Disdain II
Who: Jilleen Simmons and Lunar Mariell Where: Ft. Iwo’s Airfield, Sagittaron When: Y02 Dec 23
On the flight line, Jilleen waited with the Admiral’s party for a heavy transport to arrive with the Colonial Secretary of Defense who was late. The admiral was speaking with the base commander about something under the reception tent. She did not pay much attention since it was non-work related, just general chit chat. Away from the main group, her eyes wondered toward the Raptors crews who were by their ships. One in particular she watched, a tall dark haired man joking with his fellow pilots. She missed the Lieutenant’s company but they had to stay apart until she could sort things out with her husband who known of her affair. She wanted to avoid a scandal. Yet she gazed at Elihu longer than she should.
With the arrival of another high profile individual to these parts, Lunar was in attendance not only to safeguard the Admiral but also the new arrival, the Colonial Secretary of Defense. She remained in proximity to the Admiral and his party, a hand constantly wondering over her sidearm while she watched for any surprises forthcoming. In doing so, she caught the look from her newest [i]best friend.[/i] Captain Simmons who was gazing towards the flight crew. Her eyes followed the gaze and then back before she moved towards the Captain to stand next to her.
“Captain, something wrong?”
Jilleen finally caught Elihu looking back at her and smiled, when all of sudden she heard the question directed at her. “What?” She replied before seeing who asked. “What do you mean, Lieutenant? Everything is perfectly fine.”
“You sure?” Lunar asked while keeping an eye on the Admiral, watchful as always. “You seem preoccupied with the flight crew. Any reason why?” She further asked.
“What does this have to do with your work?” She crossed her arms looking back at her.
“My job is security, means watching out for suspicious behavior and you staring at the flight crew rather than watching the Admiral is suspicious.” Lunar crossed her arms and watched the party carefully, her unit maintaining a discrete presence as per Admiral policy.
Jilleen scoffed at the woman’s logic. “Are you serious? Suspicious behavior, of please tell me this is a joke. Don’t you have better things to do than worry about who I look at?”
“Do you see me laughing Captain? Then why were you looking at the flight crew?” Lunar may have taken up a little paranoia, perhaps a requirement considering the job she was now doing.
“Because I’m bored. Is that good enough for you?” Jilleen was not going to reveal she was looking at Elihu. She was also finding Lunar very irritating with her line of questions. “I suppose you have every right to report me. I would love to see your Superior's reaction after reading it. So please do, so we can get rid of you sooner rather than later.”
Lunar looked away from the Admiral and his conversation with the Commander to Jill and lowered her voice a little, “Calm down Captain. I’m only doing my job as you told me too.” She remembered the first meeting, it was imprinted on her mind now and she had full intentions on making her pay.
“I said nothing about harassment, Lieutenant. We are not under martial law here, and I’m unlikely a threat to the Admiral’s security. You’re just bitter about your circumstance.” Jilleen was blunt.
“I’m not harassing you Captain, I just take my job very seriously. I don’t do half jobs as I told you in our meeting.” Lunar didn’t take on tasks to do them half-heartily, no that wasn’t her motto so this position was very much one she was taking seriously.
“Right.” Jilleen unfolded her arms. “You weren’t serious enough in your last command to get your ass demoted. They don’t give demotions out to serious people. Why didn’t you resign and done us all a favor? Didn’t you learn anything at Gladius Cross about honor?”
“Frak you!” Lunar cursed. She was tired of everyone commenting about her mistake like it was disgraceful. Her demotion was official but had nothing to do with her diligence to duty and service. Why did nobody see the difference? “Did anybody ever want to beat the hell out of you because you talk too much?”
“Oh is that a challenge? How about next month in the ring?,” Jilleen dared her. Every couple of months the Expeditionary Forces allowed grunge matches, a tradition in the military that allowed members to disregard rank and fight each other in the boxing ring.
“Gladly Captain.” Lunar accept the offer made, the dare issued with enthusiasm because she had frustration to work out and more than that, ever since she arrived she had been butting heads with the Aide-De-Camp. “I won’t go easy on you because you are my superior.”
“I don’t expect so. Anyway I doubt you’ll stay in your current position for long,” Jilleen warned. She had actively behind the scenes have campaigned to have her removed from the staff. “If you pardon me, I have business to attend to.” She acted as if she was not concern about the brunette.
Lunar stepped in front of her, “What do you mean by that?” She didn’t like when others talked about her career like it was a flip of a coin or something. Her career was having a reboot from a little crisis and last thing she needed was comments like the Captain’s.
“Let me by, Lieutenant ” she ordered in a louder tone of voice. Loud enough for others near by to hear. Some did look at them now. Jilleen purposely seek their attention, before something went too far. If Lunar was foolish enough to disobey her order, it would give her further ammunition for her case to have the disgraced Gladius Cross graduate transferred.
At the cry of attention, Lunar leaned her head back a little and smirked, she actually found it somewhat amusing. An officer in the Colonial fleet cowering behind others. Maybe it was true what they said about Jill, that she had spent too much time in politics. Stepping aside to allow the Captain through, her question unanswered for now, she moved off now knowing that eyes were watching her.
She did not bother to look back to see Lunar’s smirk, instead Jilleen stole a quick glance to see if Elihu was still by the raptors some fifty yards away. He was not, the crews were rushing to get in formation for the arrival of the Secretary’s transport which was now on final approach to the airfield. Jilleen immediately started for the reception tent so she would be available for the Admiral.
After yet another brush with a superior, Lunar retreated to her one of her marine units for a report but only heard about half of it as the transport carrying the honored guest was on final approach to them. She started towards the Admiral at the reception tent while the rest of her unit maintained positions and kept a watchful eye.