Participants:
| Scene Title | Use of Appropriate Force |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Mister, you so better have some explanations for all this…. |
| Date | Jun 15, 2009 |
Camp Miller Airfield
Stretching inland from Staten's eastern shore is Miller Field. Its western expanse is little more than a grassy field, mowed flat and then freshly chalked. Broad lanes course their way down the field in perfect symmetry. Toward the more southern border lie other, far thinner lanes and four broad circles over forty feet in diameter. All of these chalk lanes, lead eastward back toward the shore and an assemblage of structures.
By far the most notable of these structures is a massive double-bay hangar, recently painted with a fresh coat of paint with sheets of heavyweight plastic stapled over its once vacant windows. South of the hangar itself is a large paved lot and two large concrete towers, which now feature floodlights to illuminate the surrounding area.
To the north lies a squat concrete tower topped with a heavily armored bunker. Running from either corner of the hangar are massive earthen walls that intersect at a huge steel security gate facing west into Miller Field proper.
Following the briefing about the bombing of targets on US soil!!, Megan stepped out of the hangar and around to the side where she had words with August White in low, intense voices. When the answers she wanted were not forthcoming, the redhead walked away from the pilot with a scowl that caused quickly smothered grins among the other pilots, guaranteed. Auggie's little friends are probably putting down bets on how long he'll be sleeping on the couch, but in point of fact Megan is not really mad at him — she's outraged at the situation in general. And Kobrin's assurance that authorization is coming 'from the highest levels' is not enough for her. She goes around the side of the hangar and lights a cigarette that she pulled out of a side pocket of her BDU pants, leaning against the wall to smoke it and try to calm the burning urge to yank Kobrin out here by his ear and give him hell…..
Unfortunately for the man in question, he steps out of the side door of the hangar not too much later, and Megan's ire spikes again. Crushing out her cigarette under her boot, she calls out, "Kobrin!" in a tone that suggests she is not a subordinate approaching her superior, she is one pissed off person and he better have some answers that work for her.
Kobrin may not have ever enjoyed a 'real' marriage, but when Megan snarls at him you better believe he knows he's in deep. He pauses right there, to adjust those thick buddy holly glasses and light a cigarello. "Whats going on Megan, want another?"As he casually wanders closer, offering that pack of cigarellos. He knows he's in for an earfull, but he plays it pretty damned cool.
The 'another' part of that just makes her scowl harder… cuz dammit, she quit smoking years ago! It's a sign of just how agitated she is lately that she actually owns a whole pack of cigarettes, one that now resides on her person again! "No," she replies tersely. The red hair really should have warned him, although her demeanor has always been calm, capable, and easygoing around him. "I want to know exactly what I just let myself in for — when I signed on, this morning thank you very much," as if he doesn't remember going over some of the information with her before she became an official employee of Chicago Air, "you did not so much as breathe a word to me about calling in fucking air strikes," at which point the pitch of her voice hits just this side of shrill with him before she can get it back under control, "on U.S. soil! Just what the hell kind of operation are we running out here? And don't give me any black ops vague double-talking bullshit, because if I wanted that, I'd go home and let August cover your ass for you."
"We're contracting for the government, with specific legal allowances to deploy ordinance on American soil. This isnt any different than Iraq and Afghanistan right now, to the government at least. Sure they want to do something, but they cant afford the political cost if something should go wrong. If a government worker was held hostage, or an F-18 dropped a jdam on the wrong house. Can you imagine that furor, you could roast marshmellows with the flames TV news would be giving off. So they came and talked to me, asked me what could be done. I told them I'd open Crow Combatives if there was a steady flow of work, and they supplied some of the aircraft."Fedor shrugs, turning back to lean in against against the hangar.
"If you'd rather not protect your people with the most powerful private airforce in the world, you are not obligated to do so. I made you chief of the relief effort, that'd be pretty terrible if I didnt grant you every tool -I- had. I want you to succeed, which is why you get twenty four hour priority airlift tasking already. If something happened, and I hadnt given you the ability to order air strikes then what would happen? You'd come and ask me why I have all these combat aircraft just sitting around, and why they didnt help your volunteers."He keeps a smile, comfortable with his own logic clearly.
Well, she can't fault at least SOME of his logic there — he's right. She'd be demanding to know why he wasn't covering HER ass. And the response does soothe some of those feathers that are majorly ruffled, though Megan narrows her eyes on him. "I am fine with working on a need-to-know basis, Kobrin," she tells him in a tone that backs down to calm and mild…. though deceptively so. The volcano that is brewing beneath the surface is merely appeased momentarily at this juncture. "But I do believe that 'need-to-know' comes into play when I sign on to work in the middle of a war zone and you're going to go out there and rile up the natives something wicked. There is absolutely nothing in my contract about calling in air strikes." She narrows her eyes on him.
"Now. That said," Megan says firmly, "I want to know exactly what legal allowances we're working under and how far they go. Because once you cut loose on this island, I'm going to be out there in the middle of what amounts to a riot… and quite frankly, most of the people out there are going to be scared and probably armed. Which means I have to arm my volunteers far more heavily than we've been doing, risking having those arms snatched and turned back on us possibly. So what are the rules of engagement out there once this takes off?"
And she gives him an even narrower look. "And let me tell you this much — those fucking hotshots better goddamn well be as good as you think they are, because they drop their fucking ordinance on the civilians out there, I swear to God, I'm coming down on you like a ton of bricks." She is so not kidding, either.
"This is the US government, they wont specify much of anything other than criminals on staten arent civilians any longer. So dont shoot civilians, and for you dont act premptively. If your guys are in a bad spot, order someone over target but dont let them drop ordinance or open fire until your satisfied they have a clue. You are the commander on Staten, you maintain control over when and at what they shoot."Fedor nods, letting that hang in the air a moment or three.
"The Kinetic kill weapons, are wind stabilized concrete practiced bombs Megan. Its a fancy fucking word, for dropping rocks from a couple thousand feet. We're just tearing up houses, we're not going to risk etting off bombs at this point. Maybe if it gets really wild, but for now they're restricted to miniguns, machineguns and rocks."Smiling as he reaches out to bump Megan's arm, so maybe Fedor wasnt as slick as he thought. He figured though, it was pretty damned disarming.
The arm bump gets one of those Looks, though the more he talks the more she calms. Megan's happier with clear orders here, it appears. Studying the man for a long moment, she finally asks, "Why me?" And then clarifies with, "You let August bring me in here as a volunteer. But what you just said indicates to me that you needed more than a volunteer. Were you vetting me for this, or is it sheer stupid luck that I'm damn dumb enough and have enought experience to actually do what you want?"
"Well, normally I'd have taught Jake to do this. However this isnt Jake's people we're trying to protect, they're your people right? Who would I be, if instead of granting you the right to take care of your own problems I made you rely on some other person?"Fedor nods softly. "I'd have taught you, if you didnt already know. I will never put you out there, without the tools to accomplish the task and take care of yourself."
Blowing out a long breath, Megan looks out over the airfield now. And she shakes her head just a bit, glancing at him and wondering if he knows that her guy may balk at this run. Endangering civilians is why he left before. But that's between August White and his boss. "I've never run a post, Kobrin. Not like this. I can run an ER, I can run volunteer efforts. But what you're talking about is actually keeping this place from being overrun. We're going to need more people than we've got." She rubs her forehead, and now calm enough to give in to that damn vice one more time, she pulls out another cigarette to smoke companionably with him with her back leaned against the hangar. "Am I recruiting here? Or am I making do with what we've got? You said something about more vans and such — I'm assuming we don't have enough people to drive them. Are we looking for volunteers or paid people?"
"If you want security people, talk to jake. If you want more volunteers, refruit as much as you want."He smiles, nudging again. "Relax, your already running the post and your doing it far better than I could. I dont expect you to be perfect, I expect you to try and to overcome adversity. Your doing a fine job, and I think the opposite will happen. Once they get a taste of your hammer, they wont fuck around with the island operation again. We'll leave an impression."
Now Megan does snicker at him, shaking her head even as she nudges him back this time. "My hammer, hmm?" She rolls her eyes. "That could be interpreted a number of ways, and most of them entirely in the gutter," she says with a laugh. Propping one booted foot on the wall behind her at about knee-level, she takes a long drag of her cigarette and holds the smoke in her lungs a moment before blowing it out in a slow stream while she thinks hard. "Christ, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. You're seriously leveling parts of this island. No shitting around. You're sure they're going to back us up with this? Not… use us as a scapegoat in the end?" Cuz that'd be awfully convenient — to let Chicago and Crow do the dirty work and disavow all knowledge of what they were up to.
"Go home, research Air america. Dont talk about it, dont ask any more questions. Google it, read everything you can. Things should clear up, so you keep your mouth shut."Fedor nods, flicking his cigar aside. Handstuffing in his pockets, before he casually begins to wander back the way he came.. "Have faith."
Uh-huh… Have faith, the man says. Air America's not unfamiliar to her by a long shot, and Megan hopes the man is right about what's coming. This is so not what she was expecting to sign on for. And now…. well, hell… guess she's gonna have to apologize to August, too. But he can sweat it a couple of hours until they get off duty. Megan sighs and stays against the wall as Kobrin leaves, just thinking through it. She won't ask him anything else, though…. she's just kind of wading back into full soldier mentality. Do the job, don't ask questions, and don't talk about it. Any of it.