Inquiries
Inquiries
Summary: Ramiro confesses to Gaelan
Date: 51 ACH
Related Logs: None
Players:
Gaelan..Ramiro..

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Marine CO's Quarters Genesis - Deck 10
51 ACH 6285 Souls


The Marine CO's quarters are decent sized. A large desk, small seating area, head and sleeping quarters are kept neat and tidy. Plaques are on the wall from the CO's education and time through the military. There area also commendations and pictures of battlestars they have served on in the past.
----< Condition Three - Duty Area >----—-

Leaning in, there's a knock on the door. Sergeant Dane Ramiro has opted to stop by the CO's quarters. Currently sporting a few hearty bruises on the left side of his face, a stitched split lip, and a series of small bandages over his right fist, he has a quiet look on his face. "Sir? May I have a moment of your time?"

Gaelan the door to the hatch is wide open and it appears the Major is nursing a wound of his own. Gaelan is currently walking away from the hatch holding a towel on to his back on a very large and purple-black bruise. There are bunched up bandages on the small guest seat as he looks up. Standing there without his regulation off-duty top on he looks to the Sergeant, "You will have to excuse my lack of duty shirts Sergeant. But if that is not a problem, come on in." Walking over to the small couch with another reading chair next to it and sits down on the reading chair. Leaning back slowly he pins the towel of ice between the chair and his back with a wince.

Ramiro steps in, leaving the door open. Shrugging to the Major, he folds his arms. "No sir, no I don't mind." He glances to the bandages with a strange look on his face, but decides for the better to not ask. He takes a deep breath. "I've decided that I should confess that Corporal Gars and I didn't actually fall down some stairs, sir." He pauses. "The truth is that I went to confront him about his attitude and wouldn't let him walk away. He threw the first shot, a push against the wall, but I finished it."

Gaelan nods slowly as he shifts and winces to get comfortable in the chair with the ice on him, "Frak this sucks.." Looking to the Sergeant he adds, "I figured as much. I would have preferred that you not laid him up in Sickbay, but between you and I it was probably necessary." Pointing to the bandages, "Hand me those. I need to wrap these frakkin' ribs up in a minute."

Ramiro steps over to the chair and grabs the bandages. Taking them up, he takes the two necessary steps towards Gaelan and hands them to him. "Well I wasn't going to hide and wait to see if he presses the issue. I'm gonna take my lumps on this one." Ramiro admits, squaring his jaw a bit. "I didn't confront Gars about the PT, I confronted him about pissing away his chances to gain command's confidence. I told him I wasn't going to let him end up getting busted to civilian or airlocked for mutiny with his anti-morale comments. He decided to walk away. I decided he needed to hear it." Ramiro pauses. "I try to hold to a standard sir, but…maybe this is the only thing he'll respect. He's like a dog. He's alpha until proven otherwise I think."

Gaelan takes the bandages and nods as he listens. Slowly rolling the bandages up he looks up to the Sergeant, "Well that was the talk he needed to have. Glad your perception fully took in why I did what I did." Glancing down to the roll he looks up, "The Corporal is a smart man, but he is pissed off about something. Either he didn't like this transfer or thinks the Marines failed him by not letting him die with his fellow Marines who died in the initial attacks. Some old dogs like him have a hard time realizing they got spared for a good reason. My patience is wearing razor thin with him though. I got enough frakkin' stuff on my plate to be dealing with this. As you see it's almost broken. Keep this up and I will send every frakkin' Marine back through Basic. Strip them all down to Private and start the frak over." Eyes lock with the Sergeant as he watches him, "For everyone."

Ramiro stares back at the Major, arms folded across his chest loosely to not appear confrontational. "If you ask me, Gars is scared. He's got nowhere to fight and he simply wants to die charging the lines. I'm hoping and praying that he won't pull the shit that Lakis did, and I think he figures that if charging the line doesn't kill him he'll be a hero. I'm still waiting to see if the report on that mission he took with Desusa has a report getting made available. Something pissed him off there too." Ramiro pauses, scratching the side of his face over his bruise. "Permission to speak freely, Major?"

Gaelan leans forward slightly, reaching behind him he adjust the towel slightly and watches the Sergeant, "Sounds like a fair assessment from a fellow Marine. The professionals will determine his readiness to serve." Waving his hand lightly in a missive pose, "Go ahead Sergeant. What's on your mind?"

Ramiro shifts his weight to the other hip, choosing his words for a moment before he speaks. "We have more than a few of us marines that are not only following protocol but keeping in line. There's honestly only a few of them that are pushing outside of their boundaries. I think the problem is morale. I've got my religion, not everyone has that." Ramiro pauses. "We don't know whether or not we're going to assault or run, but we know that some people -are- running and if they're still alive they're alot farther away from the fire than we are. I've got one of my snipers asking you yesterday to go to Leonis to find Lakis. I haven't been cleared to explain to them what happened yet." Ramiro looks to Gaelan, taking a deep breath. "I'd like permission for my team to be first in mind for an advanced recon. It feels like we're waiting to find out how we're going to die without knowing anything more. My squad's hungry for it and ready. A four-man insertion team with ceasefire orders can slip in and out less noticeably than an armed escort. One hot drop and pickup with a Raptor is all that would be needed."

Gaelan smirks slightly and then shakes his head as the rasped tone emerges in retort, "Not going to happen. I am not wasting my four top shooters to chase down a frakkin' runaway. Nothing on your missions to Leonis denote a viable reason to even return to that planet for further missions at this time. On top of that it is never good to double-back and run towards your enemy if you think they are on your tail. You move to the side. You move forward. You move up or down. You never. Ever. Go backwards." Pointing up to the wall behind the couch there are a small selection of pictures, one of them is Gaelan with a four-man team. Donned in full combat gear, obviously about to deploy for a mission that doesn't allow any visible badging or affiliations on their uniform. Probably from his Special Forces days. The Major comments, "You see that picture of one of my squads I deployed with. Damn good men, top shots and the best people to ever serve with. We went down for a mission my point man.." motioning to he man on his right, "Staff Sergeant Perkins. Well he didn't do the same as Lakis but he went deep on a scout and we never recovered him during that mission. Drove us up the frakkin' walls. We damn near refused our extraction to go back for him."

"I wasn't talking about Leonis, sir." Ramiro says, nodding in agreement with the Major. "I was talking about another target. Hard intel. An attempt to find a weakness, a chain of command, scout for resources raids or gods willing some sort of button we can hold a finger into to force these bastards to leave us alone. Lakis is gone, and I do want to know if I have permission to explain the details to my men. They deserve to know what happened to their squadmate." Ramiro motions to a seat near the major, clearly asking permission to sit. "We're the Scout Sniper Team. We're probably not getting jack for intel over signals. We don't have any informants or spies in their midst, nor do we know if that's possible. We're staying around the colonies for something but the navy provides more protection from the external threats than we do for now." He pauses. "Caprica, Gemenon, Scorpia, wherever we have any initial intel. That's what I'm saying."

Gaelan motions towards the seat and nods for the Sniper to sit. Listening to him comment he holds his hand up to him and resumes his comments, almost ignoring the rant entirely it seems, "So about six to eight months passes by. We start getting this chatter on the wire of fresh intel on the same drop area. So with the new team and Perkins a subtle memory in the back of our brains we go back. Following the same path as before we don't do any deep scout recon. The mission continues. Three of us on constant secondary focus for Perkins. Primary Objective gets completed and as we are pulling out we see something. Investigating this possible intel pulls off course and time. A heavy firefight ensues with injuries to two, that required us to drag them out. Barely getting out ourselves." Pausing he watches the Sergeant, "You know what caught our attention? The decapitated head of Perkins with his dog tag marked in his mouth so we knew it was him. Nearly lost an entire team for one person, that wasn't even alive." Looking at the picture a moment he nods slowly then looks back to Ramiro, "I know what you guys are asking. But you are asking it wrong. Which means I know what you or at least one of your sniper's focus is on that mission. Finding Lakis."

"That's why I'm not suggesting Leonis." Ramiro replies, taking a seat and running a hand through his hair. "Hazzard is my second now that Lakis is gone and I really do wish sir that we had some people that could put their feelings aside. My folks would hate to hear me say it but my instructors taught me that I had to be cold. I had to pull the trigger while looking through a face on a scope." Ramiro pauses, running a hand over his face. "I keep running it through my mind sir. We don't know if we have months. We don't know if we have days. We don't know anything and until we have a direction we're drifting. The Corps is waiting to walk into ambushes without any good tactics. Sure, a MOUT can get us stacked into coordinated fire, but at what? Major Carter found out the hard way that his pistol wouldn't penetrate an armored Centurion. They have all the cards." Ramiro pauses. "I can't speak for all of my men just yet, but I know that I can find a spotter. Send me if you must. The less the better. The less the loss if necessary. Keep a raptor on cold nearby for an intel uplink or a dead man switch on our vitals."

Gaelan watches the Sergeant passionately sell his view as he nods slowly. Obviously processing everything being spoken he comments in his familiar rasped tone, "So let me see if I understand this. You want me to send two SST members onto a deep recon mission with a Raptor crew into something that they don't even know what they are getting into? How is that any better than making sure than we can actually kill them when we do get into combat with them?" Shaking his head as he reaches behind him grabbing the towel as he stands up. Walking over to a small bin he unfurls the towel and dumps the ice in it. The bruise is pretty evident as the Major grabs his offduty tanktops and begins to slowly pull them on as he looks back to Ramiro, "What are you hoping to gather intelligence wise from your little visit to the land of creature who communicate through lord knows what means and all look the same?

Ramiro lowers his voice, seeing as how the door is open. "This is just an idea, trust me, Sir, I'm not the type to do that thing where I tell you that this is what we should do and that you're a fool for disagreeing." Ramiro pauses. "Allright…here's what I've thought up. We have some intel we can use to our advantage. Explosion sites for some of the colonies, maps, locations that may have been purposefully avoided for infrastructure purposes." Ramiro points to the table as if he's over a map. "Insert a small team to take watch, gather data, see if there's anything we don't know that we should. If the opportunity arises for a closer look, we take it while leaving someone behind to get the intel out. No attack, just hard spy work and intel gathering." He looks to Gaelan. "With the right intel going in nomatter what happens you're going to have more intel coming out of that mission than we do right now. We are blind right now sir and they're not going to risk much to get this intel. Two to four men. One to two weeks. Everyone will have to be a volunteer and be told ahead of time that this could be a no-return."

Gaelan nods slowly as he listens, "That sounds well and good, but what is the gain from monitoring an explosion site? Do we get potential resources out of it? Find potential survivors? Find more ammunition, et cetera. That's the focus now. Survival. Not Offensive."

"Intel is survival." Ramiro replies. "Did we have any warning when what, four or five basestars jumped in over Muskeg and destroyed two of our vital ships? I was in a bar when that happened sir, on the PAS." Ramiro shakes his head. "If you or anyone can find us a best-case scenario place where sensetive Cylon information might be found I can get the fleet something. I'm willing to sign my life on that guarantee sir. Some sort of break could lead to a tactic that can lead to further survivors, supplies, raids and more intel." Ramiro leans back in his chair. "I'm suggesting the first sites to be looked at are the populated or industrial sites that were in the empty pockets between the nukes. Stuff they might have purposefully tried to keep from being blown up. Sir there were civilians on Leonis that weren't being herded into mass graves, being kept alive for some reason."

Gaelan walks back to his chair and slowly sits down as he leans back, towel and icepack free, "And those sites are probably being left vacated for another reason. Waiting on us to show up and sniff at them, so they can jump in on us again and destroy two more of our ships. We had no warning when they nearly wiped out our entire race, what makes you thing a four man sniper team from a mangled fleet is going to turn the tide into providing an opening into their tactics and plans?" The Major watches the Sergeant a moment before adding, "We are not jumping the entire fleet to varied spots and putting them at risk for stuff like this. With that being said though, should the fleet come across an opportunity. Then it may be prudent to do a /resource/ scouting mission."

"Hey…whatever the fleet needs of me I'll be there, sir. I've just got a hunch that I wanted to relay to you." Ramiro looks to the Major again, sitting up in the chair and bracing his elbows on his knees. "After Leonis they might know we're not done with the colonies yet, seeing as how we got in there. After the losses, they might even suspect that we'd go small team as it is. Small teams are much harder to track. That's why I think we can get away with this one. I think they're watching for the big resources that we'd go for, not the small ones. Any SST member can survive for a long time in the wilderness. I just wanted you to know that whatever comes down the pipe we'll be ready sir." Ramiro pauses. "What permissions do I have to tell my squad about Lakis?"

Gaelan nods slowly as he looks to the Sergeant, "Nothing. Welcome to the pleasures of knowing more than most people. It's a bitch of being in charge. Let the rumor slide along as they want, but there is no reason for them to be a constant topic of conversation. Your team has far more important thing to be focused on. Or do I need to see to that?"

"No…you don't need to see to that one bit. I've got a meeting arranged with my shooters soon here. I'll tell them that I passed the death note onto staff and I'll find a way to address the left-behind issue." Ramiro replies, shaking his head. "Adding in a notice that this isn't going to happen twice." Ramiro pauses, nodding to the Major. "Thank you for seeing me sir, and again, I apologize for the break in my good behavior."

Gaelan nods his head, "Not a problem Sergeant. As for the note, there is no need to mention it or the tag handover. Just treat it that it was not in the teams interest to stay any longer than necessary or all of you would have been lost. They don't need any more speculation than they already have. It was a command decision to bring you home against your wishes. So if they want to blame anyone, blame me for bringing you home without her. Just don't turn this leaving a sniper behind idea into a routine. Alright?"

"Roger that, Major. I'll put the word into the team that we need to be here for eachother. I'm focusing on brotherhood." Ramiro stands, nodding to the man. "I'll take that forward then. Is there anything else you would like to discuss or may I be dismissed?"

Gaelan waves his head, "You are dismissed Sergeant. As for tonight, due to medical orders I will not be at the run. Running with a full rucksack on bruised ribs is not a wise decision."

"Not there in person at least." Ramiro chuckles, turning to the door, talking as he steps out. "You'll be the ghost chasing at our heels, Sir. Thank you again." He adds, and then slips out.

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