Salon wound down the drills, Swain and Makisu exchanged a few more pleasantries before the former headed for the sonic showers. Once he'd gone, Cloud called the Sargent over.

"What was that all about," Jace said as the two headed for the showers as well.

"Oh," Cloud said. "The Captain?"

"Yeah," the rough, gravely voice of the Sargent drawled. "What was the science geek doing down here?"

"Now Sargent, that's no way to talk about the cee-oh."

Jace shrugged. "Well?"

"He just wanted to see our bright, shinning stars."

"Too bad all we've got is a bunch of duds," Jace said as they passed through the enlisted showers and through to the more private senior officer's shower rooms. "I swear, these kids don't know the difference between a phaser and a sonic pulse emitter ."

"They do look a lot a like."

Glowered, Jace stripped down and headed into his stall without dignifying the comment any further. Followed a moment later by the Marine CO, he glanced over again. "So, what did he really want?"

"I told you. He just wanted to see the Marines in action."

"Funny, thing. I didn't think anyone wanted to see us in action."

"Well actually, now that you mention it."

"I am almost afraid to ask."

"The Captain," Makisu said ruefully, "is going to plan and stage a little competition of sorts between us and the barnacles."

Jace began laughing. "You're joking?"

"Nope."

"Well I'll be damned. He does know what he's doing."

"I am not entirely sure," Makisu said. "In either case, we're going to kick their butt."

"So when is this going down? Me and Morris will need to get the boys into top shape for any kind of competition."

"He didn't say yet," Makisu said, turning off the sonic shower and grabbing for fresh tunic -- modesty all but lost among soliders. "Said he wanted to let everyone settle in a little more before he'd finish the setup."

"So we're going to start prepping right away, then?"

"Of course Jace. I am not going to get showed up by Messner and his goldielocks band of misfits."

"Aye, sir. Morris and I will start adding some extra PT and parade drills to the schedule."

"Think he's told the barnacles what he's upto?"

"Probably," Makisu said. "He seems like the type to want both sides to have a sporting chance."

"Like it will matter."

"Exactly..."

 

 

 

 

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