Meeting the Marine

Posted on Thu Feb 3rd, 2011 @ 2:41am by Lieutenant Serena "Seren" Jones & Colonel Damon Raine

1,464 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Forests of Mythraeli
Location: Marine Department
Timeline: Sortly after "Down in Engineering"

ON:

After Serena took the detore down in Engineering, she quickly made her way down into the Marine area to meet Major Damon Raine. She had a gut feeling that he was some one of importance. Walking threw the door, Serena was slightly unsettled by how many men and woman were training either on eachother or with a dummy in the distance. She couldn't help but put a smile on her face, remembering her days in bootcamp. All the hard drills and commands that were set. Star Fleet in her oppinion were more of the exploreing type were as the Marines were more for war. She walked around, keeping her distance so she didn't get in the mingle of things and watching the men and woman wrestle eachother down to the ground.

Damon wasn't far from the entrance. He had just finished a set of weights when the strange Lieutenant walked in. Curious, Damon cleaned his hands and made his way over. Fleeties tended to avoid the Marine deck at all costs unless it was important.

"Can I help yuo Lieutenant?" He asked, rag still in hands.

Slightly excited to join in she looked to whom was speaking to her, "Aw I came here to find Major Raine." Then her eyes slowly dirfted back to a group of guys fighting.

Damon couldn't help but smile at the fleeter's enthusiasm. He couldn't blame her for it; the SFMC was at the time producing arguably the quadrants most dangerous fighting force. These men and women were experts at their trade and highly disciplined to balance it. Damon was proud to be associated with them.

"Well you found him. I'm off duty right now, so please call me Damon." He shook his head "Forgive me, but you don't look familiar."

Drawing her attention back, she walked up to the man and stated, "I'm Serena Jones the ships new Chief Flight Control officer."

"Pleased to meet you." He smiled. He glanced over to the people training around them. "You don't spend much time around Marines do you Lieutenant?" He coudn't help but smile slightly.

"O a long time ago when I was yonger," she started, "Before Star Fleet times. I was kind of a wild child and I went threw boot camp type thing and yeah." Then she smiled at him finding kind of cute. "But that was long ago. I just came down here. You self tour of the ship. Being new and all. Are you busy? Maybe you can show me around a little?"

"Well if you are looking for a good tour guide, I'm probably not the best choice. I tend to spend most of my time on the Marine deck for obvious reasons." He looked down to the clothes he was wearing. "And I'm afraid right now I might be bad company unless I cleaned up."

Seren looked at him up and down and laughed a little, "Honey you really don't need to get all cleaned up for me. I'm use to the sweat stains and the smell. And I might add you smell quite lovely." Then she gave him a goofey smile and hopes to make the situation better. "No I did want a tour. A tour around here. The Marine area," she finished to him, "The sweat and all."

Damon shook his head with a smile. "Thank you...I think." He added as he looked over the shirt once again with something akin to embarrasment. "I guess I see no harm in showing you around the Marine deck." He motioned for her to follow.

"Well as you can guess, this is the gym section. We have state of the art fitness equipment here, which is good considering how much of a Marine's life is spent keeping in shape. Actually we are fortunate; most facilities don't have this calibre of equipment. It's usually reserved for the Marines on starships. I think that's something both you Fleeties and us have in common; the best assignments are abroad."

Seren giggled alittle and replied," I guess so." Then she watched the people wrestling and Serena had a half of mind to jump in with them. But comeing back to realization she shook her head and started walking away. She turned around to Damon and wiggled her index finger to fallow her into another section of the area.

"So what's this room," she stated leaving the gym and entering another room.

"Our holodecks." He started to explain. "The smaller doors on your left here are your standard issue holodecks found on almost any starship.' He pointed to the much larger doors beside it. "That one, however, is much more advanced. It can support an entire company of Marines at once and can create some of the most realistic battle scenarios to date. The artificial intelligence generator is probably smarter than I am." He chuckled lightly. "We can have battle sequences that would realistically change as we move forward, much the same as an enemy battle tactician would depending on our movements. It forces us to sharpen and hone our skills, at all levels of rank."

"Next stop is my favourite part."He allowed a large smile to show his enthusiasm. "Follow this way."

As they left the area, Damon opened up. "So tell me about yourself. What was your last assignment like?" He asked, trying to gauge the new transfer to the Calypso.

"Well it wasn't much," she stated shyly, "We just answered a destress call and the Reprisal wen't there aide against the Romulans. Simply combat moment nothing more or less. Me on the other hand. I'm an ex vice presdents daughter who married an Actress. My brother is in Star Fleet as well. A Commander I believe. Hum I love to fly, somthing about it makes me feel alive I guess. My fight instructor loved me in his class. He says I had a natural talent. But I see my job more or less as a passion. You your self? Who is Mr. Raine?"

"Marine, all the way." He stated simply. "All of my adult life has been spent in the Corps, I can't even picture what my life would be without it. A calling? I don't think so, not anymore. When I first enlisted it was..." He paused for a moment trying to chose the correct words. "...a means to an end." The truth of that statement made him smile a little. "I've seen too much combat to believe it's a calling anymore; more like blind luck and good timming. That said, I am damn good at what I do and honored to be serving with the Marines you see around you." He spread his arms wide. "So here I am. I will say this, the best thing about the Corps has been that it's brought me here, to the Calypso."

"I see," smiled Serena watching Raine lower his arms down, "I rememeber the good old days. Maybe someday I could go on a mission with the marines. Like the old times." She gave him a big grin. "I use to be a great marksmen in my day. As well as great survivalist. But I'm glad you do what you love. Most people don't even get the chance to do what there so passionate about. We must be one of the furtunate ones."

"I suppose that depends. We may be fortunate to serve with peopole we trust and do what we love, but it'sall a double sided blade. I've served long enough to see the Dominion war. Back then we were relatively a new program and we certainly weren't trained for what was to come. The mortality rate was...brutal." He seemed to pause and shake off the images in his head. "That sort of stuff sticks with you, you know? Even now we lose people, despite of all the advancements we make and training we get. Everything has a cost; I know it's true of you Fleeties too."

Serena nodded her head, "True true." Looking at what time it was, she realized she needed to get much needed work done for tomarrow. "It was nice meeting you Damon," she said shaking his hand, "I would love to continue this some other time if you don't mind?"

"Any time. I'm here most of the time. If I can't give you the nickle tour, I'm sure I can have someone else show you around just as well as I would."

"Thanks again, Damon," she smiled, "You did a good job with the tour. I'll request you for a second go around." Then she turned around and left the marines area and headed to her office.

_________________________________________

Posted by:

Lt. Serena "Seren" Jones
Chief Flight Control Officer

and

Lt. Colonel Damon Raine
Marine Commander Officer/XO

 

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