Lessons From A Frontiersman
Skulkinator
Join Date: 2004-05-30 Member: 29016Members
Join Date: 2004-05-30 Member: 29016Members
I lost my notes for "Brother", so I wrote this while looking for them and taking a break.
By the way, if this comes off as more of some kind of manual than a fan-fic, I don't blame you. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> It was meant to be humorous, maybe satirical. Disclaimer: If you take any of these lessons to heart, I am not responsible for the consequences.
<b>Lessons From a Frontiersman</b>
A while back, I attended a special TSA training course on commanding techniques. The instructor was Sergeant Cliffe, a eight-year veteran of the Frontiersmen, with combat and commanding experience. Previously, he had been awarded medals for victories he had commanded.
During the course, he taught us about the psychology of a basic marine, and how to use it to manipulate him. He detailed it in three parts, with sub-points in each one.
<b>Part 1: Ego</b>
"The basic marine," he told us, "Strives to be considered better than his peers. If it makes him look good, he will do it. If it increases his personal 'score', he will do it."
<b>Part 1, Technique 1: Squad Five</b>
"Once in a while, you will have marines who absolutely refuse to listen. By that, I mean they will go in the opposite direction of where you want them to, or even worse, they will run around in circles, asking for ammo and health packs.
"You can get them to listen to you by boosting their ego a bit. Make good use of squads - generally, Squad Five, because it is the highest."
Sergeant Cliffe recounted a mission in which he used this technique. "I was given a no-good bunch of punks who thought they were better than the best. They refused to go where I ordered them to, and ended up getting mauled by a pair of skulks.
"I knew I had to do something. It was then that the idea occured to me. I said, over the voice channel, 'You're squad fiiiiiiive!' after I had selected them all."
At this, there were a few snickers.
"I sh*t you not. I said it exactly like that. And guess what? Every one of them said back, 'Sir, yes sir!', and they followed my orders after that."
The snickers stopped, though some of us still had grins on our faces. Everyone started taking notes.
"I can tell none of you have ever been in Squad Five," he said with a roll of his eyes.
<b>Part 1, Technique 2: Words of Encouragement</b>
He continued, "Another technique you can use is encouragement, or praise."
"The average grunt doesn't exactly have the highest self-esteem. You can use that to your advantage. Even a little 'good job' can boost his ego, and get him to do what you say.
"I remember there was a PFC Green, who always stayed away from the rest of the team, because he was afraid he would look bad. He wandered around the safer areas, and happened upon an open resource node. I dropped a tower on it, and told him to build it.
"Well, since nobody else was there, he did. I gave him a 'thanks, good job', and he immediately asked for more orders."
<b>Part 1, Technique 3: How to Deal With False Leadership</b>
"Occasionally, you'll get a marine who thinks he's the commander, even though he's not the one in the chair. You'll constantly hear his voice on the channel, giving out mundane orders like 'Fall back!' and 'You guys go right'. Often, these guys will have annoying, high-pitched, nasal and maybe even lispy voices.
"The simple way to deal with this is to mute their voices. However, the rest of the team might not realize this, and the false leader might actually have something important to say at one point.
"The trick? Let him down easy. Tell him in a calm, but firm manner that he is not the commander, and that his talking obstructs others' hearing. Give him a shotgun or some ammo to mollify him. It's like soothing a baby."
By the way, if this comes off as more of some kind of manual than a fan-fic, I don't blame you. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> It was meant to be humorous, maybe satirical. Disclaimer: If you take any of these lessons to heart, I am not responsible for the consequences.
<b>Lessons From a Frontiersman</b>
A while back, I attended a special TSA training course on commanding techniques. The instructor was Sergeant Cliffe, a eight-year veteran of the Frontiersmen, with combat and commanding experience. Previously, he had been awarded medals for victories he had commanded.
During the course, he taught us about the psychology of a basic marine, and how to use it to manipulate him. He detailed it in three parts, with sub-points in each one.
<b>Part 1: Ego</b>
"The basic marine," he told us, "Strives to be considered better than his peers. If it makes him look good, he will do it. If it increases his personal 'score', he will do it."
<b>Part 1, Technique 1: Squad Five</b>
"Once in a while, you will have marines who absolutely refuse to listen. By that, I mean they will go in the opposite direction of where you want them to, or even worse, they will run around in circles, asking for ammo and health packs.
"You can get them to listen to you by boosting their ego a bit. Make good use of squads - generally, Squad Five, because it is the highest."
Sergeant Cliffe recounted a mission in which he used this technique. "I was given a no-good bunch of punks who thought they were better than the best. They refused to go where I ordered them to, and ended up getting mauled by a pair of skulks.
"I knew I had to do something. It was then that the idea occured to me. I said, over the voice channel, 'You're squad fiiiiiiive!' after I had selected them all."
At this, there were a few snickers.
"I sh*t you not. I said it exactly like that. And guess what? Every one of them said back, 'Sir, yes sir!', and they followed my orders after that."
The snickers stopped, though some of us still had grins on our faces. Everyone started taking notes.
"I can tell none of you have ever been in Squad Five," he said with a roll of his eyes.
<b>Part 1, Technique 2: Words of Encouragement</b>
He continued, "Another technique you can use is encouragement, or praise."
"The average grunt doesn't exactly have the highest self-esteem. You can use that to your advantage. Even a little 'good job' can boost his ego, and get him to do what you say.
"I remember there was a PFC Green, who always stayed away from the rest of the team, because he was afraid he would look bad. He wandered around the safer areas, and happened upon an open resource node. I dropped a tower on it, and told him to build it.
"Well, since nobody else was there, he did. I gave him a 'thanks, good job', and he immediately asked for more orders."
<b>Part 1, Technique 3: How to Deal With False Leadership</b>
"Occasionally, you'll get a marine who thinks he's the commander, even though he's not the one in the chair. You'll constantly hear his voice on the channel, giving out mundane orders like 'Fall back!' and 'You guys go right'. Often, these guys will have annoying, high-pitched, nasal and maybe even lispy voices.
"The simple way to deal with this is to mute their voices. However, the rest of the team might not realize this, and the false leader might actually have something important to say at one point.
"The trick? Let him down easy. Tell him in a calm, but firm manner that he is not the commander, and that his talking obstructs others' hearing. Give him a shotgun or some ammo to mollify him. It's like soothing a baby."
Comments
"Every marine wants to stay alive as long as possible," he said, "Not to mention the desire to boost his own 'score'. In order to accomplish these goals, your average marine will want better weapons and more ammo."
Everyone chuckled. We had all been guilty of that at some point in the field. Sergeant Cliff seemed to know, as he cast a slight frown at us.
<b>Part 2, Technique 1: Stopping Armory Humpers</b>
"As you all know, the armory is the basic method of dispensing ammunition. Marines tend to sit at the armory for a bit, getting ammo for a while. The field term is 'armory humping'."
There were a few laughs. Sergeant Cliffe glared.
"Some marines will, instead of following orders, hump the armory. Even worse, if they're not humping the armory, they'll run around in your base, asking for ammo.
"The trick to this is that they practically worship the armory. Take away their armory, and they're like helpless babies. However, the armory is still a crucial part of your base, so you can't actually remove it.
"In other words, threaten to remove it, if they don't stop using it. After they stop, tell them that you'll give them ammo at the waypoint, or give them an armory there. Give them orders, and watch 'em flock."
<b>Part 2, Technique 2: Weaponry</b>
"As I said before, every marine wants better weapons. Generally, they will show this by yelling over the voice channel, 'Commander, can I get a shotgun?!', or, 'Can we get some HMGs, comm?', and so on.
"Sometimes, marines will get whiny if you don't give them their precious shotguns and HMGs. Nobody wants that. NOBODY. What you have to do is give them their guns as a reward only, or use the guns in place of ammo, in the previous technique.
"There was a mission in which there were a couple of marines who kept asking for shotguns. I got sick of it, so I gave them a waypoint, and told them I would give them shotguns if they completed the objective. Sure enough, they did it in record time.
"Another example. There was a marine who wanted an HMG, and kept running around the armory. I dropped an armory near one of our outposts, by the last hive. I told him to go build it, then he'd get an HMG. That's an example of combining strategies. He ran over, built it, and got his HMG. Problem solved."
<b>Part 2, Technique 3: Jetpacks</b>
"I'm sure you all know of the infamous jetpack. Ah, the jetpack. Every marine wants one. They'll say, 'Shotgun jetpack comm!', and you'll probably say, 'No.'
"So what do you do? You tell them to complete an objective for their jetpack. On a previous mission, there was a marine who kept asking for a jetpack. I told him to get near one of the enemy hives, so I could siege it out while he guarded it. He did it, in hopes of getting his jetpack. After our siege was complete, he realized it was the last hive.
"See? Marines will do almost anything for their coveted jetpacks. If you're lucky, you won't even have to give it to them."
Everyone nodded in agreement. <i>This is one manipulative bastard</i>, I thought to myself.
"As I said before, marines like to inflate their score. They like to boost their ego by getting more kills than the other marines. These marines may take certain actions which can be classified under certain names, such as 'rambo'. There are variants on the rambo, which I'll tell you how to deal with."
<b>Part 3, Technique 1: Dealing With the Rambo</b>
"Rambos generally ignore the commander, except to request health and ammo. They tend to be relatively better in terms of simple killing, but they're horrible in terms of helping the team directly.
"Nobody really wants a simple Rambo. They run off, away from the rest of the team. If you're lucky, they'll just feed you resources by killing aliens. If you're not lucky, they'll just make noise, alert the aliens, and feed them resources.
"Usually, the trick is just to ignore them. Simply, don't give them ammo, health, guns, or buildings. Let them hang, until they follow orders.
"Another way you can deal with Rambos is by sending a couple marines with him at all times, so they might actually accomplish something. If you're good, you can manipulate Rambos and use them to your own advantage, instead of the aliens'."
<b>Part 3, Technique 2: Dealing With Spawn Campers</b>
"As you have all learned before, alien hives periodically produce aliens, a process commonly known as 'spawning'. If you have attacked a hive location, certain marines might desire a boost in their score, and simply stand in one place, waiting for aliens to spawn, so they may kill.
"Occasionally, this is necessary, but only to protect the other marines while they build or attack the hive. If you have several marines spawncamping, and nothing is being accomplished, the easiest way to deal with this is by cutting off their supplies. Don't give them health or ammo, until at least three-fourths of them are building or shooting the hive."
"Well, that concludes this lesson. Though there are far more advanced techniques to use, remember these - they may save you one day. At the very least, you'll get your marines to listen to you before you are utterly crushed by aliens."
He smiled, and left the room, leaving us with shocked expressions. <i>Who would want to be a commander with all this to deal with?</i> I thought.