Lieutenant Jackman stood on the landing deck. Today he held thehe post of deck officer, and he was proud to have control of the flight deck, especially on this ship. He enjoyed deck duty, it was like a desk position, but far more engaging. He thought back to before joining the Armed Forces. He’d worked in admin. Surprisingly the skills had transferred to being a desk officer for the Armed Forces relatively well.
As the four ships arrived, one for each of the Commanders the Admiral had summoned, he pulled up the orders for them. Quartermaster, 5th Deck, Corridor 3, room AB61. After that, the itinerary said Breifing room with.. yes, Admiral O’Brian was taking the briefing. Officers on the Harlow wouldn’t find this all too surprising, but other fleets didn’t always operate in the same way. Lieutenant Jackman allowed himself a small smile, these four would be in for a shock..
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Upon arrival at the quartermasters office, the four would each hand in their existing datapads, and be handed new ones, with strict orders not to operate them until they had been debriefed. They were quickled shuffled along.
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The briefing room was largely like any other in the Armed Forces. A table, with docks for the officers datapads to download operation specific information, and a main view screen that could be used for communicating with command, or for displaying tactical data for analysis with the officers present. For now it was silent, the time almost at 0900..
Lieutenant Marcus Elliot showed himself in followed by the rest. He was used to be the point man, leading. His father would expect nothing less. From a family of career military, all the way from his great grandfather, Elliots have always served the Crown and always were the first into danger. He was however the first one to join the Air Force program, as they normally always served in the Royal Corps. Feet first into hell.
Well, it seems we were the first ones to arrive.
He stated as he looked around and saw the places at the table. His eyes scanned the dock where his new datapad would fit, and shrugged ever so slightly as he stood in attention at the side of his chosen seat. The admiral would soon be here and protocol dictated that he would only sit after the upper ranking officer command it.
-Commander Y'berg? -asked the Lieutenant. Pria walked over to him, handed her datapad to him, asked with a grin: -So some nugget finally managed to kill all the flight instructors, and I'm the replacement, or what? -A quick smile ran across the Lt.'s face then he said: I don't know ma'am, my orders are to hand these over. -He gave her the new datapad, Pria nodded, lighted up a cigarette, and walked away.
After taking the first corner, she began examining the datapad. -Hmm, no connection to the ship, let's see what's inside you. -Pria opened the files, but every content was blocked by a timed lock. She sighted, and closed the pad.
Two corridors later she found the briefing room, and noticed a man stood next to a seat -Must be Elliot or what his name was -she thought, nodded to him and she dropped herself onto a seat.
Eva was the third officer entering the briefing room. Looking around, she took note it was had quite the main view screen and individual docks for the datapads.
“Just like on the York.”She thought.
Quickly moving towards one of the free seats, she noticed Pria would be sitting next to her. “Amazing. Seems like they know that we are good friends.” She sighed, and leaned onto the headrest of the chair. The Admiral would be there soon and she would have to wait for her to be seated.
It was 08:59 and commander Sid Fire wasn't present yet. The last seconds before the next minute looked creating a bit of anxiety and insecurity at the present ones in that room. It was obvious that someone was asking where was it despite his ship arrived precisely on time at 08:00:00 Sirius Time.
When the clock of the room marked 09:00:00 the door suddently opened. The commander was arrived with a decisive, serious and calm pace. When he stopped he was ready to take a seat and hearing what the Admiral was going to tell.
Admiral O’Brian swept into the room behind Commander Fire, heading straight towards the view screen, plugging her own datapads into the terminal below the screen. “ADM O’BRIAN, M” flashed up on the screen before fading back to standby. Michelle continued fiddling as she spoke
”To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late, is unacceptable. I saying I expect you to live by Commander.”
She turned to face them, standing behind her own chair
Consider this strike one Commander. I run I tight ship, I expect you to adhere to my orders. I hope I am understood. All of you, take a seat, and let us begin.
You have been summoned to HMS Harlow today as I have completed and filed your transfers to the Battlegroup permenantly. Enhanced background checks have been filed and completed. In case it wasn’t already clear, you all passed.
You may be aware that Battlegroup Harlow specialises in protection of the Royal Family, including working with, and on occasion, oversight of the Coldstream and Grenadier Guard. Our position can be.. unusual at times, and that is reflected in my command style. In official duties, such as in front of ranking officers, like members of the board and the Admiral of the Fleet, or in front of members of the Royal Family, normal procedure is to be observed. In terms of the Royal Family, training will be provided to you on proper protocol. You’ll meet them a lot, so please pay particular attention to this. However, my point on this is that on my bridge, I expect my officers to challenge my orders. You’ll quickly learn the correct or incorrect times to do this, but I welcome an open forum. Only a fool would dismiss the collective experience of their peers. I may be your superior but I’d be a terrible leader if I did not accept differing view points.
Now, none of you are really bridge officers. You all hold operational roles. Thats good. I may, however, occasionally call on you to serve aboard my vessels, but I need a team of officers I can trust to carry out my orders, at times independently of my own oversight. That is why I have transferred you all here.
I’d like to touch on your datapads momentarily. You may have noticed that you are currently locked out of viewing them. That is because they are authorised to access information that should be above your pay grade, and will be unlocked at the end of briefing here today. Harlow, on occasion, has to undertake missions that cannot be shared amongst the fleets. You will soon gain access to this information. It will also allow you to operate effectively as my hand selected Command Staff for the Battlegroup. I hope you all understand the honour, and responsibility, you are being entrusted with.
There is no room for error, not here.
Before we wrap up here and look at assignments, do you have any questions?
Eva raised her hand."Admiral, I have a quick question. May I ask it?"O’Brian nodded, and Eva stood up from her chair.
“The Royal Family… can you tell us more about them? I know it is a strange question but… if we meet them a lot, every piece of information will be useful.”
A myriad of answers and questions ran across Pria's mind, mostly among the lines of "f*ck you", "who did I crossed so hard that i've ended up here?" and "can I take a bullet to the brainpan, instead?". But after hearing Eva's question, most of these thoughts vanished. -Ah Eva, duty first, I guess -she thought, knowing that if she had any frustations, she wouldn't give it out during the meeting. She admired her professionalism, and already ordered a whisky for her, in thought.
Pria looked at O'brian, she must've known that noone usually tells her how to carry out her orders, unless that person wanted a nice little casket of insults thrown to his head, on every accent of the Border Worlds. She took out that accent and thought -Let's see what you'll answer for this -She smiled and asked:-Well, since we're all on babysittin' duty, do ya want us to take a look after the nuggets too?