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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"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.

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Burden of Rank [OPEN]

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