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Grass Eaters 2 | 36 | Channel One
🕑 Added 2024-08-07 16:47:00 +0000 UTCTRNS Crete, Charon (400 km)
POV: Carla Bauernschmidt, Terran Republic Navy (Rank: Captain)
“Can you raise your chair a little? The lighting looks better that way.”
Carla looked uncomfortably at the camera as she adjusted her command chair up slightly.
“Hm… not quite the effect I was expecting,” the alien camera operator said, observing the results on his datapad with dissatisfaction.
“Are you the one doing the interview?” Carla asked.
“No, Braust will ask the questions. I’m just here for the equipment,” the operator replied. “She’s doing a few questions with your underlings right now.”
“My underlings?”
“Your… electronic warfare officers, your weapons systems officers,” he read off her tablet. “And your executive officer. They should be done soon… Your hair is reflecting too much light.”
“My hair?”
“It’s all the yellow in it. A bit too bright for us.“ He wrinkled his snout. “Have you considered dying it a different color? I hear silver is all the rage these days on Malgeiru.”
She looked horrified at him, “This is my natural blond hair. And silver? No, thank you.”
The camera operator harumphed. “Fine. But I will need to fix the lighting and colors in post processing.”
“This isn’t going to be live?” Carla asked, relieved.
“We can’t do it live. Most of the Federation doesn’t know you exist, remember? This will go into the Defense Ministry archives for when your species is revealed to our people,” the operator waved his paw around.
“I meant in Sol.”
“Oh, we will broadcast the uncensored version in Sol once we cut it for length. Technically, we are legally supposed to censor mentions of casualties in our report because there are now Federation citizens in Sol now, but the Ambassador says it’s pointless trying to hide it from our people here because your people broadcast them clearly.” He shrugged. “Not my problem.”
After another minute of awkward silence as the operator fussed over his camera, the other Malgeir reporter walked in.
She shook Carla’s hand with practiced familiarity. “Hello, thank you for letting me on your ship. I am Braust from Federation Channel One. Are you ready to begin?”
“Sure. Whenever you’re ready,” Carla sighed internally. The Navy didn’t exactly make her orders optional when they approved the interviews.
Braust waved to the operator, who pressed a button on his datapad, and a red light went solid on the camera. “Let’s begin. First, tell us a little bit about yourself. Introduce yourself.”
She looked into the camera and forced a smile. “Hi, I’m Carla Bauernschmidt. I’m a commander in the Terran Republic Navy. I’ve been in the service for just over fifteen years. For the past six months, I have been commanding officer of the TRNS Crete, part of Assault Carrier Squadron 1, taking part in the Red Zone anti-piracy campaign.”
There was a pause. Braust continued, “Can you tell us a little more about your background? What ship did you command before Crete?”
“This is my first ship command,” Carla replied. “Before this, I was a flag aide for Task Force Frontier. Before that, I was a simulation officer at Atlas Naval—”
“Ah, that explains a lot for our Malgeir viewers,” Braust interrupted. “My understanding is that you are relatively junior for someone in your rank and position. And leading such a prestigious unit involved in almost all the recent battles in the Federation is surely why you were chosen to command this ship at such a young age. Did you participate in those battles?”
“Uh… I was on the TRNS Mississippi during several recent battles in the Datsot and Gruccud campaign, but I wouldn’t say I was actively participating or leading—”
“Ah, how very modest of you,” Braust beamed at her. “I can see why your crew speak so highly of you!”
“They— they do? I— I wasn’t aware of that.”
Braust checked her notes on her tablet. “Oh, yes! Your new executive officer Beta Leader Speinfoent says that discipline on this ship under you is very strict and fair, that rulebreakers are punished swiftly and harshly, and that your officers are encouraged to think independently.”
Carla blinked in surprise. “He said what?”
“That your officers are encouraged to think independently under your command. Would you say that is an unfair characterization?”
“No, I got that. What about the other part about rule—”
“That discipline on this ship is very strict and fair,” Braust said slightly slower as if that made things clearer. Then, she looked towards the camera. “And for our viewers just tuning in, we are broadcasting Beta Leader Speinfoent’s interview in a separate segment. Make sure to check it out as well!”
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20 minutes ago
POV: Speinfoent, Malgeir Federation Navy (Rank: Beta Leader)
“So, Beta Leader Speinfoent, how would you rate the level of discipline administered by your new captain?” Braust asked.
Speinfoent looked confused. “Level of discipline?”
“Yes, discipline. For example, are Terran crew members given special consideration in disputes?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. Carla… the captain treats everyone fairly.”
“Oh good. That’s very good to hear,” Braust smiled brightly. “I think many of our people would be relieved to hear that.”
“Uh… that’s good.”
“Can you give me an example of that?”
“Of what?” Speinfoent asked, confused once again.
“Fair discipline?” Braust prompted. “Between the Terrans and Malgeir.”
“Oh that— uh— well, let me think. Hm— oh, there was an incident in the mess deck a few weeks ago. To mess with the Malgeir Marines — before they could get to lunch — a small group of Terran enlisted decided to line up at the ice cream machine with big cups to dispense as much of the ice cream as they could until the machine ran out. Predictably, a fight broke out. And when the master chief asked the captain for advice on how to handle it, Carla suggested he make the pranksters eat all the ice cream they dispensed. By that time, most of it had melted, so they were forced to drink the gallons of sugar until they threw up, and it seems unlikely they will ever try that again.”
Braust clapped her paws together. “That’s a delightful story. I’m glad they got the harsh punishment they deserved for wasting good ice cream, of all things.”
Speinfoent nodded. “Exactly…”
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POV: Carla Bauernschmidt, Terran Republic Navy (Rank: Captain)
“Captain, a lot of people are asking, since the Crete is the first integrated Malgeir-Terran ship in history, how is the acclimation process going along?” Braust asked.
“There were initially some teething issues, as expected,” Carla replied. “And the variety of backgrounds did cause some confusion at first. But after months of exercises, both virtual and live fire, we have worked out most of the issues. This ship will deploy under the Terran Navy operational readiness model, which means that it will be held to the same standards as any other ship in the fleet. This refers to not only our naval officers and crew, but also the Marine contingent.”
“Yes, my people have heard a lot about your exercises. Can you tell me a little more about that as it pertains to your ship?”
“Sure. The Crete is an assault carrier, which means that its primary mission is with delivering and supporting troops during an attack on an enemy station, orbital habitat, or even a colony or settlement. In the first phase of a generic operation, the assault carrier is usually accompanied by space combat ships, or space superiority ships as we’d call them—”
“These are the ships like the kind you were on in your time with Task Force Frontier, right?” Braust interrupted again.
“We— most of the ships in TFF were specialized recon variants of space superiority ships, but they do operate under similar concepts in a fight. So that’s the kind of ship we’d lean on to clear out the long-range and mobile threats. Once the AO is clear in such an operation, we’d move in and debark our Marines as an assault carrier. On an orbital facility, we’d have to clear the exterior threats. On a surface target, we’d act in a traditional fire support role. The Marines and the ship have to work closely to complete the mission.”
“Wow, that sounds like a lot of moving parts,” Braust exclaimed.
“It is indeed. This is one of the most complex missions the Republic Navy has.”
“How do you coordinate between the multiple elements of the assault?”
“Communication. We have a saying on the Crete: one crew, one fight. That means we are not two separate parts fighting our own battles, the Marines and Navy each taking one part of a task checklist. We don’t just drop the Marines off like taxi drivers and everyone fends for themselves. Or if the ship is damaged, it’s not just my Navy officers fighting fires and doing damage control while the Marines sit and watch. It doesn’t work like that. The Marines learn how to do all that, and we fight next to each other.”
“Couldn’t things get confusing?”
“It could. That’s why we’ve been practicing and that’s why we will continue to practice until our first mission, and between missions.”
“Practice is the key, says Captain Carla Bauernschmidt,” Braust announced to the camera. “We’ll be right back after the break!”
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POV: Uintrei, Malgeir Federation Navy (Rank: Omega Leader)
Uintrei looked into the camera from her gunnery chair and gave it her best smile. “Hi, I am Omega Leader Uintrei, Space Warfare Officer of the TRNS Crete. I am one of the first three Malgeir officers to serve aboard a Terran warship. Today, we are watching and reacting to the critically acclaimed Malgeir-written, Terran-filmed four-hour movie ‘Lesser Predators’ — It’s streaming online, so go see it before you watch this because there will be spoilers! The first scene we will watch is the opening scene, which depicts the First Battle of Gruccud from the perspective of Malgeir Eighth Fleet.”
Braust made a circular motion with her paw, gesturing for her to add more information.
“Uh… I was actually present at this battle as part of Eighth Fleet at the time. And I’m familiar with the book; the author is a good friend of mine. I’m told the movie version takes some liberty with the events, though they did hire actual Malgeir actors and advisors. Props to them for that. Let’s watch… That good?”
Braust gave her a thumbs up. “Don’t worry. We’ll fix any issues in post. Alright, now play.”
The scene started playing on Uintrei’s datapad, until Uintrei tapped on the screen with a claw to pause it.
She leaned in to try to see it better. “Hold on a second, is that Fleet Commander Raulur?”
“I think it is,” Braust said from off-camera.
“Yeah, I think it’s supposed to be, judging from the insignia patch, which we don’t wear on the chest in combat. We wear it on the shoulder on our bridge coveralls. Second of all, Fleet Commander Raulur is female, not male. I don’t begrudge that small inaccuracy. But the dyed silver hair on his back is — that’s obviously an actor — that kind of unnatural coloring probably wouldn’t be allowed in the Navy. Even in the Eighth Fleet. Even if you were the fleet commander. Speaking of colors, the coloring of everything on the bridge is all off — too bright. It’s like you gave a cub some crayons and a coloring book… whew ok, I promise, I’ll try not to nitpick too much.”
“No, that’s good,” Braust said. “That’s why you’re here. To nitpick.”
Uintrei snorted and continued playing the movie for a bit, then paused again.
“Ok, so here, the flag captain says, ‘Naval Intelligence says the Grass Eaters have nothing in the system’. True. So true. One hundred percent true. That actually did happen like that. Not only did they say that… it was in the mission orders if I remember correctly. And the scene shows the ship’s crew preparing as if there would be a fight anyway. That part is also accurate. Good job on that.”
She resumed playing for a bit, and she chuckled at one of the jokes. She paused it. “Good one. Yes, some of the officers did regularly make fun of Squadron 2 Leader for eating too much. I’ve had people ask me about that. No, it was not malicious. Just friendly ship banter.”
Uintrei kept the scene going until the first action started taking place.
“Okay, no, no. I have to nitpick here. This is egregious! That is not what the Znosian space mines at Gruccud looked like. These are, I believe, old Terran ocean mines… except put in space. It doesn’t work like that. Space is wayyyyy too big for that to work. You can’t cover a whole sector with these kinds of contact mines and just hope that enemy ships bump into them.”
“What do real space mines look like?” Braust asked.
“What do space mines look like? They look like miniature space stations. Like a small black box in space with missile launchers. Very small, low power, and they fire their missiles at you when you get near enough to them. They’re not these spherical balls of death, waiting and hoping for someone to hit them. This is totally wrong. And if they were laid out in a 2D grid like shown in this scene, don’t you think we’d have just gone above or below them? Totally wrong!”
Uintrei shook her head dramatically for the camera and resumed the movie until one of the ships was disabled and the spacers on board were bailing out.
“Okay, good detail here. They’re trying to escape the doomed ship, but some of the escape pods aren’t working. That’s unfortunately very common on some Eighth Fleet ships. I don’t know if this character was on one of those ships without working pods, but this kind of thing does happen. Then again… this was the Battle of Gruccud. Even if you got out and got picked up, it would have been the Znosians picking you up, so these guys aren’t missing out on much.”
“Nobody who bailed out got picked up at the battle?” Braust asked.
“Basically nobody. The fleet’s organization was shot once Raulur’s flagship went down. I think… the Znosians did come back and pick up a few of the survivors? But uh… yeah, those guys are not around anymore.”
She played until the scene ended and faded to black as the Eighth Fleet flagship was destroyed.
Braust looked at her expectantly. “So what do you think of the scene?”
“I think… it did get some details right. You can tell they really made an effort to include some of the stuff from the book. But the ending of the scene — the movie made it seem like everyone died at the end of that battle. Which is not true. Almost a third of the ships in the fleet made it to the system blink limit and got out. But… it was a devastating defeat for the Navy against no enemy ships, which the movie — at least it got that right. Not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t put me in, but I understand it’s just supposed to be a short opening scene to set table stakes and they can’t include everyone.”
Braust smiled. “Who do you think should play you if they had written you in?”
“Who should play me? Hm… how about that lead actress in the ‘Peace for all Eternity’ adaptation? The Schpriss production, not the Terran one. No offense to the latter.”
Braust hesitated for a second, seemingly trying to remember the name as well. “Yeah, I think I know who you’re talking about. Don’t worry, we’ll look it up in post-production. Anyway, how would you rate this scene? Out of ten.”
“Rate the scene? On what?”
“Realism.”
“Uh… on realism. It was well produced; the effects are good. Overall, they got the feel of the battle right. The constant stress and the combat exhaustion, I thought that was done very well. The lack of preparation. It hit all the themes from the book. It felt… authentic. There were some historical inaccuracies I pointed out, but I understand it’s a movie, right? They have to dramatize some of it. Out of ten, I’d give it a solid eight.”
“Great… Ready to move onto the next scene?”
“How many more of these am I doing?”
“Just another six.”
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Spooker
Just in time for everything to kick off.
Valdis Trautmanis
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