>be me
>first mission as Marine Raider coming up
>we're tasked with going after a growing pirate syndicate in the Argolis cluster
>training for the mission is really intense
>constant drills, over and over again in the holodeck, so many variables thrown in from IEDs to civilian hostage situations to running into Jem'Hadar to NOTHING
>in one of the training missions, there was literally NOTHING in the ship, it was a husk like some kind of horror vid
>other Raiders give me the cold shoulder for some reason, not sure why at first
>turns out CPT Love Slave hand-picking me for her unit bumped another guy that the other Raiders really, really wanted to get a slot in the program
>the other Raiders are incredible at their job but it comes at the cost of their social skills
>too many of them behave like first years in Starfleet
>have to deal with constant passive-aggressive antics while training
>in one of the training sims, I say "can we just mousehole it?" when a bulkhead gets in the way of progressing through a ship
>one of the Raiders loudly and sarcastically replies "I DON'T KNOW, CAAAAAN YOU?"
>when other Raiders aren't working, they're overindulging in alcohol, using felicium, and talking WAY too openly about their jobs on subspace
>bring this up to CPT Love Slave, she tells me not to worry about it and focus on myself
>T'lana, these people are fucking crazy
>"I know, Gunnery Sergeant."
>realize that she's in over her head, too
>day of the raid on pirate ship arrives
>pirates using civilian transport ships to cover what they're doing
>fake transponders, tweaking engines to make smaller ships look like freighters, fake registrations, the works
>told to expect heavily-armed resistance
>I'm sweating bullets because the people I'm working with right now are lunatics or lunatic-adjacent
>everything from the briefing to ship approach goes 100% by the numbers, flawless, a work of fucking art
>then we have to actually board the ship
>first man in modified his phaser rifle into a scattershot without telling anyone
>fires immediately once he gets inside the ship, decapitating one guy and seriously wounding another
>element of surprise ruined, firefight ensues
>pirate captain activates self-destruct and we have to rush to the bridge to stop it or else the whole mission is a wash
>CPT Love Slave takes me and one other dude on a mad dash, pirates are desperate to go down with the ship
>manage to reach bridge with time to spare
>waste the pirates left in the bridge, CPT Love Slave easily overrides self-destruct because it's a shitty guinea-rigged civilian ship
>mission is technically a success, recover the ship
>pirate captain erased a lot of data from the bridge but the ship is sent to the data recovery nerds
>lose a few Raiders in the operation, Starfleet wants an explanation
>Scattershot McGillicutty survived the mission, claims he was shot at first, muh self defense, get off my back
>his clique defends him to the hilt and they try to say CPT Love Slave froze up so the team went to finish the mission
>CPT Love Slave says Scattershot McGillicutty ruined the operation
>Starfleet backs up CPT Love Slave's report, points out that badge data showed CPT Love Slave, one other dude, and me getting to the bridge and accomplishing the mission while the others went around hunting down pirates
>Scattershot McGillicutty and his clique spend the next several weeks stringing along the investigation, COL in charge of entire regiment desperate to cover it up
>Starfleet internal affairs is pissed because they were lied to, but Starfleet intelligence data recovery nerds managed to get most of the erased data back and uncover pirate operations across the whole sector
>Scattershot McGillicutty quietly removed from regiment for "PTSD" and a few in his clique given NJPs
>I get promoted to MSGT and become Ops Sgt
what did I get myself into
