ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Chapter 3: Running a Desk
Colonel Randal Moore sat at his desk in his office at Langley Air Force Base, reviewing personnel files and trying to figure out which officers deserved a promotion and which deserved a swift dishonourable discharge from the Corps.
So far, to his pride he didn't found a single soldier under his command worthy of a dishonourable discharge, even if a couple had earned disciplinary actions and even a reprimand for several different infractions.
One thing Moore did not tolerate was insubordination, orders had to be obeyed to the letter and "maverick" attitudes were not something he had the patience for, even if many officers at his rank subscribed to this sort of attitude.
The thing was that once you reached the rank of Colonel there really was not many ways to go down, if somebody in the top brass had made you a Colonel you are most likely worthy of the rank even if you were sometimes a loose cannon. Moore was proud to be one of the few sticklers for protocol at his rank.
After that you became a General and any sort of frontline combat was no longer for you as you were too valuable to risk dying, and any loose cannon behaviour got you fired by the President himself.
"Colonel?" There was a knock on the door. Moore recognized the voice as belonging to the Air Force Major Shadi Alvarez.
"Come in Major." Moore replied and Alvarez made her way inside his office. "What can I do for you?" He asked, his gaze not leaving the personnel files.
"Sir, I want to know why I've been passed over for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel?"
"You're too young Major, not enough experience yet..."
"With respect sir..."
"Major." Moore raised the tone of his borderline shout-level. "A tour of duty and the very end of Afghanistan followed by two tours of duty in Syria and Iran do not make a Lieutenant Colonel. According to your personnel file, you still lack many leadership qualities needed of someone in that rank. You will be responsible for the wellbeing of every man, woman and child flying besides you. Are you absolutely sure you are capable of handling such a responsibility?" Moore asked sternly.
"I am." Alvarez replied with equal force in her tone.
"No, Major, I really do not believe you are, and the top brass do not seem to believe so either based on my assessment of your abilities." Moore stood up and moved to face the Major.
"Sir, what happened in Aleppo..." She tried to defend herself.
"Was a disaster on every front, Major." Moore cut her of harshly as he began circling her like a vulture. "You disobeyed orders without any valid reason whatsoever and you engaged an enemy without authorization. The only reason you did not receive a reprimand for your actions was because more hostiles died than friendlies as a result of your little stunt."
Alvarez Turned to face Moore in response.
"Are we done?" She asked defiantly.
"Yes, we're done. You're dismissed Major." Moore dismissively sneered as he sat back down on his desk and continued sifting through the files.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Major vacating his office and shutting the door behind her.
In his opinion Alvarez was not the sort of leader that she had to be to be a Colonel. She was barely even worthy of her current rank given her poor conduct in Syria.
Still her skill in the cockpit was what got her this high up the ranks, she was a natural, especially against whatever passed for the Syrian and Iranian air forces. Too bad she had very little common sense and she couldn't get anyone to follow her lead, not when it mattered anyway.
----
Major Shadi Alvarez was the opposite of a calm person at the best of days but right now she was barely restraining herself from decking the nearest jarhead out of spite for being denied a promotion.
She was currently slouched in a personnel lounge, nursing a cup of coffee and just waiting for the tiniest excuse to go for the eyeballs of the nearest sapient creature.
Her attention had been grabbed by the lounge TV showing a news broadcast of the approaching alien vessels and the White House going into lockdown mode.
Shadi was never a person of faith, despite her parents' beliefs she was not the kind of person to believe in a deity of any kind, something that would often put her at odds with much of the rest of the military, some of which were so devout they would insist on a prayer before taking off, as such she wasn't the one to have a crisis of faith at the sight of intelligence from beyond the stars.
As she watched the broadcast she couldn't help but feel a little fear, if these aliens were hostile she would be called upon to fight them, and the question that was on her mind is how do someone fight a being that can travel the stars?
She closed her eyes and tried to give herself some bravery, to reassure herself that no intelligence would ever waste its time going to war with another across the stars, that they do indeed come in peace and that people much smarter and more patient than her would find a way to ensure that mankind and the aliens existed together in peace.
"Hey Major, what do you make of this?" A jarhead from a neighbouring table asked Alvarez, causing her to once again suppress her anger.
"What do I think?" She turned around to face the marine his rank and surname of Corporal Claire embroidered onto his uniform. "Well Corporal Girly Name, I really hope the aliens take you away so you'd stop bothering me." She sneered and the marine turned back to his table.
Why are you taking it out on him Shadi? A voice inside her head asked. Because I am angry, I don't want to be bothered and because the jarhead's surname is 'Claire', I couldn't miss the opportunity. She mentally replied, trying her best to suppress the tiny pin pricks of guilt at being so mean at the marine.
"I'm sorry Corporal." She blurted out as she failed to squash her compassion, causing Corporal Claire to turn back towards her. "I was angry about something else and I took it out on you and I'm sorry." She admitted.
"It's okay Major, I'm used to having my surname be the butt of everyone's jokes." Claire responded.
"You wanna know what I really think about this?" She asked while pointing at the TV. "I think it's all a huge hoax."
"Really, you don't think that it's real, ma'am?" Claire was surprised by her scepticism.
"Trust me I'm half Iranian on my mother's side, she used to tell me of even more elaborate hoaxes courtesy of Ayatollah what's-his-face and his band of merry men." She replied, her answer raising an eyebrow on Claire's face.
"You're half Iranian?"
"Yeah, and 1/4 Cuban on my dad's side, it was one reason I nearly didn't see any action in Iran, some bigoted asshole high in the chain of command thought I might defect at a moment's notice." Shadi explained, her anger vanishing completely. "There is absolutely no way this can be real." She could only hope that her lie sounded convincing enough to the jarhead.
----
Back in his office Moore had just finished reviewing another personnel file when he received a phone call.
"Colonel Randal Moore speaking." Moore said in a professional tone of voice.
"Colonel Moore, this is General Carlyle." The reply came in the form of an equally professional voice on the other side.
"Yes General, what can I do for you Sir?" Moore asked.
"I'm not sure if you've been keeping up with the news Colonel but we have aliens at our doorstep, until the President says otherwise we are at DEFCON 3. Aside from Fort McNair you're the closest base to DC, as such I'll need you and your men to be ready to deploy to DC as soon as the order is given." The general stated.
"With respect, Sir. Shouldn't the base commanding officer General Yates be informed?" Moore asked.
"It has been done Colonel." Carlyle responded. "I have taken it upon myself to brief you directly as per the President's orders."
"Understood Sir." Moore was having a bad feeling about this, from the sound of things soon he was no longer going to be running a desk.
----
Approximately one billion kilometres from Earth's upper atmosphere, the armada of alien saucers continued their silent journey towards Earth. Their hulls painted red, at least from the perspective of human eyes. They were close enough to Earth now for many telescopes to notice them, with each passing second Earth was learning more about their incoming guests, but their knowledge of the aliens was limited to the shape of their method of transportation.
Everything else was an enigma, impossible to know for certainty and certainly not easy to speculate about.
Mankind had recently began to seriously consider the existence of extraterrestrial life, their confusion over the increasingly dimmer Tabby's Star further fuelling their desire to know if they were truly alone in the universe.
To mankind Tabby's Star was a great mystery, but to the spaceships' alien occupants it was ancient history, a reminder of their undisputed superiority over the known universe.
From his viewport, the alien leader observed the planet standing before him, the advanced sensors of his spacecraft showing him a perfect image of the world despite the vast distance left to cover.
They had also began intercepting Earth's radio broadcasts, the powerful shipboard computer quickly translating the various Earth languages into something the leader could comprehend.
Such primitives. The alien thought as he observed their culture, their squabblings and their failings. This planet would serve our purposes well.
Within the hour his vessel would be in geostationary orbit above one of the planet's northern continents.
Colonel Randal Moore sat at his desk in his office at Langley Air Force Base, reviewing personnel files and trying to figure out which officers deserved a promotion and which deserved a swift dishonourable discharge from the Corps.
So far, to his pride he didn't found a single soldier under his command worthy of a dishonourable discharge, even if a couple had earned disciplinary actions and even a reprimand for several different infractions.
One thing Moore did not tolerate was insubordination, orders had to be obeyed to the letter and "maverick" attitudes were not something he had the patience for, even if many officers at his rank subscribed to this sort of attitude.
The thing was that once you reached the rank of Colonel there really was not many ways to go down, if somebody in the top brass had made you a Colonel you are most likely worthy of the rank even if you were sometimes a loose cannon. Moore was proud to be one of the few sticklers for protocol at his rank.
After that you became a General and any sort of frontline combat was no longer for you as you were too valuable to risk dying, and any loose cannon behaviour got you fired by the President himself.
"Colonel?" There was a knock on the door. Moore recognized the voice as belonging to the Air Force Major Shadi Alvarez.
"Come in Major." Moore replied and Alvarez made her way inside his office. "What can I do for you?" He asked, his gaze not leaving the personnel files.
"Sir, I want to know why I've been passed over for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel?"
"You're too young Major, not enough experience yet..."
"With respect sir..."
"Major." Moore raised the tone of his borderline shout-level. "A tour of duty and the very end of Afghanistan followed by two tours of duty in Syria and Iran do not make a Lieutenant Colonel. According to your personnel file, you still lack many leadership qualities needed of someone in that rank. You will be responsible for the wellbeing of every man, woman and child flying besides you. Are you absolutely sure you are capable of handling such a responsibility?" Moore asked sternly.
"I am." Alvarez replied with equal force in her tone.
"No, Major, I really do not believe you are, and the top brass do not seem to believe so either based on my assessment of your abilities." Moore stood up and moved to face the Major.
"Sir, what happened in Aleppo..." She tried to defend herself.
"Was a disaster on every front, Major." Moore cut her of harshly as he began circling her like a vulture. "You disobeyed orders without any valid reason whatsoever and you engaged an enemy without authorization. The only reason you did not receive a reprimand for your actions was because more hostiles died than friendlies as a result of your little stunt."
Alvarez Turned to face Moore in response.
"Are we done?" She asked defiantly.
"Yes, we're done. You're dismissed Major." Moore dismissively sneered as he sat back down on his desk and continued sifting through the files.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Major vacating his office and shutting the door behind her.
In his opinion Alvarez was not the sort of leader that she had to be to be a Colonel. She was barely even worthy of her current rank given her poor conduct in Syria.
Still her skill in the cockpit was what got her this high up the ranks, she was a natural, especially against whatever passed for the Syrian and Iranian air forces. Too bad she had very little common sense and she couldn't get anyone to follow her lead, not when it mattered anyway.
----
Major Shadi Alvarez was the opposite of a calm person at the best of days but right now she was barely restraining herself from decking the nearest jarhead out of spite for being denied a promotion.
She was currently slouched in a personnel lounge, nursing a cup of coffee and just waiting for the tiniest excuse to go for the eyeballs of the nearest sapient creature.
Her attention had been grabbed by the lounge TV showing a news broadcast of the approaching alien vessels and the White House going into lockdown mode.
Shadi was never a person of faith, despite her parents' beliefs she was not the kind of person to believe in a deity of any kind, something that would often put her at odds with much of the rest of the military, some of which were so devout they would insist on a prayer before taking off, as such she wasn't the one to have a crisis of faith at the sight of intelligence from beyond the stars.
As she watched the broadcast she couldn't help but feel a little fear, if these aliens were hostile she would be called upon to fight them, and the question that was on her mind is how do someone fight a being that can travel the stars?
She closed her eyes and tried to give herself some bravery, to reassure herself that no intelligence would ever waste its time going to war with another across the stars, that they do indeed come in peace and that people much smarter and more patient than her would find a way to ensure that mankind and the aliens existed together in peace.
"Hey Major, what do you make of this?" A jarhead from a neighbouring table asked Alvarez, causing her to once again suppress her anger.
"What do I think?" She turned around to face the marine his rank and surname of Corporal Claire embroidered onto his uniform. "Well Corporal Girly Name, I really hope the aliens take you away so you'd stop bothering me." She sneered and the marine turned back to his table.
Why are you taking it out on him Shadi? A voice inside her head asked. Because I am angry, I don't want to be bothered and because the jarhead's surname is 'Claire', I couldn't miss the opportunity. She mentally replied, trying her best to suppress the tiny pin pricks of guilt at being so mean at the marine.
"I'm sorry Corporal." She blurted out as she failed to squash her compassion, causing Corporal Claire to turn back towards her. "I was angry about something else and I took it out on you and I'm sorry." She admitted.
"It's okay Major, I'm used to having my surname be the butt of everyone's jokes." Claire responded.
"You wanna know what I really think about this?" She asked while pointing at the TV. "I think it's all a huge hoax."
"Really, you don't think that it's real, ma'am?" Claire was surprised by her scepticism.
"Trust me I'm half Iranian on my mother's side, she used to tell me of even more elaborate hoaxes courtesy of Ayatollah what's-his-face and his band of merry men." She replied, her answer raising an eyebrow on Claire's face.
"You're half Iranian?"
"Yeah, and 1/4 Cuban on my dad's side, it was one reason I nearly didn't see any action in Iran, some bigoted asshole high in the chain of command thought I might defect at a moment's notice." Shadi explained, her anger vanishing completely. "There is absolutely no way this can be real." She could only hope that her lie sounded convincing enough to the jarhead.
----
Back in his office Moore had just finished reviewing another personnel file when he received a phone call.
"Colonel Randal Moore speaking." Moore said in a professional tone of voice.
"Colonel Moore, this is General Carlyle." The reply came in the form of an equally professional voice on the other side.
"Yes General, what can I do for you Sir?" Moore asked.
"I'm not sure if you've been keeping up with the news Colonel but we have aliens at our doorstep, until the President says otherwise we are at DEFCON 3. Aside from Fort McNair you're the closest base to DC, as such I'll need you and your men to be ready to deploy to DC as soon as the order is given." The general stated.
"With respect, Sir. Shouldn't the base commanding officer General Yates be informed?" Moore asked.
"It has been done Colonel." Carlyle responded. "I have taken it upon myself to brief you directly as per the President's orders."
"Understood Sir." Moore was having a bad feeling about this, from the sound of things soon he was no longer going to be running a desk.
----
Approximately one billion kilometres from Earth's upper atmosphere, the armada of alien saucers continued their silent journey towards Earth. Their hulls painted red, at least from the perspective of human eyes. They were close enough to Earth now for many telescopes to notice them, with each passing second Earth was learning more about their incoming guests, but their knowledge of the aliens was limited to the shape of their method of transportation.
Everything else was an enigma, impossible to know for certainty and certainly not easy to speculate about.
Mankind had recently began to seriously consider the existence of extraterrestrial life, their confusion over the increasingly dimmer Tabby's Star further fuelling their desire to know if they were truly alone in the universe.
To mankind Tabby's Star was a great mystery, but to the spaceships' alien occupants it was ancient history, a reminder of their undisputed superiority over the known universe.
From his viewport, the alien leader observed the planet standing before him, the advanced sensors of his spacecraft showing him a perfect image of the world despite the vast distance left to cover.
They had also began intercepting Earth's radio broadcasts, the powerful shipboard computer quickly translating the various Earth languages into something the leader could comprehend.
Such primitives. The alien thought as he observed their culture, their squabblings and their failings. This planet would serve our purposes well.
Within the hour his vessel would be in geostationary orbit above one of the planet's northern continents.
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In