Starfleet V Marines

Logan sat in his office waiting for 1st Lieutenant Floten to arrive for their weekly meetings. Usually the meetings would last no more than five minutes, Logan would talk about the Security of the ship, with the main topic always being the Jem'Hadar they had as guests. Floten for his part would give an update on the Marines he had under his command, how they were doing and what drills were to be undertaken over the next week.

But this time things were different. Floten had requested that they bring the meeting forward, but hadn't explained why. Logan was more than glad to bring the meeting forward, the past few days had been fairly uneventful, but he was expecting things to start to get much tougher.

Floten finally arrived and took a seat across from Logan.

"Will Captain Taybar be joining us ?" Floten asked.

"I did as you requested and asked if she would like to sit in, but she said that she wanted to get to know the ship a little better. I'm going to give her a full report on our meeting later on today." Logan replied. "Was there something specific you wanted to talk to her about ?"

"No, I guess I can wait." Floten replied, sounding a little disappointed.

"So what's the problem ?" Logan asked.

"Private Jax came to me yesterday with a request." Floten started. "Seems he's been elected as the unofficial spokesman for the Marines and how they feel being onboard the Taurus."

"Well Lieutenant..." Logan started."… from my point of view, your Marines have been doing an excellent job. With the Jem'Hadar we have as our guest, my security teams have been stretched to capacity. I doubt we could have contained them as well as we have without your support. Plus they have served well on the two away missions we've had."

"The problem's more to do with them not being able to do their proper function." Floten replied. "Guard duty and away mission security is all well and good, but these men and women are highly-trained fighters and their lack of action is hurting them. Their main concern is the fact that we don't seem to be make much progress in finding these kidnapped scientists."

"Let me assure you, we have been using every available resource to find these rogue Jem'Hadar." Logan stated. "But with the loss of Commander Buford and our Intelligence officer J'lin it's been hard to gain access to much of the data we require. Also the Dominion haven't been all that forthcoming with information and we've recently discovered that Sabá has been passing on all the information we've been giving to her, but not any intelligence she's had. Captain Taybar is considering whether to request that Sabá and the elite guard Jem'Hadar be removed from the ship."

"That still doesn't really help my Marine." Floten protested. "If anything, it makes matters worse. If the Jem'Hadar leave, then you will have no need of them to act as extra security."

"Now that we have a new Captain and a new Intel officer." Logan continued. "I hope we can get some positive results without the interference or blocking of the Dominion. Once we locate the most likely location for the Federation scientists, your Marines should come into their own. In the meantime, I can only suggest that we allocate more holodeck time to you and your Marines. Once we know the type of location, you can start running various simulations."

"I hope so." Floten admitted. "Only one thing still annoys me."

"What's that ?" Logan enquired.

"If we're going to be doing any kind of major assault, we'll need more than the handful of Marines and your security officers." Floten stated. "I'd like to at least double the number of Marines, create a second platoon."

"I'll pass your request onto the Captain." Logan suggested. "Plus I'm sure we can get some of the other crew members to join us. I'll check the roster and see if any of the crew have combat experience."

"Then I think we're done." Floten stated. "With your permission."

"Dismissed." Logan stated, rising from his chair.

Floten rose from his own chair and saluted Logan in the Marine fashion. There was no real need for him to salute the Lieutenant, they were after all entirely different forces, but Logan was whilst the Marines were onboard, his commanding officer.