Frustrated/Stressful Situations

[quarantinetimer]

A Dramatic Retelling of a Stressful/Frustrating Round of Epic Proportions: This is going to be a long post and a slow build. If you are unsure whether to proceed, think "Extremely long 4chan RPG greentext"). For your convenience, I have divided it into six subsections. Footnotes are included for those players who are unfamiliar with marine law. By the way, this is only my 2nd time playing the role after the myriad of marine law changes. The 1st time was overall unremarkable. This however is the exact opposite of unremarkable.
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I join as CMP at roundstart. I have just two officers under my command at this moment. I assign them their usual duties, checkpoints, req, yadi yada. I then tell them to come back to the brig so I can give them their M4A3 duty pistols. (Brig was redesigned, so that although code green allowed pistol possession by MPs, only the CMP had access to the armory at this alert level)
1st Stressful Incident: Meeting with the Company's Agent The CL requests to speak to me. He comes to my office, sits down, and asks me to sign something. Turns out he wanted me to give him immunity from being prosecuted under the UCMJ. Since this is obviously against the law¹, I began a detailed explanation to the CL, stating that no one on the Almayer including me has the authority to sign such a document, and that he would get court-martialed for it. The CL tries to insist, at one point insinuating that it could be done "unofficially", trying to make an under-the-table deal with me.

At this point two MPs returned to the brig expecting me to hand them their weapons. Instead, they saw a most heated exchange between the CMP and the CL. My character basically told the CL somewhat angrily that he wasn't going to give his career away for nothing in exchange for nothing (the CL offered nothing in exchange). The CL then replied that he would go an ask the acting commander instead, implying that he would try to make the ACO pressure me into submission. He then left with an ominous goodbye. (Something along the lines of "The Company wishes you a successful career." Not exact words.)

So my character is a bit freaked out at this point. Whatever, he still has to do his job and gets to handing out the M4A3s to the MPs. This is the point at which the MPs requested that the CMP hold a drill for them (they were getting bored because there was nothing to do.) Since my character was somewhat intimidated by the CL's antics, I replied to the MPs that I suspect that things may get more "exciting" very quickly, winking in the direction of where the CL sat.) The officers went back to regular patrol after that. Little did I know, the CL is going to be the least of my problems. In fact, nothing would ever come of the CL's threats, I guess he failed in persuading the Commander/ the admins through his faxes.

Fast forward a bit. Still nothing with the CL. The MPs began playing hide and seek with each other (authorized by me for training purposes). I then figured "why not go the full length" and authorized taser practice in the port side missile control room. While we were setting it up, the acting Commander (XO) asks for MPs at the CIC. Since practically the entire department is right next to it, we all abort the exercise and respond to the XO calls.
2nd Stressful Incident: Prevarication or Not? If you guessed "Command Requested Arrest" by the subtitle, Congratulations! We were told to arrest the RO for neglect of duty by the XO, and both of my officers went ahead and spirited themselves out of the CIC, making their way to req in accordance with the orders. Immediately, I ask the RO to assist in the forthcoming investigation of the RO's alledged crimes² as I had reason to believe that he was a key witness (he accused the RO of not sending vital supplies within his arrest order). The XO must have agreed even though he didn't explicitly say so, because when my staff returns with the cuffed RO, the XO launched into a tirade of accusations.

What was not expected was the fact that none of the SOs backed the XO's allegations, with some saying that the RO in fact did not commit said crime. Upon calling up more witnesses via the req channel, what the evidence pointed to was that the XO was quite mistaken, possibly because a disgruntled CT tried to lie his way to get the RO arrested.

At this juncture the XO just told us to release the RO, and since there really wasn't much evidence supporting the accusation, I authorized the release of the RO. I then advised the XO that he may be subject to a charge of Prevarication³. Of course, since the XO was the ACO at the time, I would have to ring up the Provost Marshall in order to take legal action against him⁴. After this, I went back to conducting the drill.
3nd Stressful Incident: The XO's Death Glare Now. we set up in the port side missile control room just as before. I seal all entrances with sec tape and make an announcement on General that a drill is beginning and to rest assured if they hear taser fire near the CIC. Then we did what was probably the most leisurely activity in my entire round: Taser and stunbaton "matches" (actually nonlethal combat practice involving employment of said weapons on each other).

That's right: Combat Drills involving the use of electric currents on each other (albeit ICly the power settings were reduced to make RP sense) was the most relaxing thing in the whole round for my poor CMP.

So right about we were going to stop, the entirety of Command suddenly files in one by one with looks of surprise and confusion. I guess they decided to collectively forget about what I said a few minutes ago on comms. No kidding, the command staff was arrayed in a wedge formation with the XO in the lead position. I thought I was going to chewed out in front of my own men, which was frankly a terrifying prospect. I was totally immersed in this stage. (Pretty amazing for 2D spessman, huh?)

Without missing a beat, one of my officers quickly salutes the XO and informs him of the what's going on before I can so much as open my mouth. (This officer is quite important! We will call him TIO) I imagine that face shifting from a mildly disapproving frown into one that is calm with understanding. And then the entire command staff leaves us to our business as quickly as they entered.

Feeling quite uncomfortable now, I decided to only allow one more short match before calling the who thing off, lest the XO actually reprimand me about the exercise lowering readiness or some other complaint.
4th Stressful Incident: The MP who was "That Guy" I'm safely back in my office, and don't forget: I'm still seriously considering faxing out a message about the XO's prevarication charge, which was OOCly getting a bit troublesome since I couldn't find the appropriate template. Did I mention that our department has swelled? About two more MPs came in while we were off doing the aforementioned stressful stuff. Since they wanted to know the situation, I had TIO brief them off what's been going on.

Think I could have some peace and quiet finally? Wrong. The 2nd new MP turned out to be a "that guy" (dubbed TG from now - no relation to TG station or /tg/). I was sitting there, figuring out the paperwork and BOOM the radio flares up with shit flying at each other. Turns out TG went ahead and got himself into way too many troubles in the span of about 5 minutes. Now I wasn't sure what was going on at first, since I'm buried neck deep in a pile of paper, but it seemed like the PO and TG had gotten into an argument about weapons, and somewhere in between a marine got crushed by a dropship.

Then it gets worse. TG storms into my office and tells me that the PO is accusing him of crimes that he did not commit and the like. Now I was still a bit confused as the chat log got spammed pretty heavily, but I pieced together enough at this point to know that TG may not be telling the truth entirely. So I ask TG to get out office to give me some breathing room while I figure out what happened.

This is when the XO shouts over the command channel that TG had fired a taser at him. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I try to contain my OOC frustration and have my character ask for a confirmation. It arrives, along with an SO's eyewitness account of the crime.

I demand TG to explain himself. And TG complies. Depending on your point of view, the following is either the most irritating or hilarious thing ever: "I was trying to get him to say 'Oi'." To make this even funnier/more infuriating, the XO replied the same thing over on the command channel. Well, OOC me took the hilarious POV, but CMP me was furious. I ordered TG to report to my office. Again, he complies.

I proceed to arrest him for assault and at the very least TG had the courtesy of not resisting arrest. He however goes on tangent about his dealings with the PO, and I had to shut him up by telling him that I don't care in the slightest about the PO affair. I proceed to brig him, and he SSDs out on a 15 minute timer. TIO sarcastically remarks on the TG's lack of stress management abilities and I quip that everyone handles stress differently, adding that I'm not a medical professional and the my pop-psychology is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Perhaps I should consider myself lucky that the PO incident was never mentioned again.
5th Stressful Incident: Wrestling Engineers through the LAW After that debacle, I reasoned that given the minimal disruption on operations caused, the swift resolution, and the XO's admission of error, the effort required to take legal action against the XO and the subsequent disruption to the operation caused outweighs any potential regulatory benefit of prosecution. So I exercised my discretionary powers and dropped the case⁵.

My exhausted CMP thought that he would be given a respite at last. Grabbing the cigar hidden in the table drawer for just such contingencies, he tried lighting it- there was not lighter! So up he got and down the length of the Almayer he travelled, until he reached the kitchen. Hoping to be able to purchase a lighter, he was instead met with.... the entire aft of the ship with its floorboards replaced with wooden versions.

Turning towards an MT who was in the act of ripping up the floor, I asked the quintessential question to any charge of "Damage to Government Property": Are these changes authorized by command?

Those damning words! I'm sure my CMP now wishes that he'd just moved along, got his lighter, smoked his cigar, and ignored the entire thing. But no.... it was far too blatant to weasel out of, even if "Damage to Government property" was indeed a minor crime and could be ignored.

An affirmative response was received. "Yes, this is authorized." And for a moment I breathed a sigh of relief. As I calmly smoked my cigar and made my way back to the brig, I felt a sudden lightening of my load, as my faith in the integrity of marines told me that the MT was surely telling the truth. If only that was the case.

I now know with my hindsight that my faith was misplaced, as this was only the calm before the storm.

While I wanted desperately to believe that the MT was honest, a nagging voice at the back of my head prompted my to check. After all, preventing bad things from happening is my job, and verifying that unusual situation are in fact lawful is an important part of that. So I transmitted over the command channel, asking if the XO had authorized the changes.

My heart sank as a sternly worded retort cut out any doubts. The XO had NOT authorized the changes. As the XO started telling the engineering department to get themselves together and revert the (illegal) modifications, I dutifully told my officers to arrest any MT who was involved and make them revert the changes as their punishment, instructing that the possibility of a brig sentence be used as incentive for compliance.

Then the CO arrived. No, not the ACO, that was the XO. A fully fledged whitelisted master-of-war decided to join in the fun at that precise moment. And my character, seizing any opportunity to maintain cordial working relations with engineering (charging people with crimes are not good ways of maintaining relationships), ask the CO whether he authorized those same changes. The CO affirms.

Now some of you may be confused. Isn't authorization supposed to be something you get BEFORE you begin construction? Ah, here's the beauty of a body of law where the terms of not well defined. You see, the elements for the crime of "Damage to Government Property" do not define whether authorization has to be given at a particular time. Therefor, technically speaking, retroactive authorization could legalize those same acts which were crimes just moments ago. This means that originally illegal acts committed in the past are retroactively made legal, and that therefor the perpetrators of said acts had not committed any crimes.

So, despite me choosing to interpret the UCMJ in such a way, you may think that the problem's solved, right? Well, of course n----actually, my audience should already know the answer to that question.

As I ordered my men to stand down, voices of discontent began to rise up against this miserable backdrop of bad decisions. Most prominently was TIO, who voiced safety concerns regarding the increased likelihood of hull breaches due to the different material. "Oh, it's just the interior. No big deal." I retorted, as I frantically defended my actions as those of a wise leader who wished to preserve inter-departmental cohesion, while in reality I was blinded to the most important object -safety- by political concerns.

The following exchange occured when I ask engineering of whether this change increased the probability of a hull breach:
Me: Could a hull breach occur?
MT1: The probability of such an event is very low.
MT2: Unless there's a fire.
Me: And what's the probability of a fire?
Me: A fire is very unlikely to occur, unless someone is smoking or breathing too loudly.

I almost swallowed my cigar at that. Regaining my composure, I put it out hurriedly.

Now armed with evidence, I try to get Command to order a revert, but command is busy dealing with an evacuation - we lost on the field. All the while the ever-increasing amounts of demands from my staff became a frustrating swarm of flies that promised endless torment, and I was getting desperate, since I could not find a legal way of stopping that madness I have initiated, as I was estoppelled from changing my interpretation of "authorization". Except for faxing out a request for instructions, but it would have been too slow.... then it clicked.

There was a way. I was think about the arrest of the RO when it hit me. "Arrest the CE for Neglect of Duty. Reasoning as follows: 1. The CE has a duty to maintain the ship such that it is not likely to malfunction in such a way as to harm the crew. The CE, through joint authorization, is responsible for causing the floors to be changed to an unsafe material, which is very likely to lead to hull breaches and subsequently high casualties. (Evidence provided by testimony from MTs) 3. Therefor the CE has failed in his duty as defined in #1, and has committed the crime of "Neglect of Duty".

TIO immediately volunteered to lead the arrest. There was only one problem. The CE had locked himself inside of his office upon sighting TIO and refused to come out. While usually in this case, we will be assisted by the engeinering department, but due to the unique circumstances, you could understand that this was a bit difficult. While we debated over how to breach in comms, the situation on the field is getting worst by the second. By the way, all squads' engineers are busy delaying the xenos for the evacuation, so no solution there.

So TIO had to save my ass again. "Just promise promotions and pay raises to any MT that is willing to come help me." Thank you, Machiavelli reborn. I annouce this, and it works! Eager volunteers appear from the woodwork and the CE was sucessfully arrested. Well, except for one particularly annoying MT who decided report non-existent crimes for the sake of distracting us. I guess the CE paid that guy well for his loyalty.

I also take the leisure of annoucing over engineering comms that any MT who refuses to change the floorboard back will be charged with the same crime. All agree immediately except for loyal guy. Meanwhile, the Alamo is getting hijacked and I'm pretty sure we got raised to blue alert. Without pause, I notify Command of the arrest made and ask for defensive instructions, all the while queuing up an order for my officers to go grab their weapons and armor.
Finale: No Evac KILL ALL Red Alert. The xenos are invading and all hell is breaking loose. I release the CE, tell him that he's been demoted to MT, the identity of the new CE, and tell him to go defend the ship.

And then I found out that half the brig's floors got sneak-replaced into wood by loyal guy. "Oh well, we'll deal with you later. We've got bigger fish to fry." I seriously contemplated firing at my shotgun at him, but relented at the last second to avoid getting jobbanned. Instead, I slammed my gun on the wall and shouted at loyal guy to go do his job and defend the ship.

So it turns out that the CO was KIA during the initial assault.I get subordinated to a PO as comms went down and he's the only officer within the brig (For those curious, I did not get a chance to ask whether he was the one involved with TG). Since Command previously announced that they would order an evac, we both head upstairs to the escape pods. Surprise! No Evac. The PO decides to go to the CIC and link up with anyone in there.

In the meantime, I have managed to obtain a station bounced radio and our duo manages to get into contact with what's left of Command and a W-Y PMC team that was dispatched. By some miracle, we managed to pass by the crashed Dropship without attracting attention from the xenos.

Stepping in the CIC, I found the MT turned CE and the XO. I bitterly congratulate the CE on his promotion and we had a good laugh over the riduclous circumstances. Then, I turned to the XO. I wearily saluted him and formally requested evacuation from the ship as per the late Commander's orders. Without a turn of his head, I saw that the XO was grinning at me. "What-" "Oh, there's no need. There's only two of them left." I get cut off by the XO. Note that this gets transmited over general on the station bounced as I couldn't be bothered to turn the mic off.

"You said two?" the radio crackled. "I think we just killed them in upper engineering."

"This is CMP Heroes of the United Americas! You have done the corps proud!" My character reacts over the top with this small piece of good news. Hopefully, with any luck they are telling the truth.

And just like that, the game ends in a marine pyrrhic victory.
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This is Warrant Officer Colten Hall, signing off.
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Footnotes:
1. The CL is within the jurisdiction of the UCMJ while on board the Almayer. No provisions for the CMP to extend and retract personal jurisdiction exist. (UCMJ § 2, CM-WIKI, 2018)
2. "Arrests requested by Command must be complied with unless the CMP overrides the order." Since I found the XO's accusations to be quite reasonable at the time, I decided to let this run it's course. (UCMJ § 3, CM-WIKI, 2018)
3. "Should the suspect be declared innocent of all accused crimes, the requesting officer may incur a Prevarication charge." (Ibid.)
4. "MPs must contact High Command for approval before taking any action against the acting Commander." (UCMJ §10.2, CM-WIKI, 2018)
5. "Military Police may, at their discretion, ignore Minor Crimes unless they are ordered to enforce one." (UCMJ § 2, CM-WIKI, 2018)

[MessageCypher]

Being ordered to evacuate LZ 1/LZ 2 as PO and midflight everyone starts screaming that it’s compromised and you’re basically headed down to pick up Xenos now.

[Dolth]

Being ordered to evacuate LZ 1/LZ 2 as PO and midflight everyone starts screaming that it’s compromised and you’re basically headed down to pick up Xenos now.

Lol. I can relate to that. Epic moments.

[caleeb101]

stressful: being the last one left in line to get through the plasteel barricade while a horde of xenos are closing in from behind. better watch out for that gas and neurotoxin bucko

frustrating: pb'ing a young runner 6 times and it still not dying due to the runner glitch, running out of ammo and watching that same runner be dragged off by another runner while reloading

[SolarMacharius]

Most Stressful: Patching cades as an engi or moving an MG/Sentry from an overrun position

Frustrating:Hugger combat, neuro spam, getting screeched by the queen. Anything that takes you out of the round and has next to no counter.

[Dolth]

Stressful: Being in a 2x2 hallway, hearing a crusher somewhere while bravo and alpha are trying to push in anything else than help intent, swarming you into the crusher or the counter-charge.

Frustrating: Being pushed in a 2x2 hallway by bravo and alpha, swarming you into a crusher/queen/boiler gas meme. Then dying.

[Madventurer]

Frustrating: Trying to heal someone in the backline and having an ancient runner appear, with the local PFCs either missing completely or FF'ing. Not dangerous, just fucking annoying as hell.

Stressful: Any CIC command position, doubly so when alone or aCO.

[Martzin]

Trying to break out of the hive.

[SolarMacharius]

Trying to break out of the hive.

You cant resist in your current state.

[Garrison]

I don't remember any past events that well. But here's a current one.

I was assigned as Charlie's Smart Gunner. Not only the SL get me a motion tracker. He was also extremely competent and role played whenever we had a moment of respite. I was having the best marine experience I had in months. A few skirmishes later, He says we're leaving the fob to check the caves and Lambda. I was distracted with something and I didn't notice them leave. So I run frantically trying to catch up. Following the squad tracker. It takes me to the chapel of Solaris Ridge. Where a lurker happens to be. I begin to run frantically shooting my pistol desperately behind me. Half my bullets hit, But it's not enough. I get to medbay when I finally decide to call for help. Slashed to the point of nearly dying. I'm then devoured and did outside lambda. Charlie squad and our overwatch officer desperately look for me. But miss me by a few times of darkness. I was extremely stressed out.. why didn't I ask for help sooner? Why didn't I just man up and say I was lost?. I was so salty.. this was one of the best rounds I was having. And I made it end prematurely through the Baldest of mistakes.. I just had to play this in my head just to manage to get myself to let go and move on.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEZn2QDpD4

[GenericUsername]

Stressful? Basically every FOB siege on BR
Frustating? Getting gibbed by SADAR AP FF

[conthegodoffire]

Stressful for me is when I try to be a nice guy as a marine and drag wounded to safety.

frustrating for me when when I am then dragged off by a xeno two tiles away from my squad and no one fires a shot or helps me.

[Valmoric]

Stressful for me is when you wanna RP a Xeno but the Queen yells "Yeet fam" It is uh..pretty annoying.. >~>

[Garrison]

Most Frustrating/Stressful times as Marine

- Getting assassinated by a lurker and being powerless to do anything about it.
- Stun locked by Spitters/Lurkers.
- Your squad is pushing the xenos, then a queen screech destroys your squad and any hope of getting out alive for all of you.
- When Marines set up an FOB away from LZ 1. Then everyone forgets that the road to LZ 1 needs to be inspected for hostile activity.

(Acknowledgement: While I absolutely hate everything lurkers stand for. I understand they are a necessary evil to ensure the marines stick together and cooperate)

Most Frustrating/Stressful times as Xeno

-When you finally get to Elder/Ancient T2/T3. Then die.
-Charging towards a Marine, then realizing he is a Buckshot Robusto who offs you almost instantly.
-When building Hive defenses, people get mad at how you build, yet don't offer a compromise that doesn't involve anything other than more sticky resin and less doors.
-If Xenos lose, get salty when OOC chat comments that drones make nothing but sticky resin.