Burden of Rank [OPEN]

[fieldpromoted]

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.

Comments

[fieldpromoted]

"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.

[silverduelist]

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."

[fieldpromoted]

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.