Training and More Training, MACOs always Train

Posted on Tue Feb 6th, 2024 @ 11:45am by Warrant Officer Iryna Voznyuk

Mission: What If?
Location: MACO Firing Range
1170 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

A year now, Sergeant Eli McEntyre has been onboard the Atlantis. From that fateful day when the ship was slung half way across the galaxy, Eli has been there. It has been a rough road for him, adapting to life on a starship full-time. As an Orbital Airborne Operator, he was most used to jumping out of perfectly good spacecraft and onto planets and enemy positions.

Today, however, was a slow day, a Tuesday. Tuesdays were slow for some reason, but it gave Eli an excuse to pull his EM-47 Particle Rifle and get in some range time. So far, he's managed to make it to Level 4 on the firing simulator, a holographic sphere with targets on every which side of it. The object was to score as many hits on it in ten seconds. He'd managed to score 4 hits in ten seconds on Level 4 but know he could do better. He was Special Forces, he had to do better. He felt rusty after all this time aboard the ship. His skills dulling. Range Time, PT, and even academic studies helped to keep him sharp, but there was only so much that one man could do before he felt like he needed to do more.

He restarted the simulator, shouldered his rifle, and fired. Shot after shot of blue particle bolts fly, some hitting the target, dinging with each hit, others dissipating harmlessly against the bulkheads of the ship.

Iryna had been wandering around the remains of the barracks making sure the last of the personal effects had been moved to quarters in the main part of the ship now there were so few of them there was no need for the barracks now that they were now under armoury. She had considered a moment on the range to see if she could beat her score but she was still feeling the tightness in her shoulder from dislocating it and she was sure if she was caught it would be her fault for the fact the was confined to quarters but she could hear that someone else was doing it. She leaned against the range door and smiled as she observed the simulation. "It's good to see you taking advantage of the downtime to hone your skills on the firing simulator." She praised.

The simulator bee the time ended, the holographic ball disappearing as the voice of Iryna carried into the room. Eli safetied his rifle before her turned sharply around, snapping to attention. His rifle pointed down at the deck, close to his chest.

“Saying in my family: A good solider is only as sharp as his skills are. Something I can’t seem to break the habit of.” Eli replied, his rich Texan accent, a signature of the McEntyre family carries. “How are you feeling, Ma’am? Shoulder still giving you grief?” He asked with concern for his fellow MACO.

Iryna nodded pushing off from the door frame. She had no family sayings or connections to MACOs before she had taken her chance to escape her relatives and lifestyle. “I believe that is a saying used by any good MACO.” She replied crossing over the space. “It is and will likely give me grief for a while. A dislocated shoulder is not an easy fix.”

Eli nodded in agreement. "Thought I'd get in some range time, been kinda restless lately. Been on ship for a year and feels like I've been crawling up the wall." He turned back to start packing up his rifle into its hardcase. "I trained in Orbital Airborne Operations. Thought this would been a good assignment, goin out to the frontier...ended up WAY out in the frontier." Eli chuckled a bit.

Iryna nodded. “Well we have gotten time off the ship did you not get off when we were on Relea?” Iryna was sure that everyone had the opportunity but with the way the MACO department had been broken down into armoury she had not checked in as well as she should have with her own need for time away.

“No Ma’am. They had me redoin the calibrations on the EM-47s.” Eli responded with a serious tone, finished packing up his rifle before turning to face her.

Iryna raised an eyebrow clearly confused as to why he had not taken the leave when it was provided. Had all MACOs suddenly become their own worst enemy’s overnight or something. “But we were there 3 weeks. Everyone was given the opportunity Sergeant. The Captain made sure.” She said pulling out her PADD to look over the orders and lists. His name was clearly on there in the middle group that had been allocated.

Eli shrugged. "Was never really good with 'off time'. I've always felt I needed to be doing something productive, keep going, keep moving, always trying to survive."Eli explained to Iryna. "I thought about getting in some time doing some cliff diving and orbital parachute training but by the time I could get a pilot and a shuttlepod, it'd been too late. My primary MOS is Orbital Airborne, fast inserts, surprise the enemy, that sort of thing. I trained hard for the job. Shore Leave was never the best for me."

Iryna frowned just a little before pursing her lips to stop it spreading any further into her stance. “I get it but that was a bit foolish. We do not know the next time we will get a chance to spread our wings and get off the ship.” She chastised the man slightly. “Things are changing we are going to have to adjust.” Her main focus was close protection and logistics eg technical expert on those skills for King.

"Yes Ma'am. I'll try to take your advice under consideration." Eli looked like a kicked puppy. "Adapt and Overcome. I'll be ready for our next deployment as soon as the word is given, Ma'am" He spoke with the confidence that was expected from a MACO NCO. Eli didn't want to admit that it'd been a tough time adapting to the last year across the galaxy. He'd thought that this would have been a six month tour. Having it turn into a lifetime, was a hard adaptation that he needed to overcome sooner rather than later.

"Deployment?" The woman wondered confused. Yes, they would be deployed like they had always been but they would have day-to-day duties in the armoury department as well now which in her opinion would break up the monotony of day-to-day life. "No idea when that would be now that MACO's are under armoury and Gerhard but I am sure it will not be that much different. It has not been so far." She could not help but think that the only difference is she had way more paperwork than every before.

"Understood Ma'am. Any Idea what new jobs we'll have while aboard ship? Not sure how a ground pounder like me can contribute to the Armory aside from being security muscle."


TRANCATED