| Dotting the I's |
| Summary: | Constin brings bad news to Madilyn, who wants to know if things are in order for the HALO jump. |
| Date: | 16 June 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Trust Fall, 48 Hour Party. |
| Players: |
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| Marine Offices - Deck 6 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| This offices consists of desks for those under the CO, along with his desk toward the back of the room. The S1 and S2 have desks here and the place is neat as a pin, with everything in its place. At the front of the room, a Marine sits at a desk to meet people as they come in through the hatch. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #110 |
Three and a half hours into the afternoon shift, and Corporal Constin has gathered the sum total of investigations to date, carried with him in a thick folder. "Major," the big man greets evenly, with a salute. "If you're prepared to receive a report on the present status of our counter-sabotage investigations?" As ever, the formal words don't conceal his lowbrow drawl, instead just polishing the words a bit.
Is there ever a time when the glorified secretary isn't at her desk? Well, the other night she took a walking tour of the ship inspecting the security details to make sure everything was in order. However, with the investigation reports rolling in, the upcoming military action, and of course, the 10-ton elephant down in the brig (a white elephant, maybe?), Madilyn's busied herself with the residual paperwork for that.
"Hello Corporal…and yes, please, have a seat. I could use a distraction from these mission plans." The folder surrounding the upcoming HALO operation lays open on the desk in front of her, with personnel files, limited recon images, and mission plans strewn across the surface as well. Out of character, there's no music today, and the coffee sits half-empty and cold in the mug.
Constin gives a tight, short-lived smile to the voiced wish for distraction, settling into the indicated seat with a nod. "Regarding the status of the Deck sabotage investigations, we've turned up some bad news, sir. The security feeds have been compromised, Major. At this point, it appears that during one of the rolling blackouts which hit the boat, power was briefly lost to the Tape library's black box. Seems during that specific period, fiber optic cables issued to Borenstein were installed to allow counterfeit tape to be fed into the encoder and thus receive a legit encoded time stamp." A drawn breath. "Three-Em is at work correcting this splice, but ah havn't recieved confirmation on it's completion just yet." First bit of bad news, check.
"Mother frakker," Madilyn replies with a little wince. Her lips are pressed together tightly and she straightens up in her chair a bit. "So we've got nothing from those. I was hoping we could get something…anything, no matter how small. All we have now is that some frakkin' snipe left his cable sit out and the saboteurs know how our electronics work well enough to bypass and splice. Great. Have we identified the blackout during which the splice was made, and at least validated tape footage before that?"
Constin could either stop the flow of bad news to answer, or save the discussion for later, but either way, Madilyn seems just agitated enough that she couldn't wait to ask. The stuff open on the desk is shoved aside so she can find a notepad, which gets the top sheet torn off to expose some clean paper.
"Yes, sir. We have isolated the initial blackout to being confined to a space of twenty minutes on ..This date-" one of the top pages is pulled out of the folder and placed before the Major outlining the power fluctuations which affected the crucial security system. "At this point, we don't consider the prior footage compromised, but the possibility has to be considered. Until more interrogations take place with Borenstein and Morgenfield, ah can't say any more on that for sure." A fresh breath drawn. "We still havn't been able to trace where the counterfeit tape was generated, but it would take computer skills a lot beyond what either of their service jackets reflect." He doesn't add Tillman's speculation that they might be Cylon sleepers.
"Great, so we've got snipes involved. Potential CIC involvement…" she starts, looking over the sheet, while holding two fingers to her right temple, thumb on her jawline. "Unless you happen to know of anyone else aboard who knows as much about Colonial ship computer systems than the folks in CIC. And that sort of involvement wouldn't surprise me, frankly, if the Admiral is what you and I and the XO have been convinced he is. Godsdamned this is getting out of control."
Madilyn pauses. "Alright. So we have absolutely no video evidence that we can treat as reliable and authentic, for the sake of this investigation. What have you gotten from Borenstein and Morgenfield so far? Have they given us anything we can use?" Leave the policing to the police, Madilyn would say - she's just a part-time cop.
"Correct, sir," Constin adds to the depressing statement of no reliable video feed. "The only good news is that in light of his absence, Intel officer Oberlin can probably be trusted as a reliable consultant on this, upon his return. For now, though.." He scowls. "Morgenfield hasn't volunteered anything yet, and Borenstein's injury delayed his interrogation for too damned long. We *do* have conclusive evidence tying him to the bomb that took out Raptor Three-oh-five, in addition to his little hostage standoff on the deck prior to apprehension. Working with Three-Em we've isolated how they've managed to manipulate the feeds and create alibis in the past, which we're working on unwinding now." Still, he frowns briefly again. "What we *have* found suggests that Specialist Coll really was set up to take the fall for the Three-Oh-Five bombing. Ah'd like to get a confession from Borenstein first, but after that ah'd recommend the Jay-Ay-Gee overturn her Dee-oh-Dee."
"That sounds logical enough. One in custody and a suspected partner in custody as well. As soon as you can positively tie both of them to these bombings, I want to know. Specialist Coll is back on duty now, is she not?" While she talks, Madilyn writes down some names on her notepad there, Oberlin's specifically. Compiling a list of names of people who can positively be trusted. "I'll leave the remainder of the investigation in the capable hands of you and the other MPs, however. What additional depressing news do you have for me?"
"It's Crewman Coll now, sir," Constin corrects. "Part of the Dee-Oh-Dee was a demotion, but yes. The Crewman is back on duty." As to Madilyn's latter question, he sniffs once and gives another brief, bone-dry smile. "The additional depressing news, sir, is that Lance Corporal Maragos, Private Jenkins, and mahself will be the three marine volunteers taking part in Major Tillman's advance Hay-Lo jump. Which is why ah've brought you copies of all of our ongoing investigations and preliminary reports, prior to entering a combat situation." The thick file is set on the Major's desk.
"That, at the very least, I was aware of," Madilyn replies to the topic of the HALO jump. "And speaking of, how has the accelerated training gone? Do you feel confident that the other volunteers are well-enough equipped, skill wise, that they won't perish during the jump?" What happens on the ground is impossible to predict, of course, but there's no sense in having crew get killed on the way down because they lacked enough training.
Constin nods to the Major's foreknowledge. "Good. And yes, sir. Ah'm confident the team will be able to handle the jump. We've got the best gear the boat has to offer, and at least one among the jump team volunteers has had prior training of this sort.. So we'll have one experienced hand to balance out the rooks, Major." Shoulders rise with another drawn breath and he holds the Major's eye to add, "We'll see what sort of ground greets us, sir, but ah have every confidence mah team will set boots to dirt with the same number of arms and legs as we had twenty miles higher."
"Good. Good. How have you decided to split your team? I've got the report here…somewhere." It's actually spread out on the desk under all the new material Constin just brought down as a backup plan in case something happens and another MP should need to pick up the investigation. "Everyone has been made quite accutely aware of the risks? Wait, scratch that. I'm sure Major Tillman would've made those risks clear. He's not the sort to sugar-coat a godsdamned thing."
"Yes, sir. Ah'm aware that if this operation doesn't turn up any raptors, we're most likely looking at a one way trip," the corporal states simply. A breath drawn and let out with a faint upward curl to his lip. "Ah hear the deck crew are having their last rites before they leave. So no, the Major didn't pull any punches, sir." As for the meat of the question, "The marine contingent will secure the hangar and keep surveilance over the surrounding grounds throughout the operation. Should it look worthwhile, we'll attempt demolitions to crack open the second sealed hangar, as late in the operation as possible, to lessen the window of oportunity in which the toasters will be aware of our presence."
"Very good. This is just a formality of course. I noticed the S3's signature on all of these plans already, and this is all sounding familiar. One of the things I regret, in fact, is that I'm no longer as hands-on as I was, or like to be. It's a careful balance of delegating tasks to those who've been trained for such tasks and playing it close to the chest, particularly with the present goings-on. I'm sure you've experienced a bit of something like that, hm?" Madilyn idly flips through the package of intelligence and interrogation information on the desk…one more thing piled there, which will hopefully be put in the OUT box sooner rather than later.
"A bit, sir. Yeah," Constin returns to Madilyn's apt supposition. "Been leaning on the bluffing face more and more, these days." He shrugs once. "It is what it needs to be, ah guess. Even if it means Majors don't get to jump out of Raptors," he adds with another dry grin which fades before his next words. "Do you have any further questions at this time, sir?"
Madilyn remains silent for a few moments, flipping through, sliding files around, looking through the information at a glance. "No. Nothing at this time Corporal. It will take me some time to go through this information in detail, of course. But at the very least, I trust that in the HALO jump plans, and, in true engineer fashion, that's at the front of the queue currently."
"So it, sir," Constin returns with a nod, before rising to his booted feet again, and offering the Major a salute before turning to get back to that front of the queue.
"Very good Corporal. Be on your toes though. I may send a runner with questions, if I don't find you myself." The chair behind the desk is slid out when she stands, returning the salute. She also takes the chance to straighten her uniform, stretch a minute, and start fresh coffee libations for a long night.