Marine Training Part I

Posted on Sun Oct 25th, 2026 @ 2:17pm by 1st Lieutenant Ángel Martinez & Gunnery Sergeant Ragnar Grymblöd & Corporal Eden McKenzie
Edited on on Sun Oct 25th, 2026 @ 2:29pm

1,905 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Maintenance and Recovery
Location: Holodeck 10, Deck 12
Timeline: MD 2 - 10:00hrs

[ON]

The holodeck was still empty when Martinez arrived, nothing but the familiar grid stretching around them and the arch standing near the doors. They had come dressed for the exercise already, combat uniform beneath their armour, boots laced and gloves tucked into their belt. The message they had sent to the rest of the Marines had been deliberately brief: report to the holodeck in full ground gear. Nothing else. Martinez had considered adding more, then decided against it. They wanted everyone in the same room before they explained what they had in mind.

They checked the time before slipping the PADD beneath one arm, a small zip-clip turning slowly between the fingers of their other hand as they waited. This was not the first time they had trained with Astrea's Marines, but it was the first time they had called all of them together themselves, and that made it feel different in a way Martinez was trying not to think too hard about. For now, the programme remained unloaded and the holodeck blank. They wanted to see who walked through the door first.

Ragnar was the second to arrive; mere moments after Martinez herself. He was dressed in Starfleet fatigues and was hauling a crate of phaser rifles; apparently fresh from the armory. He offered a gruff salute to Martinez before addressing her. "LT. Been a minute."

Corporal Trevor "Patches" Pacioretty arrived in tactical armour, his phaser rifle slung over one arm and his helmet snapped loosely onto his utility belt. Upon seeing Ragnar and Martinez, he smiled his trademark smile and nodded to them both.

"L-T. Gunny."

Martinez returned Ragnar's salute, their eyes dropping briefly to the crate of rifles before the corner of their mouth twitched. "Yeah, been a minute," they said, looking back at him before Pacioretty's arrival pulled their attention towards the doors. "Corporal." They gave him a nod, then let the conversation settle as the rest of the Marines began to filter into the holodeck.

McKenzie arrived at the holodeck, ready for whatever was about to be thrown her and the other guys ways, but still almost convinced that she was more required behind the scenes rather than on the frontline. "Lieutenant, Gunnery Sergeant." She nodded respectfully before making her way on to the others.

Once everyone had gathered, Martinez pushed away from where they had been standing near the arch and stepped forwards, slipping the zip-clip back onto their belt. "All right. I'm going to keep this simple. I know you can shoot. I know most of you can work in pairs or small teams. What I haven't seen yet is all of you working together, and that's what we're doing today."

They tapped the PADD against their palm before turning slightly towards the still-empty holodeck. "Programme gives us a hostile-held installation about three klicks from our insertion point. Somewhere inside is an intelligence module. We go in, find it, bring it back to the extraction point. Anyone between us and it is hostile. No civilians, no friendlies, no surprises involving someone we're suddenly expected to rescue." A faint smile touched their mouth at that before they looked around the assembled Marines again. "How we get there, how we get inside and how we get back is up to us. I'm not looking for pretty, and this isn't pass or fail. I want to see how we move together when someone starts shooting back." Martinez glanced towards the weapons Ragnar had brought before meeting his eyes. "So, Gunny. Since you were thoughtful enough to bring party favours, get those handed out and we'll get started."

Patches listened with his rifle resting against his thigh, one hand loose around the sling. The holodeck gave him an uneasy feeling when it was empty--something about grid lines and open space.

He'd been on more than few ground operations in his short career to know that three klicks could mean just about anything. Three klicks across open country was a lazy walk. Three klicks through a built-up installation could take half a day and leave you considering a different career. He glanced toward the empty grid where Martinez finished speaking, then at the crate of rifles Ragnar had brought over.

Patches had a narrow face that looked younger when he smiled, which was unfortunate because he smiled a hell of a lot. The nickname had started with a medic who'd once counted the number of adhesive strips on his body after a very unpleasant--and unforgettable--training exercise. He didn't care for the name back then but it began to grow with time.

His gaze shifted to Ragnar. "Gunny, what kind of installation are we talking? Underground, surface, near water?"

He then looked at Martinez. "And when you say hostile-held, are we talking a bunch of idiots with rifles, or somebody who knows what they're doing?"

Martinez looked at Pacioretty, giving a small nod. They had deliberately not spoken to the Gunny about the details beforehand. Sometimes, you didn't have the chance to brief your senior NCO separately. "Surface. Mostly open ground until we get closer to the installation, then you'll have more cover to work with. No water." They glanced down at the PADD for a moment before looking back at him. "And assume they know what they're doing. They know the installation, they're armed and they're expecting trouble." A slight smile pulled at the corner of their mouth. "So probably best not to count on idiots." Their attention moved around the rest of the Marines. "Anything else?"

Patches nodded, absorbing the answer while his eyes again wandered over the holodeck grid lines suspiciously.

He checked his rifle's settings and added offhandedly, "Count on idiots? Well, shit. There goes the whole Marine Corps' entire operational doctrine, L-T."

Ragnar lifted the lid off the crates; setting it beside them and leaning on them. "Let's kick this party off right; Marines." His gaze slid across all of the marines present and then settled on Patches; his face devoid of emotion. "Patches; you have fireteam lead; pick your marines and start working on an approach vector." He stood back from the crates after grabbing his own personal rifle from where it rested on top of the first crate he opened and he took a moment to check it was sighted in.

Without missing a beat, Patches nodded curtly to Ragnar before turning to face the assembled marines. He pointed a gloved hand at a Private, then another, and another. He knew them all well and selected the last young woman specifically because he knew this simulation might benefit her the most. With his fire team complete, he ordered them to grab extra power packs.

Ragnar watched for a minute before he lifted his hand and gave the quiet signal. He waited for the chatter to die down and then looked to Martinez. "We know the target; what are the mission parameters LT? And are you running alongside us or strictly observing?"

Martinez looked at Ragnar. "I'm running with you. I want to see how we work as a unit, and that includes me." They shifted the PADD into one hand, thumb moving across the screen. "Parameters are simple. Get the intelligence module, get it back here. The computer will register hits and injuries as they happen, so if somebody goes down, we deal with it. No reinforcements and no calling Astrea to solve the problem for us." Their eyes moved briefly towards Patches and his newly formed fireteam. "Anything we need, we're carrying." Martinez tapped the final command. "Computer, load programme."

The grid disappeared around them. Hard deck plating became uneven ground beneath their boots, covered in short, coarse grass broken by patches of exposed stone. A cool wind moved across the open landscape, carrying the smell of damp earth beneath the twilight sky, with the occasional crack of thunder and flash of lightning in the distance. Ahead, the ground rolled gently away for most of the three kilometres, with little more than the occasional shallow dip, scattered rocks and scrub offering any real cover. The installation itself sat in the distance on slightly higher ground, a collection of low, grey structures surrounded by fencing, equipment sheds and what looked like an old service yard. Closer to it, the terrain became rougher, with larger outcrops of stone and enough abandoned equipment around the perimeter to give them something to work with. Martinez took it in for a moment before looking towards Ragnar and then Patches. "All right. We're in."

Ragnar took a long look around before spotting something in one of the dips. A small smile crept across his ragged features and he pointed it out to Martinez. "That looks like a possible entryway for us while Patches and his Fireteam take the front." He raised his hand in the signal for a rally as he spoke.

Patches took in the terrain while Ragnar pointed toward the shallow depression. The holodeck program made the wind colder than he would've expected, and the wet holographic grass bent in long dark strokes below it. He crouched for a moment, touching two fingers to the ground--a habit. Unfortunately for Trevor, there wasn't anything useful to glean from simulated soil.

He looked toward the installation, then back at the dip Ragnar had found. Gunny was right. That route would get the main group closer without openly presenting them as a line of targets across open ground. Patches had his own problem to solve.

"Front it is," he said. He turned toward his fireteam and lowered his voice. "We stay spread. I want to see room between everybody."

He pointed toward the nearest shallow rise. "We'll use that first. Move by bounds. Two forward, two watching. When we reach the rocks, we'll slow down and see what's beyond the fence."

One of the younger Marines was grinning.

Patches fixed him with a stern look. "Something amusing, Private?"

The grin disappeared quickly and the young man's game face returned.

"None of this is supposed to fun. It's a training exercise. Treat like it's the real world."

He checked his rifle again and raised it as he began moving. The team followed, their boots leaving small, dark indents in the wet grassy ground as they made their way toward the first low fold in the ground. Patches kept his attention on the installation, searching for movement around the perimeter. The place had an ugly, ordinary appearance--like something out of his little brother's graphic novels that depicted the monotone architecture of twenty-first century Earth. That kind of design made it harder to read. Real military installations seemed to rise up and scream, 'I'm here'.

Ragnar watched Patches and his team closely for a long minute before nodding and then turning to Martinez. "That leaves you and I with the rest of the Marines, LT. Shall we?"

to be continued

---

1st Lieutenant Ángel Martinez
Marine Officer
USS Astrea


Gunnery Sergeant Ragnar Grymblöd
Marine
USS Astrea
(NPC of Alexandra Blackstone)


Corporal Eden McKenzie
Combat Engineer
USS Astrea
(NPC of Eirly Andersen)

 

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