So, it was going to be an inquisition, was it? Jasper had seen that kind of behavior from commanding officers before and it always turned ugly. Particularly for the accused. Good Captain Keene was out for blood, that much was clear. The fact that he and Mave individually had more personal awards, most of which were for combat action and a few for valor, than the Captain and XO combine, seemed to be the root cause for his vitriol. Despite the ribbing at their current circumstances, Jasper couldn't help but feel a certain sense of irony at their insufferable superior's unprofessional and downright childish insult. While he didn't like being the OIC of the Marine detachment, he had seen more than his fair share of boarding operations as the pilot of a dropship, braving enemy point defense fire to offload marines into the breach created by the Vac-Comm teams. More than once his ship had been disabled during entry, forcing him to move forward as one of the boarding team members, thus earning him a niche set of skills and experiences most spacers didn't have, barring specialized troops like VCs and other marine units. To say he was pretending to be a marine was true, but only half so and if he had taken one thing from his time with the jarheads, it's that you always protect your own.

"Sir, Lieutenant Cykali up to her release from the infirmary has been on temporary assignment to the MBT and thus her primary function and responsibility was to myself as the OIC. By your direction, Lieutenant Cykali was relived of her duties as Operations Officer up until which time she had completed her duties as 2IC under my charge in observance of Fleet Naval order twenty one Oscar section-" There it was, the XO springing into action like a jungle cat pouncing upon it's prey from the trees.

"Who in [i]God's[/i] name gave you permission to speak, Lieutenant?!" Raged the perpetually scowling man, stepping up to all but spit in Jasper's face as he began the dressing down. 

At this point, the few souls that remained on the bridge had all but stopped what they were doing, watching the shit show unfold before them. Technically speaking, reprimand like this was to be handled outside the view of their peers but Captain Keene enjoyed putting on a humiliating display where the junior officers of his ship were concerned. The XO was unfortunately no different.

"Lieutenant Gnash, do you know why we assigned you as the OIC for the marines?" Halberstadt was almost snarling by this point, nose millimeters away from the junior officer's.

"... No, Sir..." Jasper replied uncertainly, knowing full well he didn't like where this was going.

"Of course you don't." the gaunt man spat, his hollow sunken eyes narrowing into hate filled slits.

The bridge had fallen dead silent at this point, naught but the soft chimes and humming of electronic equipment breaking the still as the XO began circling around Jasper at an infuriatingly slow pace, hands locked behind his back. It took all of the younger officer's self control to keep his eyes locked forward, body rigid at attention as they had not been given permission to rest at ease since their arrival.

"You're assigned to the marines because your usefulness begins and ends with your ass in the seat of a dropship, Lieutenant." Jasper had to fight the urge to let out a derisive snort when he heard the half-assed excuse for pinning him with the duty.

So that's what this was about. It was a bit of an open secret among the crew that their fine XO had flunked out of the flight program early on in his career, something about not meeting the physical requirements for duty as a pilot. Ever since then, the frail looking man had always held a personal grudge at those young officers who had been able to do what he couldn't. Jasper felt like he should have seen it coming, but he'd tried giving his superior the benefit of the doubt. Not that it had done him any good.

Unable to formulate an appropriate and respectful response, the pilot pretending to be a marine stood locked at attention, refusing to meet the spiteful man's gaze lest he provoke him any more than his mere existence already had. To his relief, the XO stepped away from his junior and assumed his position left and abreast of his Captain.

"You know what, Captain Keene? It sounds as though Lieutenant Gnash has volunteered to share the burden of responsibility with Lieutenant Cykali. It's only appropriate, him being her OIC at the time, don't you agree?" With his arms crossed over his chest, the Executive Officer of the Madame De Pompadour drilled both of the junior officers with more than a bit of scorn.

Yup, he was absolutely fucked.