[Command] "HOS YOUR DEPARTMENT IS SHIT GET YOUR OFFICERS IN LINE."

[Streaky Haddock]

You are the Head of Security.

It is 13:00 and the RD has been kidnapped, there's a rogue maint drone running around shocking things and turning off the grav gen; the QM is screaming at  you over PDA because apparently you've ignored the last six calls to deal with the Sith Lord Vox that's keeping cargo hostage, there's constant fights in the Bar and the CMO has rage cryo'd because their department is a mess of broken glass and tears.

Captain O'kay, is losing his shit and wants, at the least, for Sec to reduce its Cause:Solve problem ratio to at least 1:1. 

The Warden is slow and sluggish to respond and has been robusted in prison once. There are two officers in processing, one is arresting the clown for running around with a syndi toolbox, another officer is screaming down radio 'for the tenth fucking time why is the Chaplain set to arrest' the Brig Phys is in full riot gear ready to 'provide medical support in the field'. Your third officer has been brought to you, cable-tied by a greyshirt and the chaplain 'for tasing everybody in science''. Your fourth officer has been decent in the past, but he's "sick of this shit" and just stays in the bar because he's tired of the confusion and shittiness.

Detective lost his revolver to a botanist on meth and went SSD.

R&D is up and running but pissed at you, cargo is being held hostage.

 

For the purposes of this scenario, cryo and/or committing suicide aren't an option.

 

(what should I have done and how did I even let it get this bad)

[Someonewithapen]

Oh boy, lighting round.

• The Warden is fine, seems pretty new. Give him a refresher of easy brig procedure: Stun, cuff, buckle, stun, set timer, stun, uncuff, stun, leave.
• Officer #1 needs slapped and sent to Cargo, the clown needs thrown out and the tool box needs dunked into evidence.
• Officer #2 needs the Chappie placed off arrest and also sent to Cargo.
• The Brig Phys needs slapped. The armor needs to go. Give him a taser at least and tell him to support the rookie Warden.
• Third Officer needs fired, no questions asked.
• Fourth Officer needs to be recalled, lie down in the infirmary if unable to walk straight.
• The Detective needs to be shoved in a Cryo-Bed.
• R&D needs to do their fucking job, else risk the Captain sacking the lot of them if the RD remains absent.
• The QM is probably lying, because I've never heard Cargo being held back by a single person, but if there is an E-Swording Vox, sending the two officers to stir up trouble should give Cargonia the chance they need to break free.
• If anyone in Security, Brig Phys and Officer #1 especially, gives you trouble on your orders, sack them.
• Attempt to maintain sanity until 1400
• All else fails, call ERT with captain

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by Someonewithapen

[McRamon]

abandon the brig, wait for ERT, sanity is long gone already

[Someonewithapen]

Getting Engineering to jettison the entire brig wing might also work.

[Machofish]

Respond to captain, outline in necessary detail that there are not enough diapers in the universe to deal with the amount of shit that the entire station is currently submerged in. Then get to work.

Assuming that I'm starting this scenario in the brig:

Set your 'priority threat', and ensure that fixing the smaller problems is part of solving the big problem. Keeping a Priority Threat in mind is a good thing, since it'll give you moral high-ground when paving over smaller insignificant issues, and it'll let you separate the officers into two groups: The BENCHWARMERS, and the TEAM MEMBERS. In this case, I'll assume the 'Priority Threat' is the Sith Lord Cargo vox. First thing's first is to double-check the reports: get the AI to spy on cargo to see if the hostage threat is real, then check the camera consoles yourself because the AI inevitably won't respond to you. If there are reports of the Cargo-Vox threat from more than two people, this means it's a REALLY big deal, and you should get a lot more elbow room in terms of rallying people to confront it.

Ignore the warden for now; they're going to be more of a liability than a help, so give them a bucket of crayons and leave them in the corner where they won't cause too much trouble. Confront officer #1 and assess the situation - search the clown quickly and either shove them out the door if they're just doing average clown things, or leave them cuffed in processing if the clown is being a genuine shit (blocking security's doors, slipping and lockerwelding officers, stealing tasers and stunbatons). If Officer #1 does not accept the larger threat of the Vox Sith Lord, assign him to the Benchwarmers group and leave him for later. Otherwise, if Officer #1 understands the larger threat and accepts your ruling, levy him into your 'Team Members' group. Officer #1 has now joined your party. The Brig phys wearing riot gear sends a few mixed messages - but  in this situation, it shows they're itching for a fight, which is good considering the crazy Sithlord Vox: Demand that, if the brig phys wants to keep that gear, they must follow you to cargo and help you confront the vox. Brig Phys has now joined your party. Officer #2's rage over the chaplain's arrest warrant shows that they might have management problems, but they might also be competent but making the mistake of addressing problems in the order they were given to him, rather than by the scale of the threat. Tell Officer #2 that the chaplain's charges are from a shit officer, and promise you'll deal with it after Officer #2 helps you take care of the Sith Lord cargo vox. Officer #2 has now joined your party. Officer #3 has proven his enormous incompetence: Thank the chaplain and the civilian for their services, ask them to hand Officer #3's equipment over to your warden and tell them to hang onto Officer #3 until you've dealt with the Sith Lord Vox (Note: This is doomed to get worse, but it'll create a 'slow-burn' situation where you can deal with it further down the line - the Benchwarmers can take care of it in the meantime). Officer #4 is probably the worst: Not only is that player wasting an officer slot, he/she has opted out of both the 'Benchwarmers' role and the 'Team Members', and so Officer #4 can stay in the bar. Express your overwhelming and explicit disapproval at Officer #4's lack of backbone and move on. They'll either stay on the bench or swallow their pride and join the ranks again. NOTE: #3 and #4 need to be dealt with as fast as possible or else your party members (Officer #1, Officer #2, and Brig Phys) will lose interest or get distracted.

Optional Party members: Blueshield, any bored validhunters concerned crewmembers who are willing to join your posse.

Lead your party to cargo bay and confront Sith Lord Vox. Presumably, either all four of you will be given the sweet, merciful release of death or you'll successfully take out the angry vox. If you successfully get Sith Lord Vox pacified (either in cuffs or dead if they're stun-resistant), announce your victory and remind Officer #4 that they're a dipshit for moping in the bar while the rest of sec were at least trying to make the situation better. It's cruel, but then again so is pissing around in the bar while your coworkers enter a life-and-death battle with a robust antagonist. Make it clear that they either need to put on their big boy pants and learn to persevere through SNAFU situations in Sec, or they should stop occupying the damn officer slots. 

If R&D's irritation was due to Officer #3 stirring up shit, demote Officer #3 and use his tears to wash away your department's sins. Science is still probably going to continue hating you on general principle so don't push the matter - sec should have everything they need in the brig to get the job done. R&D is fully within bounds to remind Sec that fancy science toys are a privilege, not a right. Note that demotion should always be a last-resort: When an officer gets demoted, they often start going full greytide which ties down a minimum of one Team Member to keep them under control.

Rinse and repeat process for the botanist carrying the Detective's revolver (be sure to ask the botanist to return the revolver first before sending the posse at him). Return to the brig and deal with the problems that the Benchwarmers have inevitably failed to handle adequately while you were out. New and equally-dangerous issues will likely have risen in the time it took you to get to this point, so just continue to rinse and repeat until the shuttle arrives or you've gotten killed.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Machofish

[Kyet]

On 10/2/2017 at 5:08 AM, Streaky Haddock said:

You are the Head of Security.

It is 13:00 and the RD has been kidnapped, there's a rogue maint drone running around shocking things and turning off the grav gen; the QM is screaming at  you over PDA because apparently you've ignored the last six calls to deal with the Sith Lord Vox that's keeping cargo hostage, there's constant fights in the Bar and the CMO has rage cryo'd because their department is a mess of broken glass and tears.

Captain O'kay, is losing his shit and wants, at the least, for Sec to reduce its Cause:Solve problem ratio to at least 1:1. 

The Warden is slow and sluggish to respond and has been robusted in prison once. There are two officers in processing, one is arresting the clown for running around with a syndi toolbox, another officer is screaming down radio 'for the tenth fucking time why is the Chaplain set to arrest' the Brig Phys is in full riot gear ready to 'provide medical support in the field'. Your third officer has been brought to you, cable-tied by a greyshirt and the chaplain 'for tasing everybody in science''. Your fourth officer has been decent in the past, but he's "sick of this shit" and just stays in the bar because he's tired of the confusion and shittiness.

Detective lost his revolver to a botanist on meth and went SSD.

R&D is up and running but pissed at you, cargo is being held hostage.

 

For the purposes of this scenario, cryo and/or committing suicide aren't an option.

 

(what should I have done and how did I even let it get this bad)

 

Problems:

(A) RD is kidnapped

(B) Rogue maint drone running around shocking things

(C) Vox holding crew hostage in cargo

(D) Constant fights in the bar

(E) Medical is a mess

(F) Sec officer #1 is arresting a clown for having a syndie toolbox.

(G) Sec officer #2 is pointing out the chaplain is set to arrest for no reason.

(H) Brig phys acting as SWAT

(I) Sec officer #3 apparently tased everyone in science.

(J) Sec officer #4 has retired to the bar.

(K) Detective is SSD.

(L) Warden is slow to respond and has been robusted in prison once.

(M) Botanist has det's gun

 

General philosophy:

• Get backup. Recruit as many people as possible to help you deal with the problems, starting with the rest of command, but also the crew in general.
• Communicate. Before moving an inch, issue communications that get everyone on the right track as fast as possible.
• DON'T deal with the Vox first. By the looks of the QM's messages, the situation has been somewhat stable for awhile, and as angry as the QM is, sending in officers one by one may well just destabilize the situation and get them slaughtered. Instead, deal with the immediate problems in the brig, and rally my team, THEN respond to the Vox with overwhelming force, so as to minimize casualties. Rather like a real SWAT team.

 

TO-DO list:

• Say on Command radio: "Blueshield, we need you to find the RD. (A). CE, please have engineering fix medbay. You yourself, see if you can cut the AI control wires in grav gen so that the drone cannot keep turning off power there. (B, E). HoP/Captain, please set the jobs of Sec Officer and detective to HIGH priority, open more slots for them, and ensure a new CMO is appointed. If there is no blueshield, set that job to high priority as well. (K, E) AI, please turn grav back on. (B)"
• Say this on public radio: "Attention! We have a rogue maint drone. It is RED. If you see it, kill it immediately. Heads, use your door remotes to bolt open key doors in your department so it cannot shock them. If anyone finds a shocked door, report it to the AI so it can be fixed. " (B)
• Say this on sec radio: "Officer 1, don't arrest the clown, just search them. If nothing more then the toolbox is found, release them immediately. If more is found, report it here, and process according to space law. Either way, come follow me as soon as you are done." (F)
• Say this on sec radio: "Brig Phys, I need your backup. Come to me at <location>. Warden, be ready to hand out guns."
• Reply to the QM's PDA message, with: "I am gathering my team and will raid cargo ASAP, but you have to hold out until then."
• Check why the chaplain is wanted. If it turns out there is a good reason, deal with it. Assuming there isn't, and it was just officer #3 setting them to arrest for stopping their rampage, say: "Officer 2, chaplain was set to arrest by #3 on bad grounds, I have cleared their arrest status. Nevermind the chaplain for the moment, just follow me." Then, to the chaplain: "Thank you for your service, I will take it from here", and take custody of #3 from them. Ask #3: "You have until we reach my office to explain exactly why you were tasing everyone in Science." as I pull him to my office.
• Once I get to my office, and while I am waiting for #3 to respond, say this on sec radio: "Officer 4, we are swamped here. The team needs your help. If you can, go get the detective from <location> and put him in cryo. At the very least, keep an eye on the bar and ensure there are no more bar fights." (D and J, possibly K as well)
• Announce on public radio: "Botanist X, we know you have the detective's gun. Hand it in immediately to the Warden at the brig, or we will come get you.". Then radio the warden: "Warden, give Botanist X three minutes to come hand in this gun. If he isn't here and handed it in by then, set him to arrest." (M)
• By now officer #3 should have explained why he did what he did. Assuming #3 doesn't have a good reason for his actions, strip him of sec gear, demote his ID using the management console in my office, and throw him out on his ass. Make it clear to him that any greytidey behavior from him will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Before throwing him out, ahelp "As HoS, I just fired officer 3. They apparently went around tasing a ton of people in science for no good reason, then got robusted by the chaplain and a civvie." (I)
• Tell my team that we are going to load up in the armory, then raid Cargo and subdue the Vox. Take my team to the armory, where the warden should have guns ready to hand out. Remind everyone that they need a ranged lethal weapon, and they should immediately shoot any red maint drone they may see. As they arm up, evaluate my team. Do I think I can handle the station with this team? If no, radio command that we're about to raid cargo... but the situation is bad enough they should call an ERT for backup. Remind them all that the botanist is on meth, stun-resistant, and armed with a deadly weapon, and they are free to shoot him too if necessary.
• Just before leaving Sec, on command radio, say: "AI, Security is now raiding cargo. Track me, and open all doors in our path before we reach them. Send us any borgs you can spare, too." Just before we leave, remind the brig phys: "Brig phys, this is your time to shine. There may well be casualties. Keep sec alive first, but beyond that, help any injured you see." Roll through cargo with my team, ensuring the Vox is subdued. (C)
• After the Vox is dealt with, check my team is alive and well, noting if anyone is out of action. From there, split the team up. Ideally, assign the Brig Phys to help the Warden in the brig, with two officers scouring maint together, forming a search team for the RD. Give them instructions to search anyone remotely suspicious en-route, so they have a chance of uncovering the person who emagged the drone.
• At this point, go see officer #4 in the bar, and try to convince him to rejoin the team. If he refuses to be useful, take him to the brig and fire him. Remind him that failure to do his duty is a serious problem, and sometimes he just has to suck it up and pitch in - that the crew is probably not very happy about him chilling in the bar during an active hostage crisis.
• Finally, go check the crew monitoring console in the bridge and re-deploy officers towards whatever area of the station has the most dead people - with instructions to detain/search the suspicious, terminate red maint drones, and get any dead crew bodies they find to medbay. Upon giving this order, if there are many bodies, announce on public radio that medical should be prepared for incoming casualties, and advise command as to whether a shuttle is necessary.

Edited December 2, 2017 by tzo

[Streaky Haddock]

Wow! That's in-depth! Thanks!