Commanding Officer Whitelist Application
Personal InformationByond ID? Silencer_pl
Player Name You Use Most? Cassandra 'Mama' Reed
Make a list of links to all of your ban appeals as well as whitelist and staff applications (both accepted and denied) submitted within the past year. For appeals, provide an additional ban reason and the appeal’s verdict next to the link. N/A
Have you received any bans in the last month? No
What is your timezone in UTC? UTC+5
What is your discord username and handle? silencer#9848
Basic Questions & StoryWhat do you think is the job of a Commander? The obvious one - the CO leads the op in absence of the XO, be it through lack of one or deployment and can act as a buffer and/or sounding board for the XO’s ideas when needed. The combination of XO writing out commands and tactical information wile the CO writes general directives and points out/fixes flaws they see seems like a good tandem.
The less obvious one, the CO role is an “RP magnet” of sorts and can be a catalyst for some good RP (Definitely opens more chances for Corporate shenanigans for instance) and overall shipside staff can both use the CO for their RP and the CO can try and initiate/inspire RP on their own by having unusual tasks or requests to accomplish shipside.
Why do you want to be a Commanding Officer? I enjoy RP as CMP immensely and feel like I could contribute to the overall atmosphere of the server more broadly as the CO, outside of the CMP bubble so to speak. I see good COs inspire interesting RP all the time, resulting in plenty of those fabulous RP moments that only sometimes result in everyone dying to a Death Squad. I think I am a good enough player on that front and generally enjoy the idea synergy that happens during good RP and feel I can contribute in that fashion.
What do you think you could contribute by being whitelisted? I’m pretty sure I won’t be reinventing the wheel, but I am a seasoned online RPer and feel like my skills (both in terms of XO mechanics and actual RP) are good enough that I can contribute to the overall atmosphere of the server through playing as a CO. I also have pretty decent experience as an RP staffer/RP admin and understand the behind-the-curtain oddities that happen in online games pretty well and feel that often these can be countered by something the CO can do plenty - providing RP opportunities to players who want them.
How will your Commanding Officer behave? Describe their character. Cassandra is a highly empathetic, intelligent, yet very guarded person who tends to consider herself smarter than most people she meets in private but presents herself in a highly professional manner to her subordinates while on duty.
She has an unhealthy tendency to micromanage and can be an overly aggressive debater. The latter does not mean she does not appreciate debates or is immune to criticism (in fact she takes criticism to heart more often that she might show) but can come off as overly argumentative, especially where she feels her own competence is being unjustly challenged.
Her commanding style focuses on proper execution of fundamentals (rapid deployment, area denial, controlled, coordinated pushes backed by heavy artillery) rather than tactical feints, but she is absolutely open to those by an XO/SO/SL if she trusts them to be competent while executing them.
Privately, Cassandra is openly cynical and flippant about most things and counters stress with bad language, bad eating habits and smoking like a chimney. She suffers from stress migraines and can, in extreme situations, get somewhat vulgar when reacting to unexpected situations.
She is openly critical of the USMCs treatment of the Colonies, the general tendencies for a rather bullish approach and a perceived crisis in both command and supply. In her eyes the rise of the CLF is the direct result of the UMSC’s failure to adapt to the new situation and passionately believes that a focus on retrofitting, rebuilding, and modernizing the USMC fleet should be the primary focus right now. She particularly sees a lot of the older HC personnel as old fashioned dinosaurs that bear a lot of the responsibility in the USMC's decline. While she would never share these doubts with her subordinates or in public for that matter (as she would see it as unprofessional bitching), they do affect her approach to commanding operations, typically looking for a solution that minimizes or removes the need to fight and a firm belief that her more "morally justified" approach is the only way to right the sinking ship that is the USMC.
Name and briefly describe your Commanding Officer's own ship. The USS Persephone – Dreadnaught Class SIGINT Intercept Vessel
Commissioned in 2175, originally as an experimental Dreadnaught sporting a high precision EM Pulse cannon, the Persephone is an extensively modified SIGINT interception vessel relying not on cloak but “old fashioned” hiding methods.
On a typical deployment, the Persephone will “dive” into a hostile system, drop all contact with High Command, find a system wide communications satellite, capture it, and spoof its signal, then limit its own power usage to the absolute minimum and quietly monitor, record, decrypt and interpret all signals coming in and out of a given system. This is performed in the ships CIC, effectively an open working and living space in the dead center of the ship where a lower deck is typically staffed by 10 so called Engineers (with a total capacity of 20) on staggered 8-hour shifts and a higher deck features the command area, complete with a small open bunk for the CO. This is usually done days if not weeks before the arrival of a primary USMC vessel to conduct operations in the system, but sometimes can be performed as part of a lone surveillance operation. In either case, the presence of the Persephone during an USMC operation means that other ships are constantly being fed intel from the entire system, which is not always wanted or appreciated - like it or not, the Persephone also monitors USMC comms and is notoriously responsible for multiple High Command and particularly MP interventions when the ships crew "snitched" on its fellow servicemen.
The Persephone can use its cannon to disable other ships by firing on critical ship systems and disabling them from long range, then board them using its own Rapid Deployment Umbilical, which extends, attaches itself to an enemy vessel and creates a secure hull breach, allowing its small marine detachment (Typically 2 active squads of 11) to board along with its Engineers to secure any intel, personnel, or viable technology. Due to the nature of their operations, the Marines on the ship specialize in non-lethal takedowns and rapid movement through enemy ships in order to disable critical systems. The Persephone is sometimes seen scouring recent battlefields, quietly scavenging from destroyed USMC and hostile ships.
Due to the nature of the ship’s work and a handpicked, small crew manning it for long, monotonous periods of time, there is not a single part of the ship that has not been somehow modified, upgraded, or just tinkered with by a bored crewmember. Engineers will often take bits and pieces of technology of ships found and integrate it into the Persephone’s systems, resulting in the ship being a temperamental mess of USMC, RESS and even UPP bits and pieces put together to optimize the ship. Even the ships AI, HADES, has numerous upgrades performed by the crewmembers of the ship on long dives. Most of these upgrades are meant to provide additional resources to the ships code breaking capabilities, but both the ship and the EM Pulse cannon have also seen through upgrades.
As such, the Persephone has become an unrecognizable, undocumented, and only barely organized mess of upgrades and systems that only its crew is familiar with and even then, seems to operate half on actual technical know how of its crew and half by pure luck. This often makes repairs to the ship impossible in a USMC drydock, forcing the crew to scavenge or otherwise source its own replacement parts and conduct its own repairs on the ship.
Cassandra, just like the other Captains before her, hand picks the crew typically recruiting from ragtag, underdog, or otherwise neglected ships across the Third Fleet. When not on a “dive”, she will spend her time observing and helping operations on other ships, always looking for fresh talent to join her on the Persephone. This means that both the Engineer and Marine detachments are a close knit, somewhat eccentric bunch united by what Cassandra considers talent.
Your story (potential topics listed below) USCM INTERNAL AFFAIRS INCIDENT RECORD.
CODENAME: THE OLIVER INCIDENT.
DATE OF INCIDENT: 09/11/2190
Final Report notes:
[Bellow is a detailed report of an in-depth analysis of the OLIVER incident. We have scoured an on-board AI data logs, relevant sensor information and personal interviews available and recreated a narrative of the incident, appended with commentary and relevant information. My notes are in these brackets and will , of course, be removed from the official version of this report.]
The Oliver incident took part during Operation [REDACTED] and refers to the crippling of the USS Oliver by the USS Persephone followed by a boarding and aggressive takedown and removal of the Oliver’s CO, Captain [REDACTED].
The USS Persephone, under Captain [REDACTED] was one of the first ships to respond and has prepared the initial recon report before the primary responding ship, the Armed Troop Carrier USS Oliver, arrived in the system. Bellow is the key information in this report, compiled by the ships effective second in command at the time Cassandra Reed:
“All inbound and outbound information suggests that this was indeed a CLF operation, however unlike what the distress beacon may lead us to believe, the transition of power occurred mostly peacefully, and no personnel have been harmed. The colony itself is now transmitting a general broadband call to any approaching vessels, identifying itself as a ‘Free’ world and declaring their willingness to negotiate the safe return of planeside personnel with any USMC, RESS or UPP vessels.”
The USS Oliver, under the command of Captain [REDACTED] arrives in the system shortly thereafter, marking the beginning of Operation [REDACTED] and begins to wake its marine detachments while still under the assumption that it is responding in force to an insurrection. High Command contacts the Oliver 4 minutes into the Operation, ordering the ship into high orbit and cancels the force response order, but no response is ever received.
Both the Oliver and Persephone start moving towards the planet and the two ships in its orbit. A preliminary scan performed by the Persephone indicates that a local CLF faction has retrofitted two civilian transports to work as gunboats and sent them as a show of support to the cells on the planet. The Persephone attempts to stop and hail the ships, but is almost immediately rammed by the Oliver and pushed out of the way, suffering a temporary power failure, and critically injuring two crew members including the CO. The Oliver opens fire on the makeshift gunboats moments later and destroys both ships. The only acknowledgment of the Persephone being rammed is an open channel message from its now acting commander, Cassandra Reed:
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Oliver? Why are you firing on them? Oliver?”
The Persephone continues to spiral in near orbit for a good 15 minutes while the Oliver sets itself up in geostationary orbit right above the capital of the planet and starts preparing its marine deployment. At no moment does the ship crew of the Oliver acknowledge the ramming incident or acknowledge the change in operation plan. A later investigation of comm logs recovered form the Oliver suggests that while the message from HC and comms from the Persephone were received by Captain [REDACTED], they were disregarded completely.
As the Persephone recovers from the crash, Acting Commander Reed sends out a simple dispatch to High Command:
“USS Persephone was rammed by the USS Oliver which resulted to catastrophic failure to parts of the ship and has left Captain [REDACTED] incapacitated, leaving me in charge. The surviving crew have successfully stabilized the ship. The Operation now seems in jeopardy. The Oliver is preparing for a full force response on the planet. It has already opened fire on and destroyed two vessels that did not seem to be hostile. The ship needs to be pulled back, now, if we want to maintain any semblance of a light touch and maybe not have these people hate us for the next five generations.”
On-board comm logs of the Persephone show that Reed was way less courteous to the crew of the Oliver while talking to her own people and her comments are virtually unprintable due to the amount of profanity they contain.
The Oliver is sent another message from High Command ordering it to withdraw immediately, which is again ignored. Multiple marine squads are deployed to the planet, landing right outside the main Colony, and preparing to siege the local forces. Communication intercepted from the planet by the Persephone indicate that the local government has attempted to reach out multiple times to the approaching Marine force but was again ignored.
The first instance of the Oliver using any sort of communication is it transferring a generic “stand down and submit” message literal minutes before the marines begin to engage CLF forces on the planet.
[Reed specifically asked for me to point out during our interview, that while all official reports of this incident indicate a CLF presence on the planet and that is certainly true per the Persephone’s SIGINT data, most of the forces the Marines engaged were in fact colonists protecting their own homes from an invading force that refused to listen to them. Reed was somewhat furious with official reports classifying this as a CLF engagement.]
About 35 minutes into the operation, the Oliver fires its Orbital Cannon Array onto the colony. The Persephone records this shot firing a cluster payload right onto the middle of the capital. This would be devastating enough on its own, but the Oliver’s CO, Captain [REDACTED] was always a big fan of orbital bombardment and had the Oliver fitted with an array of six OB cannons. All six cannons are fired in rapid succession.
[The data analyst has stressed that we put in Reed’s statement on the Orbital Cannon incident verbatim in full and I agree. Here it is in full:
“Do you know what it is to have front and center seating to a colony being glassed? Because we sure fucking do and it’s… Something. We were still barely functional at this point, but our systems were still spoofing their satellites. First, the flurry of activity related to repelling the invading Marines was interrupted by an almost unified scream, then this… Silence.”]
Shortly after the OB was fired, Reed sends an emergency high speed communication to High Command: “THE OLIVER JUST GLASSED THE FUCKING CAPITAL AND FUCKED THIS OP TO HELL. I AM PUTTING AN END TO THIS, NOW.”
[This is generous compared to what Reed actually called the Oliver AND High Command in a face-to-face conversation on the Persephone. The profanity of that woman. I think by now she was swearing in multiple languages.]
Two minutes later, the Persephone finally manages to get its engines working again and immediately starts moving towards the Oliver, marking the beginning of the Oliver Incident proper. By now Reed has, willingly or not, taken command of its crew and her burning anger at the Oliver seems to have rallied the Persephone firmly behind her back.
The Persephone fired a total of 11 shots from its high powered, precision EM Pulse cannon at 46 minutes into the operation. The targets were, according to Reed:
“We fired four shots at the engine, effectively disabling the Oliver and forcing it into geostationary, one at the OB Array which was the only part of the ship that was EM Shielded, or rather the only place where the Oliver’s crew remembered to power up the EM displacement arrays they had installed. Three shots towards the ships engineering to crack it open, kill its power long enough so we could approach without being blown up. Two towards what we identified as the most likely spot for the shipside MP barracks, denying them access to arms by frying their emergency lockers. Finally one dead center into the CIC. Just because I wanted to fire on that fucker. I don’t think it did much, but boy did it announce my intent.”
It should be noted that while Reed has received official authorization to disable the Oliver, it did not come until AFTER the Persephone fired on the carrier.
The Persephone then flies from the aft of the Oliver, attaches itself at the bottom of the ship with its boarding umbilical and breaches the ship. Reed orders all the Marines and most of the Engineers on the ship to breach, armed mostly with non-lethal weapons. She splits them into three groups.
The first strike team makes for the OB array with a load of C4 to permanently disable it. This group was probably the messiest, as they encountered a few MTs in the Array, preparing to reload the cannon. A firefight ensued, during which a welder tank was damaged, leaked fuel near the OB ammunition and then exploded, callusing a chain reaction that literally tore one of the OB cannons straight off the hull of the Oliver. While two of the Persephone’s Marines and one MT is wounded in this explosion, this team pulled everyone to safety before the actual explosion and after providing emergency treatment to all wounded, proceeds to complete its second objective - locking down the Oliver’s hangar as a failsafe in case the second team is unable to complete its objective.
The second strike team travels through the ships maintenance tunnels towards its engineering section, disables the staff there with flashbangs and cuffs, then heads straight for the comm array of the Oliver and promptly disables it by releasing a custom logic virus into the comm relay. It then moves towards the AI chamber and the few Engineers that are in this group promptly override the AI with an iteration of their own HADES system.
HADES, now in control of the ship, proceeds to lock down segments of the ship, making sure that movement of medical and critical personnel remains unhindered, but otherwise sealing off any crewmembers of the ship that may be a deterrent for Reed’s team.
As these two objectives are completed, the Persephone herself detaches from the ship and is flown by its skeleton crew towards the CIC, preparing to create an extraction point for the shipside teams.
At least one marine Squad from the Oliver takes back off form the planet, seeking to investigate the sudden comm silence. They are however unable to leave the locked down hangar and have to breach every airlock, emergency shutter, and lockdown gate the ship has to get anywhere other than the medbay of the Oliver.
The third team, led by Reed personally, reached the CIC and once the HADES override is initialized, gains entry and prepares an aggressive breach into the Oliver’s CIC. The squad enters the CIC from al four corners, deploys flashbangs and proceeds to secure the CO. While disabling most of the bridge crew, the CO themselves was covered by the ships CMP and was not disabled during breaching.
The CO and CMP open fire with lethal weaponry, the CMP led to believe this was a CLF attack team, but are interrupted by Reed, who used the initial strike for a mad dash towards the CIC’s central console and lunging straight at the CMP. A few punches followed but were interrupted by 3 shots fired off by the CO. Two of these strike the CMP, effectively taking them out of combat. One hits Reed, but this seems only to anger her more as she dives for the CO and sends them flying both flying through the reinforced glass pane of the CIC central console. Reed then applies approximately 9 shocks from a modified stun baton, each one followed by a string of profanities and a kick, before finally cuffing the CO as her team secures the rest of the bridge crew and stabilizes the Oliver’s CMP.
22 minutes after the initial breach of the Oliver, the Persephone strike teams evacuate through a hole in the CO’s quarters. For whatever reason, on her way out, Reed also secures the Oliver’s CO’s pet. It should be noted that while she claims she surrendered the pet when reconnecting with High Command, no record of it seems to exist.
The Oliver Incident concludes, leaving the USS Oliver crippled, unable to fire its OB, with an AI that no longer responds to them, and without its CO. Shortly thereafter, the CMP, contacted by HC separately and now effectively the aCO of the ship, calls for a general retreat of ground forces.
10 minutes later the first MP support ship, ordered in my HC after Reed’s messages, arrives in the system, and officially orders all hostilities to stop. Operation [REDACTED] is now over, effectively crippled by the Persephone and her crew.
Reed surrenders herself and the Oliver’s CO immediately upon the ship’s arrival, taking full responsibility for the attack on the Oliver and is formally arrested as well, which lead to this very investigation.
INCIDENT REPORT ENDS.
ADDENDUM:
The Persephone is now being commanded by what counts as a Chief Engineer on the ship and has refused to stay in drydock, opting instead to perform needed repairs itself. The original CO of the ship has survived the ramming and has since opted to release command of the Persephone, leaving her effectively without a Captain. Multiple crew members of the ship have asked about the possibility of Reed becoming active Captain of the ship. Reed has initially declined any such requests, but seems to have since come around at least as far as willing to join the ship under a new CO. At present, after the Oliver Incident, it seems highly unlikely for the ship’s crew to accept an external replacement CO so whoever does take command would need to come from the ships crew itself.
ExperienceHow experienced are you with the position of a Squad Leader (SL)? Probably my weakest are with only a few hours, I am however familiar with calling out targets, can identify xeno types and using the shout commands from shipside defenses as CMP.
How experienced are you with the position of a Staff Officer (SO)? 10-20 hours as the roles itself, but many more hours of doing SO work as aCO. I know how to use all the functions of the OW consoles.
How experienced are you with the position of a Department Head? I have 260+ hours of CMP experience, which says things, but I'm not sure what they are.
60+ hours as CMO I think? Familiar with all things medical.
None as CE, but am familiar with engineering overall, including proper cading and how to make a good old APC, mostly because I am familiar with ss13 engineering overall.
None as RO per se, but again, had to fill in cargo multiple times and know how to ride the order console, organize drops, and how things work there.
How experienced are you with the position of the Executive Officer (XO)? I want to say 6 full ops as the role itself.
Double that as aCO, probably around 30-40h total.
Multiple times that as aCO for 30 first minutes. I know all the tricks of the XO console, how to call things out properly and have had my share of disastrous defeats and cake runs. I cry everytime I ask for OB coords for the 5th time and don't get any.
How familiar are you with Marine Law and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)? Know it almost by heart, which is a frightening thought by itself. Again, 260 hours as CMP.
ScenariosWhen do you believe a Battlefield Execution should be used? List some examples of scenarios in which a battlefield execution would be correctly used. The Battlefield Execution is effectively taking a player character out of the rest of the round so I think it should only be done in cases when it is either the result of consistent RP, which typically would include multiple warnings before performed, or the player actively endangering the flow of the round for the rest of the marines (like intentionally sabotaging the power in the CIC or Cargo for instance)
Some examples:
-Player RPs open hostility towards the CO/Command and starts trying to incite a riot, does not stand down after multiple calls, threatens mutiny.
-Player tries to sabotage critical operations of the ship
-IC harassment of crew that is overwhelming the MPs or there are no MPs present, again, after multiple calls and warnings.
-Outright random hostilities or attacks.
Under what circumstances do you believe it is legal to pardon a prisoner? What are some examples of crimes you would pardon, and those you would not? Pardons are a good tool to use in cases where Military Law fails to account for context of some crimes and seems overly harsh, or if, through RP, the pardon convinces the CO of their points. At its heart, it stands as a safeguard against taking players out of the rest of the round in case they do something wacky and it ends them with a 30 minute timer, but in most it serves as a very IC tool to counter edge cases where the ML fails to deliver justice.
Some examples:
A brawl ends with a manslaughter charge, but it is clear that both sides didn't want the charge actually seen going through would earn a pardon.
The same brawl having the offending player being an ass about it or otherwise unrepentant would end without one.
A character getting arrested for trying to genuinely help the operation but breaking enough ML to earn them a good brigging could make the case that they were just impatient/in a hurry/meant well and earn a pardon.
The same offense but resulting in arrogant snips or outright aggressive behavior would not.
From an IC standpoint, any character that seems to emanate an air of lack of professionalism would probably not get a pardon.
Likewise, characters that would impress Cassandra in some way but wouldn't have any other conditions going for them would probably get a pardon as she firmly believes in competence over personal quirks.
What is your routine after starting the round as either a Staff Officer or Executive Officer? Assume you joined round-start and are inside your quarters. - Check manifest for other CIC staff
- Call for aCO if none is present and someone is up the chain from me.
- Write initial shipside message, set briefing
- Grab medhuds etc and start setting up CIC - landing zone, making sure cargo has crew and funds, checking squad compositions and assigning aSLs if needed.
- Open map of current AO and think of an initial set of objectives for marines, punch those into Overwatch consoles.
- Resolve any other outstanding IC issues if there are any and there is time.
- Do briefing if applicable.
- Start CIC duty.
How would you handle insubordinate departments? State what you would do for each department if they were insubordinate. Cargo departments are probably the most critical and when in conflict with Cargo staff, I would try to head down there and talk some sense through them and resolve things in an IC fashion.
Failing that, I would charge them with insubordination and either find a replacement, or take over Cargo myself/ask the XO to do it depending on circumstance.
Conflicts with Engineering seem to only really happen when someone refuses to deploy to spruce up the FOB or does excessive construction that disrupts the ship. The former are probably more critical and need to be addressed fast by applying an order, threat and if that fails, an insub charge. The latter can be solved similarly, but are usually way less urgent.
Conflicts with the MP department can only really be addressed through HC faxes and generally shouldn't happen unless I'm violating ML. In most cases where I may be in conflict with the MPs, I can apply pardons and in cases where the MPs are actively disloyal or disruptive, I can fax HC.
How would you handle an understaffed CIC? What if you and the XO are the only available CIC crew? The only thing you can really do with an empty CIC is to power through it and hope for more staff down the line. Otherwise, it would have to be business as usual:
- Check if Cargo is active. If not, CO or XO needs to man it and the other solo CICs until staff is available.
- If Cargo is there, establish who takes active command, they get to do briefing and write shipside messages, while the other one sets up over watch and check squad compositions.
- Continue to 2 man the CIC, which typically means person in command at the main console, person assisting doing overwatch until op is done or more staff wakes up.
What would you do if you were deployed and a marine told you they were going to desert the operation? Depending on IC conditions, I'd either try to appeal to their sense of duty or outright threaten them and try to talk some sense into them.
If they continue to desert the OP, a lot would depend on the IC motivations behind it:
-A marine that I feel is genuinely broken for whatever reason would probably be ordered to the ship and slapped with a Desertion charge.
-A marine that is openly defiant, threatening, insulting or otherwise makes a bad situation even worse would earn a very direct and vulgar threat before earning themselves a BE if they persist.
ConfirmationsDo you understand that any player - even donors or staff members - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our Server Rules or Roleplay Guidelines? Yes
Do you understand you cannot advertise or promote this application on any platform, including Discord? Yes
Do you also understand that you may not edit this application 1 hour after it has been posted? Yes
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