<<You'll all be booing me like the hamburgler after reading this one...short and sweet>> == /\ Cargo room 10, SB 485 /\ ======= Jack entered dressed in uniform and an attitude. There was something that was grating on him, he felt remorse, and guilt for several members of his unit. They were dead, under his command. It wasn't that he wished them alive, he was mad because he had stupidly allowed himself to know these guys and almost like them. He'd always prided himself on his ability to stay disconnected, his ability to be unflinching in the hard choices that had to be made in this job, because if he couldn't make them, you'd never make it. He was going to have to be harder. He listened intently to the speech that the General was giving, and he had to say he wasn't too shocked that he was being pulled from Command, Flag Officers rarely keep their commands, many of them demote themselves, many quit as opposed to serving out time behind a desk but generally they like to keep people at the Captain/Colonel level in the Command chair. His mind wondered to who the new Executive Officer would be, no doubt they would bring someone new into the mix, he hoped someone from a Marine background, because with the General leaving he was the highest ranking Marine Officer on the ship, not that it mattered at all, it was just something which didn't sit well with him. He clapped for his men as they received their awards and promotions, he'd recommended them to the General just before the ceremony and was pleased that all of his recommendations had gone through without any effort, in his mind they were small tokens of what his men deserved in actuality. The awards ceremony progressed and Jacks jaw dropped as Commander Guzman announced who would be his Executive Officer, the newly promoted Commander Rangi Summers. "What the hell?!" Jack muttered as the rage slowly boiled up inside him. What the hell did he think he was doing appointing his lover as second in command. Surely he realised that it was going to create a conflict of interest in regards to how the ship was being run! As the ceremony progressed Jack slipped out towards a back office and replicated himself a whisky. "Computer Begin Recording; As of today's date Commander Shane Guzman appointed Commander Rangi Summers as his executive officer for the Special Forces Ship, USS Chimera. As the next most Senior Member of the crew and as Operational Detachment Commander I feel that it is my duty to make the situation known that the new Commanding Officer and Executive Officer of the ship are involved in a romantic relationship. To me this highlights a Conflict of Operational Interest. They will no doubt value eachothers lives more than the rest of the crew, and subsequently wont be able to make the decisions that need to be made. This in my opinion could compromise Special Forces Objectives, and ultimately hamper the smooth running of the ship, what if they were to break up? or have a fight? The only ones who would suffer would be the crew. Even if they make a conscious effort not to fall foul to aforementioned problems I feel that on a subconscious level errors will be made, errors that shouldn't be made. Its my opinion that someone should look into this before things go wrong. Regards, Major Jack Walsh" Jack straightened his uniform and sipped down his whisky before straightening his hair slightly. "Computer File and sent to Special Forces Command, Priority Level Orange." Walsh turned on his heel and made his way back to the ceremony, which seemed to be in full swing, people were clearly getting drunk, either because they were happy or because they were drowning their sorrows, whichever box you found yourself in tonight promised to be an interesting one. === Major Jack Walsh ODA Commander USS Chimera, SSF