trans_9 | Burden of Rank [OPEN]

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Burden of Rank [OPEN]

Being in command meant having to make the hard decisions.

Trudy knew that, but having to dishonorably discharge a talented pilot like Allenby still crawled under the collar and itched. Her shoulders took on a distinct slump as she walked through the hallways of the ship, mouth set in a hard line, going over the confrontation in her head. Could she have done anything differently?

Probably not. Allenby had been hell-bent on what she was doing and no amount of logic was going to dissuade her from flying down to the planet with just her Gundam and a small crew. Trudy was satisfied that she'd manage to stop her from getting herself and others killed... but the incident was a black mark on Starfighter Command and her ability to control her pilots.

These were the times that she hated her job.

Her boots hit the grass of Hydroponics and she made a beeline for the beer tree. She probably would have had better company at the Drunken Dragon, but company wasn't what she was after. Not right now, not after what had just gone down in the hangar.

Knowing this ship though, company would find her whether she wanted it or not.

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Michel had been on his way to Hydroponics to see if he could discreetly nab some fresh fruit off the vine with nobody else the wiser when he saw his commanding officer exit the transporter tube a ways in front of him - and even from this distance there was no mistaking the cloud hanging over her head.

He had a pretty good idea what it was about.

So, he continued on into the grassy area, stopping to pluck a fresh-looking... fruit of some kind that he didn't quite recognize from a bush - and then a second as an afterthought.

Sure enough, he found the other pilot where he thought she'd be, hanging out under that bizarre tree that sprouted beer. Someone would have to tell him how that actually worked one of these days. "Hey," he said in a voice that was a bit less bright than its normal tone. "Catch."

He tossed the second fruit at her underhand.

Trudy's head and her hand lifted up at the same time, and she easily fielded the fruit. She turned it over in her hands, sniffed it, decided that Stacy would probably stop her if it was poisonous and took a bite.

"'S good," she said. "Thanks. Want a beer?"

"I wouldn't turn it down," he arched an eyebrow, before taking a bite of his own fruit. ...it was kind of tangy, he decided. "Something about gift horses and mouths, if I recall."

Pretending she was okay could only last so long, but it was worth a try. She reached up and pulled a couple beers off the tree - one she sat on the ground next to her, and the other one she passed to Michael.

She sat down at the base of the tree, considering the fruit. "So," she said.

"So," he echoed, sitting cross-legged on the grass a ways away, and cracking open the beer.

"...kids these days, huh?"

Given that he wasn't yet in his twenties, it was kind of a hypocritical statement. Not that he cared about that sort of thing.

She laughed - it wasn't all there, but at least it was something. "Tell me about it," she said. "These Gundam pilots... they're something else."

She always knew that Blade Squadron was where her problems were going to come from. Trudy took a sip of her beer and sat scowling at the grass.

"Well, at least all the crazy's located in one squadron." He took a sip of his beer. "Most of the crazy, anyway." Couldn't forget Asuka. "I don't envy Yamato having to corral that crew. He seems a bit too soft-spoken for the job."

"Nah, I think that's why he does so well with them to be honest." Hotheaded pilots with a tendency to do whatever they damn well pleased got their backs up when someone like Trudy came charging and yelling into the picture, as was the case with Allenby. Yamato, on the other hand... he was polite. It helped.

Trudy didn't do polite, not while she was in command. "First dishonorable discharge," she said. "Had to come sooner or later with this crew, I guess."

"Maybe," Michael shrugged. "I don't know if I could handle that group without blowing a fuse or slugging somebody."

He leaned back, propping himself up with a hand on the grass. "Any idea where you're going from here? We can't keep her locked up in the brig until we wipe out the Ohm."

"The brig wasn't my decision," Trudy said, although if it was up to her she probably would have made that same decision. "It was the Captain's. She's a civilian now, Kennedy can deal with her."

She took a sip of her beer. "Between you and me? I was really close to popping her in her smart mouth back there in the hangar."

"I can't say I'd have stopped you," he said, dryly. "It's what Captain Ozma'd have done with any of us Skulls if he thought we needed a lesson."

"Well, that or make us do laps in Ex-Gears with the power turned off. That'll get you back in line something fierce."

"I've got one of your pilots scrubbing the flight deck of the Quarter," Trudy said, tipping the neck of the beer to point at him as she said it. "It'd be nice if you could drop in and supervise him."

At least Sonic backed down when he heard sense.

"Speaking of those Ex-Gears... have you talked to Engineering about working up a few more of them?"

"One of my--?" Michael groaned, covering his face with his palm. "Don't tell me - it's Sonic. Hotheaded little critter, ain't he?" A sigh. "I'll stop in later, make sure the place is sparkling."

He swirled the liquid around in the bottle. "I mentioned it a while back, but you know how things get around here. Don't think anything's come of it yet - I'll give them another poke and see what's what."

"Got it in one," Trudy said. "At least he's more sensible than Allenby. He just bought himself deck-swabbing duty, not brig time."

She never thought she would see the day where a blue hedgehog was one of her sensible pilots.

"You do that," Trudy said. "And I'll make sure to put a bug in Angie's ear too. Those things can save lives."

"That Sonic is more sensible than people on the ship is kind of scary," Michael shook his head, taking a bite of the fruit he had.

"You know what would save more lives?" A familiar grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. "If we stuck everyone in VFs." A pilot's argument - no faster way to bring things back to normal. Normal-ish.

"Uh-huh, you think so," Trudy said, grinning. "It's going to take a lot more than popguns to take out the Ohm. The X-wings have the real firepower."

Actually, the mobile suits outclassed the X-wings, but Yamato wasn't here to butt in on behalf of his squadron.

He peered at her over his glasses. "Last I checked, my railgun tore through them just fine. And I didn't have to be in a flying crate to do it."

Of course, Kira would probably have been too polite to say anything anyway.

"One out of four, Michael, one out of four." It was true that his rifle did a hell of a lot of damage, but the X-wings had torpedoes. "You know what Skull Squadron is really good at? Giving the Shrikes a target that's just as fast as they are to chase around for a while until someone else comes and blows it up."

He took another sip of his beer. "It'll be four out of four if those other three graduate to the VF-25s," he shook his head. "But I think we'd rather not risk our Messiahs on rookies when the 171s can outrun the Ohm just fine." A short pause. "Until someone else comes and blows it up."

Trudy made a face. "That reminds me we're short a ZAKU and an X-wing now, since Allenby pulled that stunt with the X-wing. Flight platform," she grumbled, scowling. "Disrespectful."

The whole thing had been disrespectful, and Trudy walked away from it feeling like her authority had been severely undermined. When she only had her reputation on the ship to convince people she knew how to lead, this was a black mark.

"So, General. I'm guessing your chat with Allenby didn't go well." Cowabunga said as he came upon Trudy, end of his rifle resting on his shoulder.

"She won't be flying in your squadron anymore," Trudy said. She was working on her third beer now, but still plenty sober enough to have a conversation. With a cow. Sometimes she still couldn't get over that.

"I can't have her flying with you if I can't trust her not to go off on her own," she continued. "Puts all of you in danger."

"Eh, I figured." He shrugged. "Not the first time I've seen someone do something that monumentally stupid. It either gets you discharged, or it gets what's left of you afterwards discharged."

"I'm glad we didn't get to the 'what's left afterwards' stage," Trudy said. "Feels bad enough sending kids to war without them getting themselves blown up over stupid shit like this because they don't trust their commanders."

She took another sip. "Want a beer?"

"Sometimes you have to make hard decisions." Wedge is there, hands in his pockets as he eases up to the tree, leaning against the trunk.

"It's not fun at all, so, from one commander to another, you have my support in this. You did the right thing."

Trudy smiled a little, grateful for the support. "If she can't follow orders, she's a danger to everyone around her," Trudy said. "And a bad influence."

She took a sip from her beer, mouth twisting. "Hell of a pilot, though."

"The best ones tend to have that streak of stubborn insubordination. But the smarts ones bury that when they need to. I mean, I did. And I'm pretty sure every pilot I've flown with has had the uirge to go running off on their own at one point or another." He sighed and plucked a beer from the tree, opening it.

"Not much you can do now, unfortunately. I understand the urge to help her friends, but we can't go off half-cocked." He gave Trudy a pat on the shoulder.

"Command is a hell of a thing, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Trudy said. "Asuka hasn't even given me as many problems as Allenby though, and I'm pretty sure that even hotheaded as she is, she wouldn't try to take on a whole planet solo."

Or with a small group, even. Trudy took a sip from her beer. "I'm glad the other one came to his senses and we didn't lose two pilots today."

"You look somewhat stressed," Yzak's voice was edged with an obvious sarcasm. He didn't expect her not to be. But then again, he also didn't expect to run into Trudy here. Not for a reason like the one she was there for, anyway.

"You know who I have to explain this crap to? The Captain."

That was only part of the explanation, but Trudy was indignant enough about that to be here avoiding people. Plus, they'd just had a new podpop and what did this say to potential recruits about her organization?

"Explain what, exactly? He basically responded the same way that you did, didn't he? When Allenby first asked for assistance. He knew what the situation was."

He crossed his arms. Personally, Yzak had a few qualms with how that entire fiasco was handled. Especially on top of Allenby's initial kneejerk reaction.

Trudy shrugged. Really, it was explain how she'd failed to drive it into Allenby's head that she was part of a team, not an individual unit. They functioned together or not at all, they followed orders or they all got killed.

"Shame to lose anyone," she said. "It's a shame to think she was talented but not mature enough, but I think that's what it boils down to."

"She really wasn't thinking when she decided to just declare she was taking action, rather than asking anybody anything first - especially because she was so set on her goal." Yzak sent a side glance to the beer tree - he never knew something like it existed in Hydroponics before. "However, I believe she would have stopped, or at least paused to consider her actions if the first thing she heard as a response wasn't an outright order to stop."

He tapped a foot on the ground, considering his wording - mainly to be clear rather than cautious. "She's a pilot of a mobile suit where she comes from, but she's not a soldier. This is a new experience for her, and probably something she doesn't really want to do inside. But because of our circumstances, she has no choice in the matter. We've never had a problem like this with her before, so I don't think it's merely a case of just her immaturity, but rather how she was probably backed into a corner to feel like she had to listen to her commanding officers or face consequence."

He let out a breath, continuing. "Somehow, though. I don't think that means we've actually lost her." At least, when Yzak thought about it, it certainly didn't seem like it was going to stay that way. At least on an unofficial level.

The response almost made Trudy laugh, except that it came from the mouth of one of her officers and was the kind of thing she more expected to hear out of a civilian. "There's the problem. I give an order, it should be accepted without question. If we get in bad habits here it's worse in the field. I shouldn't have to explain myself to any of you, unless it's something you ask privately - later."

Not in front of the rest of the squadron, not on the message boards for the whole damn ship. "Allenby as much as said that the Captain and I don't know what the hell we're doing and that she was going to do whatever she damn well pleased no matter what we said. That's unacceptable in a military command, period."

"I actually think it's for the better of a military force to know why a commanding office decides to do something. Especially when we're one made up of those from such different backgrounds, way outside of the things and the places that we're used to. There is a big difference between telling your soldiers to trust you because you believe you can make the right choices, and you simply showing them that you can do so, so that they come to trust in you themselves. Simply obeying a commanding officer without question will never end well. I used to do just that. And it's not something I planned for my own soldiers to repeat when I was in the commanding position. It's not what I have planned for my team on this ship to repeat, either."

Yzak was a perfectionist in many ways, and he above all people enjoyed a smooth order to things. But even he knew the ramifications that so often came from just obeying without question. He almost ended up fighting two of his best friends because of that - and one of them would have been dead if Yzak had stuck to that line of belief. Of course, he didn't believe Trudy was anything like the guys he had dealt with in the past. But that didn't mean he couldn't understand why a girl like Allenby reacted the way she did. Especially after coming to know her better.

"She accused you of that because she was not informed that 'things were being handled' until after the fact. And I do hope that she and more of this ship's residents were given peace of mind by being told how exactly things are currently being handled. She was being just as defiant as the the level of expected obedience she felt you wanted her to have. That's because she was being ordered around rather than reasoned with, on top of her being in the dark about there being any plans at all. Which isn't saying her actions were still stupid and not thought out in advance," he added as an afterthought, "but they weren't completely wrong outside of how she went about it."

"That works fine up until the point where I have people asking 'why' in the middle of a battle," Trudy said, and that was really the biggest point. "When we're out there we have to work together, as a team, and the people in command call the shots because you can't have too many people in command in a situation like that. We're in a war here - we don't have the luxury of explaining ourselves all the time. I needed her here in case we needed to mobilize as a fleet. You've gotten used to working with her in the squadron, so this is going to upset efficiency if we do need to move out."

Trudy sighed. "I do know where you're coming from, believe me. I've had some shitty commanders that I followed because they were my commander. But that's not here. We don't have the time to prove ourselves to every new person in every new crisis, and I figured Allenby would be able to trust me at least, we did manage to keep her alive the last time we fought. Hell, we didn't even lose anyone. She can't trust that I have her best interests in mind, that I want to serve the crew?"

That's what the most insulting part was - that Allenby insinuated she didn't care about the people on the surface. Kang was down there, goddammit.

"As of yet, we luckily haven't had any real casualties. And I'd like to keep it that way. In actual battle, Allenby's been nothing but help to us - and as of yet, hasn't deterred us by asking those sort of questions in the midst of the chaos. Trust off the battlefield is what makes those times in actual battle much easier when it comes to cohesion and the commanding officers being listened to when it counts. Of course..." he huffed slightly. "She's on Yamato's team, and that guy is the kind of guy who can make almost anybody trust him." Annoyingly so, Yzak thought to himself. "So I'm not surprised she never did anything like that, either."

He tapped his fingers against his arm. "I think she does trust you. And the Captain. And us. Because at the moment, we're all working for the same things. But she was acting on what she didn't know and wasn't told about. She feels the same way I'm sure we all do about what's happened. We have a load of people planetside who came across some problems. Now we can't get in touch with them, so who knows how bad the situation is down there? We want to do something to help them, so she decided to take action because she believed that nobody else was. Which, even though she was smart enough to ask for help for, was still a bad decision. I'm glad she's probably learned her lesson to ask about these things before outright declaring something."

"If she trusts me to tell her what to do when she's getting shot at, she should trust me to tell her what to do when she's not getting shot at," Trudy grumbled. "She could have royally messed things up for the team on the surface. Some of our best people are down there, and we already sent reinforcements."

Yzak was right. Hopefully she had learned her lesson - to ask what was being done before assuming that her commanding officers had given up.

Not that any of them were technically her commanding officers any more, except Kennedy.

Yzak didn't voice it, instead shifting somewhat uncomfortably, that he hoped the team on the surface were in shape enough to actually have things messed up for them any worse. He believed in them, but if an entire planet was like that ... that's why he understood Allenby's passion, if not her choices based on them. If only there was something to do to help. But they couldn't have known that things would turn out the way they did. And by the time they found out, they were out of immediate reach.

"You know," he added after that thought, "she still has all rights to her own mobile suit." This wasn't like being home - where your enlistment granted you a unit. In this case, it was if you had a unit that came with you, you could enlist. "If things get rough and we're expected to sortie - not just now, but in any situation - she's probably going to go out to help on her own accord. If I had to make some assumptions, they'd be that she knows better than to think she can do much on her own. So I'm sure that despite what happened, she's still going to be fighting alongside the rest of us."

Contrary to what Yzak might think, that didn't actually make Trudy feel any better. Actions were supposed to have consequences, and if Allenby would be back in the sky with them simply by virtue of them being short-handed, it was like none of the consequences stuck.

"I know I don't have the right to her Gundam," Trudy said. "And I'm not stupid enough to try and take any of you kids' mobile suits away. It'd kill any trust we have built up."

Still didn't mean she had to like it, though.

Ashley didn't look much better than Trudy, to be perfectly honest. Though she rarely came to this part of the ship, today she needed one cold one. She was a bit disgusted with both herself for being late to where Allenby was, and very annoyed that she would pull a stunt like that.

"I'm not going ask what happened, what with it being none of my business. Security or not." She would never admit it, but the whole situation left her visibly concerned.

"Don't worry about it. Allenby's been dishonorably discharged from Starfighter Command, and Kennedy decided this stunt was worth some brig time."

Trudy pulled a beer off the tree and handed it to the other woman. "Your department is good at staying on top of this kind of bullshit. Thanks for that."

"Hopefully she at the very least won't try a stunt like that again." Ashley took the beer from Trudy, (whoever heard of a beer tree anyway?) and drank it whole. "Kind of wish I could have done more, to be honest. What with so many super-powered people on the ship, it's amazing that we haven't killed each other."

"Only because we all have a common goal," Trudy said. "If there weren't a war, if the Ohm weren't a visible force to fight against and we'd just been randomly kidnapped by the ship? We wouldn't stand a chance. It'd be mutiny every week."

They barely managed to get by as it was. Granted they were getting better all the time, but incidents like this should be unheard of.

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Burden of Rank [OPEN]

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