Blind and Unknowing

Posted on Tue Mar 8th, 2011 @ 11:10am by Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson

ON: [[MD03 15:30, Thompson's Quarters]]

Back when I was a sniper with the Marines, the waiting game was an expected part of our job; if you weren’t patient enough to wait for intel, you wouldn’t make it far before you were killed. There, though, we almost always had the upper hand in regards to information-gathering; if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been sent in. Needless to say, that is not the case here.

I’ve fought an unknown opponent before. I’ve fought blindfolded before. Rarely have I done both at the same time, and never without having a total knowledge of my capabilities. Now, I find myself faced with just such a case: we don’t know exactly who did this, our sensors are severely limited by the Cluster, and I’ve not had enough time to fully familiarize myself with the Pandora or her crew. Normally, this wouldn’t be a major issue, as the other members of the crew should know each other well and be able to adapt fairly easily. Unfortunately, I fear this may not be the case with the Pandora’s crew; many of them have been with Captain Iluvar since his command of the Tethys and have seen three different Chief Sec/Tac Officers in as many years – not to mention at least twice as many XO’s. I wonder whether this may reflect somewhat on Iluvar himself…but that’s neither here nor there.

I guess all my problems in this situation boil down to me. I am by nature a lone wolf – something that helped me excel as a Scout Sniper – and I wonder whether that may be keeping me too removed from the crew. Truth be told, I have not spent a lot of time off-duty with my crewmates; I should really start doing that so I can avoid situations like this where I don’t know my companions enough to be comfortable with defending against an attack. Then again, I am somewhat hesitant given what happened last time I chose socializing over duty…I’ll just have to be careful.

OFF