Former Marines

Posted on 30 May 2013 @ 11:15am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk

1,697 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 06 - 1300 hrs

[ON]

Standing in line in the crowded mess hall, Lamar could smell the scent of fresh-cooked burgers being prepared on the galley's grill behind the counter, causing his mouth to salivate with the need for a hefty chunk of bread, beef, cheese, and bacon. The queue moved quickly enough and it didn't take long before he had procured his meal complete with a huge side of fries and diced potatoes. With his tray now in one hand and a soda in the other, he excused himself to various crew members as he weaved his way through the mass of people, then stopped to search for a seat.

It must have been his lucky day because he quickly sighted two crew members vacating a nearby table, apparently finished with their meals. Moving swiftly over to the seat, Lamar gave them a friendly nod then sat down at the table as he prepared to devour his stacked burger.

Cyrus had watched the man as he made his through the meal and wracked his brain for the man's name. Lavma? Lama? Try as he might he couldn't remember the man's name, but from the way he stood and the way he stared lustily at his burger Cyrus knew. The man had played a stint in the Starfleet Marine Corps. Replicating himself a burger and onion rings the large ex-marine made his way to where his new meal partner was sitting and grinned. "Seat taken?"

Lamar looked up and quickly took notice of the familiar and large gold-collared man who was now hovering next to him, then recognized his senior warrant officer rank. "No, sir," he answered with a shake of his head, then flicked his eyes towards the vacant chair across from him. "Have a seat if you like." The support craft pilot recognized the man from their shuttlecraft expedition the previous day yet wasn't sure he had formally met him yet. Judging from physique and the scars on one side of his face, he could have passed as a Marine if not for the Starfleet Security uniform.

"Lamar Darius, support craft pilot." he introduced himself while holding out his hand for the other man to shake. "I think we met yesterday during our underwater expedition."

"Cyrus Kiwosk." He grinned and nodded in response to Darius. "Thought I'd seen you there. Sorry if I wasn't much of a talker, oceans, submarines and I don't get along. He explained. "Besides...there isn't really much to shoot with a rifle down on the ocean floor, is there?" He chuckled.

"No...at least, nothing that wouldn't require an EVA suit and some swimming." Lamar answered with a grin. "To tell you the truth, I'm not very keen on oceans either. Space is one thing, but being twenty miles underwater is kind of scary. Especially with a bunch of strange creatures swimming around."

"Never did like fish..." He agreed with another chuckle. "It's weird gong on all these away missions. When I was a marine, the only time I had to do anything like this was in combat theatre." He explained. "Still getting used to the whole 'watch people do things' bit."

Lamar's ears perked up. "You were a Marine? Me too." he said with a big smile. "82nd Orbital Drop Battalion." he added in reference to his own SFMC posting. "Always good to meet a fellow jarhead, especially in Fleet."

Cyrus grinned and rolled up his uniform sleeve on one massive forearm to proudly show his SFMC tattoo. " 22nd Infantry...I ran under Ray Fernandez back in his prime...I caught medically discharged...well" He decided to rephrase. "I was put on bedrest and then changed professions."

"You know, I met a couple guys from the 22nd back during Operation Gold Fist, the crackdown on Orion slavery a few years back." Lamar commented. "Nice guys and great soldiers...we couldn't have done it without them." he added, then began to assemble a row a french fries on top of the bacon and cheese on his burger after which he put the top bun back on.

"So were you injured in combat?" the red-collared man proceeded to ask with curiosity.

"You could say that." He chuckled, it was much easier talking about his experience now though he was sure that he had told the story so many times now that everyone on the ship knew. "I took a grenade on a mission. DRF were all over my team as we were trying to rescue a group of POW's." He bit into his own burger and washed it down with his water. "I grabbed a cooked grenade thrown by one nasty vorta and got myself blown up for my trouble." He laughed weakly, putting the images of the flashes of light and heat. He suddenly didn't want to eat any more.

"Ouch." Lamar commented, then paused to take a large bite of his burger and chew for a minute. "Those Jem'Hadar explosives are nasty little bastards. Nothing like the photon grenades that we use."

"It was a photon..." Was all he was able to get out before becoming focused on his meal. It was a long moment before Cyrus spoke again. "Stole it off a dead marine. He had it set to fragmentation, I think."

Lamar shoveled some fries into his mouth and frowned upon hearing the details of the incident. "Strange...I didn't think the Vorta were the throwing-grenades type..." he mumbled.

"When you're fighting a losing war, you can be whatever type you have to be." Cyrus responded as he munched on his own fries. "Bastard almost killed me too, but my CO said I got back up from the blast and killed him and his buddy before I fell over. They said I was a mess. " He chuckled weakly. "I guess they knew how to put me back together alright.
"What about you? ODB isn't exactly an easy go either."

"ODB gets all the insane missions." Lamar responded with a grin. "I did a lot of infiltration and special ops work during the war...not the most fun of assignments but we definitely kicked some Jem'Hadar ass a few times."

"So how do you go from Dropping out of Starships and Shuttles to driving a shuttle?" He asked earnestly, taking the chance to bite into his burger once more, chewing twice and swallowing before washing it down with a large gulp of water.

Taking another big bite of his burger, the support craft pilot nodded in agreement. It was indeed quite a career change for him, but it was also one which he had been thoroughly enjoying so far. "Well, I guess it started back in the Corps. I was always chatting and making friends with our pilots and they showed me around the cockpits of our drop ships a few times. I always thought it was pretty cool to be able to fly those things, so when I was discharged from the Marines I applied to Starfleet's flight ops department." he began to explain.

"I guess I didn't fill out my paperwork properly because I was instead transferred to the command department here on Galileo where I spent almost four months as our COB. Don't get me wrong...I don't mind supervising our enlisted crew, but I'm getting a bit too old to be a babysitter." Lamar continued with a laugh and a shake of his head.

"Anyway, while I was the COB I spent a lot of my free time studying up on basic flight operations and protocols...just sort of as a hobby, you know? Then recently, our chief engineer, Mister Quinn, lost his arm during a battle and eventually asked to be transferred out of engineering. So...Captain Saalm saw fit to reassign him to COB, which left me with the option to go back into the flight control department like I originally wanted. I guess it all kinda worked out in the end..." Lamar finished.

"I suppose so, " Kiwosk agreed. "Quite the career change though. Has Lieutenant Malin talked to you about the new Tactical Response team?" He asked.

"Nope, haven't heard a word." Lamar answered. "What is it?" he asked curiously, then popped some more fries into his mouth and took a long swig of his soda.

"It's a new emergency response team, we 're looking for an inter-department group that will help out when certain emergencies spread our security department too thin. We were hoping for a flight officer of sorts. You should look into it. Lieutenant Mialin has been informed on the goings on and testing will begin soon. your name was mentioned in certain circles now that I recall. "

"Oh yea? People talking bad about me, huh?" Lamar teased with a grin before continuing. "Sure, I'm always ready to assist but I haven't heard anything from my department head about it yet. I can have a chat with her if you think it'll help?"

"please do, it would be nice to have an experienced pilot in the testing"

"Sure thing." the support craft pilot replied, then quickly finished off the rest of his burger and began to pick off his fries two at a time. Tactical Response Team...sounds fun, he though to himself. "Who else have you assigned to the team so far?"

"Can't tell you, haven't done the testing yet." He replied, only telling half the truth. While it was true the testing hadn't been started, Cyrus already had an idea who would be assigned to the team and who was going to be involved in the process. "Just put in for the testing and I'm sure you'll do fine."

Finishing his burger and two more bites he grinned as he stood up. "Nice talking to you Lamar. I'll see you again, I'm sure."

"You too, Kiwosk. Semper Fi." Lamar said as he watched the other man finish his food and stand, then finished off his own meal and sucked down the last of his drink.

[OFF]

--

CWO Cyrus Kiwosk
Security/ Tactical Officer
TRT Squad Leader
USS Galileo


WO Lamar Darius
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

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