MACO - The King Is Dead...

Posted on Wed Feb 23rd, 2022 @ 1:30pm by Captain Stenn

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: MACO Barracks
Timeline: Day 273 -275 - Right after One Too Many Lost
1137 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a further two days before they had discharged Stenn from sickbay. He had gradually felt better, and it had been agreed he could now move back to his own quarters, providing he checked in with medical several times day for the next week.

He had declined assistance with the move, determined to walk on his own, fortunately Sickbay and his cabin were both on E Deck, so it was not far.

He found his cabin, the door slid aside after he tapped in his code. The cabin looked exactly as he remembered it prior to leaving before they entered the radiation zone. His nose wrinkled slightly as the air was stale, he left the door open to the corridor to let it refresh some.

Even the short walk down here had been harder than expected, he found himself short of breath, his heartrate was elevated, and his legs ached. He crossed over and sat on the bed taking a few moments to get his breath back. He level of fitness was far below what it had once been and he determined to start a regime of exercise and training into order to recover as quickly as possible,

For now, he needed to get back into some normal clothing, once he had rested and regained his breath, he changed out of the medical pajamas and retrieved a Vulcan shirt and pants from the closet. He realized he had lost weight as they now fit loosely whereas before they had been tighter. He sat back on the bed, putting on some sandals and looked over to mirror to check his appearance.

He caught his own gaze from the reflection. It seemed strange to know he had been unconscious for so many days and weeks, lying in sick bay while his ship and crew mates had faced difficult obstacles. Guilt was neither rational nor logical but there were thoughts in his mind that he would have to deal with in the coming days, he would need to factor meditation and reflection sessions into his fitness regime.

The next two days he spent resting and gradually increasing his activity level with walks around the deck. Eating solid food had been difficult at first but his stomach had become accustomed to it and the chef had kindly made him a version of Plomeek broth. Stenn’s family had traditionally made a spicy version of the soup, but for now the blander version suited his digestion better.

Major King had stopped by to visit him in sickbay, briefed him into current events and the detachment before departing for the planet’s surface. They had agreed Steen would return to duty on a limited basis when he felt able and would gradually work up to full duty in due course.

On the third morning Stenn awoke feeling much improved, he decided to it was time to resume some level of duty. He drew a clean uniform from his closet, dressed and donned his boots. Like his own clothes the uniform was a looser fit than before and he tightened the belt another notch.

Satisfied with his appearance he made his way out into the corridor, down to F Deck and the entrance to the MACO Barracks compartments. He paused, composed himself for a moment and entered.

The door opened into operations room with a desk for the duty sergeant, to one side a door led to into the bunkroom and personnel quarters, on the other side a door led to the Training and Briefing room.

The desk was occupied by Staff Sergeant Bjorn Magnuson, a tall blonde heavy set Human Male from a place called Norway. The Sergeant jumped to his feet and snapped off a salute. “Captain Stenn Sir. Good to see you, Sir, welcome back!”

Stenn returned the salute. “At ease Sergeant. Thank you. It is good to be here.”

Magnuson smiled and handed over the day’s roster. “Duty assignments and personnel deployments Sir”

Stenn scanned the list. They had come abord with a detachment of sixteen MACO enlisted and non-commissioned, plus himself and Major King for a total of eighteen. As King had informed him, they were now down to fifteen. Three having been lost and two comatose in sickbay, like he had been. That made just thirteen of them operational now he was back.

The detachment was now operating in three teams of four. A Command Team led by King, with Magnuson, Corporal McAndrews the Detachment’s Sapper and Corporal Singh the Detachment’s Sniper.
Then two Fire Teams; one led by Sergeant Hoffmann; the other by Corporal Thomas.

“There were eight of the detachment currently in the barracks and Stenn went in to meet with them. It was a little strange, since he felt like he had last seen them just a few days ago, whereas for them he had been gone for nearly nine Earth months.

Working alongside Humans had been challenging to start with, and due to his emotionless demeanor, it was still sometimes a little difficult, although the MACO discipline helped but he still was greeted warmly by the detachment members in the Barracks.

He sat with them while they told him of their activities while he was unconscious. He began to realize he had an affinity with these people, a different kind of bond than those not commonly found in Vulcan society. Again, perhaps it was trust between them than came from placing their lives in each other’s hands.
One of the Privates was finishing a joke, which Stenn did not really understand, but as he was preparing to nod at the ending when suddenly the Ops Room door flew open.

Magnusson stood there. Stenn recognized agitation on the man’s face as he spoke “Captain Stenn sir, terrible news from the planet’s surface”

Magnuson stood to one side, Corporal Sinjar stood in the doorway, the petite, raven haired Seikh had been crying, tear stains ran from her eyes down over her cheeks. Her uniform was dirty, dust covered and torn, there were cuts and scratches on her hands and face.

Stenn stood up straight, clearly the woman was in some distress. “Report Corporal”. He said gently.

Singh gathered herself, wiped her face with her sleeve and came to attention. “Sir, Major King is dead!”

There were gasps from the surrounding personnel. “Quiet down!” Magnuson snapped and there was order.

“Go on” Stenn said calmly

“Sir, we were exploring the Tower, there was a collapse in the stairwell, a big one” Sinjia explained. “When we managed to clear the rubble and finally got to him… the Major was gone, his neck was broken…”

There was quiet while Stenn and the others processed the information, the silence was interrupted by the overhead page announcing =^= Captain Stenn, report to the Bridge =^=