Zanfee - Commanding Officer Application

[Zanfee]

Commanding Officer Application - Zanfee

What is your BYOND key?

Zanfee

What is your Discord ID?

zanfee

What is your timezone in UTC?

UTC+07

Player Name You Use Most?

Shiva ‘Timber’ Ridge, Clemens “Gumption” Darling

Ban Appeals, Whitelist and Staff Applications:

None

Have you been banned in the last 3 months?

No

If so, why?

Command Knowledge:

How familiar are you with command positions?

I am well versed in both ship-side and ground-side command roles, be it the squad leader or the staff officer. I have had a plethora of operations to command and understand the flow of battle and how to effectively communicate information to the marine force.
While I do have low MP hours I encouraged others to frequently ask me ML questions to fill the gaps in knowledge that come from grey areas in ML. If anyone would like to hit me up with a question or two to prove my knowledge to them, then do so under this application.

Hours in XO:

87 Hours.

Hours in SL:

106 Hours.

Character Information:

Why did your character decide to become the CO of a ship?

Clemens followed the footsteps of his father and enlisted in the USCMC while also believing in the values he was taught early on. After serving his time aboard the USS-Caiman, he believed that he could lead operation strategically and effectively better and turned back to become an officer instead. Later during his career he witnessed his Commanding Officer valiantly give his life for that of others and his view changed. He now believed that he had to fill the shoes of said commander. During his time as the CO he bonded greatly with those under his command and grew confident that he would lead them no matter where, be it near the core systems or the frontiers of the United Americas.

How did your character attain the position of CO?

Captain Darling was found eligible for promotion after the numerous operations he co-lead with his Commanding Officer and his long time serving in the USCMC. The decision was finalised after Operation Guiding-Light in part due to the Death of the CO and due to a previous recommendation that was signed to High Command by said senior officer.

Provide a short story of your CO.

Commanding Officer Application

Command Actions:

When do you believe it’s appropriate to pardon a prisoner?

Pardons are a tool that should be handed out with purpose and meaning. When pardoning a criminal I believe it is important that the prisoner acknowledged their mistake. What I mean by that is that the prisoner has to know that something went wrong and that they have to see that it is in part their fault. This is important to ensure the criminal does not commit acts that break marine law again. Usefulness in the operation can and will also be a factor of a pardon but a commanding officer has to make sure that his trust in someone else is not misplaced. At the end of the day you are essentially putting yourself and the operation on the line.

Give some examples of when you would or would not use pardon.

A specialist keeps punching the Corporate liaison and stealing their briefcase, the liaison reasonably gets the Military Police to arrest said specialist. Meanwhile the aforementioned weapons specialists is complaining on general communications about how they can’t help the operation anymore and how this could affect the operation greatly. He tries to rally fellow marines to make you as the commanding officer pardon them.
In this situation I would not pardon the weapons specialist as he is specifically trying to make me act in his accordance for his benefit for something he clearly knew what the consequences were yet still decided to do it and leverage their position as Weapons specialist to receive a “get out of jail” card. Furthermore how can I trust such an individual if I were to pardon them. They would essentially believe they are risk free from Marine Law.

On Low Pop, one of two Combat technician breaks out of their squad prep after an SO changed their squad too early. The Combat technician tries to communicate with their Staff officer but falls on silent ears. He decides to use his shotgun to break out of his CT squad prep all the while an MP hears them do said thing and promptly arrests them.
In this Situation I would pardon the Combat technician, they had no intent on maliciously breaking Marine Law and due to our numbers we cannot afford to loose such a valuable asset.

I find myself waking up from Cryo and head up the ladders South West of the briefing bubble. Upon walking to the CIC I witness the CMP using a breaching charge on green to blow open the CL office and kill the CL while doing so. The CMP spots me instantly and quickly explains that they saw the CL on scanners dead in their office and had no other way of reaching them before they would perma. The Liason gets revived and quickly demands the CMP face consequences since he was not asked once over command radio about his status.
In this situation I would arrest the CMP for Manslaughter, FTFP, DTGP and Neglect of duty. I believe I would not have to BE them since they remained compliant while reasoning yet they still broke ML, due to the fact that the CL was alive and well and because they killed them in the process. I would also not pardon them since there are numerous other methods of contacting a CL and checking up on them. Using a breaching charge to gain entry into their office is not one of them.

When do you believe it’s appropriate to use a Battlefield Execution?

Battlefield executions should be used sparingly and only when the situation demands it. Each and every round will have different conditions but BEs will always be used for the benefit of the operation no matter the circumstance. They are a last resort option, removing someone from the round instantly. So one has to be confident that a situation warrants such force.

Give some examples of when you would or would not use Battlefield Execution.

Two marines are having an argument and it quickly escalates to both of them punching each other. After I demand them to cease, one of them punches the other and the second one readies their shotgun and drops the marine.
A Battlefield execution would be an appropriate response to this. You have warned both enlisted that there would be no more escalation beyond this incident and while the first marine punching the second one directly undermines your statement, escalating the situation to a gunfight in front of your commanding officer is unacceptable and will be met appropriately.

I deploy to lead the ground operation and I am notified on MP communications that research is creating their own hive after I told them not to. The Captain explains that he authorised it. I tell him that he could not do so as the duty officer and head shipside to deal with this myself. Upon reaching research I am informed that the captain locked himself in with the researchers and is refusing to come out.
In this situation I would BE both the research team and the XO. I have notified both research and my command staff that there will be no hive made upon my ship, yet both the Research and the Executive officer have ignored my authority and tried to create an unnecessary risk for the operation.

An evacuation is authorised as the Hijack occurs. I along with my XO agree and call evacuation while ordering everyone to head to boats due to our low numbers. After we arrive, we barricade ourselves and launch the north boat to avoid having to hold 3 sides.
I overhear from another marine that the SE Pumps have fallen so I order everyone to hold tight while we wait for more fuel.
The DP however tries to rally everyone saying “We can safely escape via Dropship!” while using a mega phone.
I explicitly tell him to cut it out or the crew will die on their way to the dropship but the pilot doesn’t listen.
“THE CO IS INSANE IF HE THINKS THIS HOLDS, WE CAN STILL MAKE IT OUT, FOLLOW ME”
In this case I would BE the DP, during an emergency he fails to see the primary reason why lifeboats is being held (to escape safely from the ship) and tries to undermine my authority and risk everyone involved by trying to lead them outside the safety of cades just to reach the planet which might or might not still contain xenos. Furthermore calling your CO insane especially in a life or death situation like this only amplifies the need of an BE.

[Zanfee]

Here is my playtime.

[SgtMike]

@Zanfee

When do you believe it’s appropriate to pardon a prisoner?

Pardons are a tool that should be handed out with purpose and meaning. When pardoning a criminal I believe it is important that the prisoner acknowledged their mistake. What I mean by that istrong texts that the prisoner has to know that something went wrong and that they have to see that it is in part their fault. This is important to ensure the criminal does not commit acts that break marine law again. Usefulness in the operation can and will also be a factor of a pardon but a commanding officer has to make sure that his trust in someone else is not misplaced. At the end of the day you are essentially putting yourself and the operation on the line.

1-To be honest, it looks like you gave a brief example of what would you fell you’d in that case. i’d like to see more examples of the situations you’d issue a pardon, since your answer is only based on pardoning someone under the basis of “i am sorry CO please let me go” there are tons of examples you could use for this, not always is the marine acting like he’s sorry, but the use of the marine in said OP sometimes you gotta risk it.

2- The first two examples of pardons are ok-ish.
I only have problems with your 3rd answer, which in that case, you have to delegate that to staff since breaking ML as CMP is a serious offense, plus that scenario seems very griefy to me, you have two sides of the story in which one could be lying, and since you just woke up, you have no guarantees that the CL is telling the truth or the CMP, you’re willing to ruin CMPs round only because the CL said such thing happened.

3- Your first and third BE answers are decent enough, but your second conflicts with the “when do you believe it’s appropriate to BE”

You’re telling me that it’s your last restort to remove someone of the round, yet you have a full let’s say competent MP team which can handle the situation accordingly, you forgot to put someone in charge of the operation while you’re going up, since that should be your priority the OP.

You’re letting a grudge of “No, i said no and you didn’t listen” escalate to what could be a fiasco OP wise, since at CIC no one knows what to do with a XO locked in research and let’s be real, in that scenario, most of the CIC staff will not pay attention to the operation and most likely costing you the round, instead of delegating someone to solve the issue.

…

Now gameplay wise, i play in all timezones, very often, and i don’t think i’ve ever seen you as XO. I might remember the name clemens, but nothing rings my bells.

For that matter, i’m not endorsing this app. -1
I’m open to change my vote if i see you playing more XO, and your perfomance is up to standards.

[Moonshanks]

I have yet to see you in round so I cannot comment on your command style. If you could run an XO round with me (either CO, or SO) that’d help me vote.

The story provided is interesting read, and adequately shows your CO’s character as a competent leader held back by doubts from their past.

I’d like to see how this character appears in game, as as far as distinctive features go I couldn’t really identify any.

Your BE and Pardon answers are correct, I don’t see any issue there, as commented by other people you would want to ahelp that CMP situation first, however, ahelping it doesn’t stop you handling it IC so the answer is fine.

Hours are good for a fledgling CO, you could benefit from more XO hours during your application as you seem to be a relatively unknown candidate.

I appreciate the clear breadth and depth of effort that has gone into this app, I’m leaning toward a +1 but what would really help is playing a round with you. I’ll DM you on discord

[Zanfee]

First of all I thank you, seems like I have not put enough detail into the two of my answers only thinking about law relevant parts of the situation.

1- Of course I can see your concern with my pardon answer. For me personally to trust someone will not commit a crime; regret is a primary give away that it wont happen but like addressed is not the only factor. Usefulness be it urgent or not will always remain a point which influences if someone does get pardoned or not. So I will list some more situations which would suit the case of where usefulness is the major factor.

• On Lowpop, one of the only two docs who was not deployed gets caught breaking procedure by smoking in medbay and the MP arrests them. They get upset saying “I wasn’t even doing surgery” and notably also resist arrest. I am informed about multiple hugged personnel on the ground and assume that they will be coming up via medevac soon, yet I hear over comms that the only doc shipside is requesting an appeal.
  I quickly move to brig and and ask them point blank if they had committed the crime or not. Depending if they say yes they did, I would pardon them immediately.
  If they say no, I would continue with the standard appeal procedure with the Hugged marines in mind and after I can make make out that both crimes were indeed committed, I deny the appeal and pardon them so that the marines coming up are not guaranteed to burst and loose their life. In this critical situation it wouldn’t matter that the doc would acknowledge their mistake. What is needed here is for him to perform his duty and save lives.

• The Operation ground-side is dire and based on attrition as the marines are entrenching in their position. I am mentioned over the command frequency that the earlier arrived CMB Detachment together with the Military Police were able to identify that each of the Req Department members (being the Quartermaster and one Cargo Tech) were caught up in a contraband scheme (Both admitting to the Major charge of Contraband and resisting a legal arrest). I myself and my XO quickly recognise that without a proper REQ department running, the ground forces may not be able to hold out long enough until foxtrot wakes up. I then first delegate a Staff officer to handle the req department and update their ID accordingly. Afterwards I check in with the marshal and the ICC liaison at brig to ensure that all affected hacked consoles were cleared. Lastly I would pardon both the Quatermaster and the Cargo Technician for their crimes so that they could make sure the marines are getting what they need to survive.

2- I know what you mean here, I thought it was not relevant to address that the CMP of course should be ahelped in this situation since I only outlined IC actions, but yes I would have done so before hand. For the second part of your response I must admit again I failed to properly outline the situation taken shortly after the CL is getting revived so i will do so now.
I would inform the XO that he would have to handle CIC and the operation until I have dealt with the situation at hand.

• CMP is able to prove with other officers that the CL did in fact not respond on communications when asked about it. In this case I would have to reconcile with the Provost Office since the ML states that “If the life and limb of a ship’s crew or other personnel are at risk in a situation, personnel may act in a manner reasonable to preserve them even if such action would otherwise violate marine law.” I personally believe that the IF statement is of importance of this clause but in spirit of the law I would fax the Provost Office to make sure I am not in the wrong on this one. I would talk to both the CL and the CMP about this fax and I would hope to get them both to agree that this is the best action possible for all parties
• CMP (as per example) did in fact not commit to asking the CL on radio before breaching into their office which would be unreasonable, I would handle the situation as described in my initial Answer.

3- I will now fully detail my actions upon a more defined situation based upon my initial answer. You are again correct, I did not fully outline that someone was put in his place to lead the operation which is my mistake. Furthermore I also forgot to outline that the researchers were aware that the XO was not allowed to authorise it either. So I hope this can shed some light on my thought process.

• Situation: The XO failed to put someone else in their place to lead the Combat Information Centre. The Military Police department is manned by two MPs and upon my arrival I am greeted with a research lockdown to prevent the XO from facing prosecution and time for the greeno hive. The research team was illegally allowed by the XO to continue making the hive.
• My Reaction: In this situation i would first ensure that the operation would be in good hands assigning a Duty Officer to lead it. Once I am sure the operation could continue I would summon the MP department and Shipside Marines forces as backup to deal with the Greeno Hive. I would still however BE the XO once we gain entry with breaching charges. I have seen this example already and I believe that this situation warrants a BE. The Executive officer knew that he was breaking a law and knew that he was maliciously going behind my back to make this hive. Then also triggering the Lock down upon my arrival on the ship gives me every check-mark that this person is trying to actively sabotage the operation, put all of the lives onboard at risk and undermine my authority. The researchers who were also informed that I denied a greeno hive before hand could have been persuaded by the XO not realising that he could not legally do so and I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

To address your last, I am mostly playing from 10:00 UTC to 15:00 UTC. I usually have played one XO round a day so I can see why you might have not been able to see me as XO. The rest of the rounds I play is mostly SL since that is one of my comfortable roles.
Please let me know if this addresses all your concerns with my initial answers, and thank you for taking the time to judge my answers and repond to them.

[Zanfee]

Hey, I am happy to hear that my CO story is a decent read and would be willing to play under you as the Executive officer if you can spare the time. My discord is already mentioned above so just hit me with a DM between 10:00 UTC to 15:00 UTC or earlier if possible.

Thank you for the feedback.

[SgtMike]

I like your answers and the detail you gave to them, i’m expecting to see you play more XO, you need to get off your comfort zone and play more, remember we don’t want a PFC+. coughs these days will be crucial for you, and it’s up to you to get our attention, i’m leaning towards a change of mind, expect to see you in CIC soon.

[Spy23]

Hey there Zanfee!

Thank you for taking the time to engage with the CO WL, I know this application has spent a very long time in the oven, and it’s very exiting to see you finally stepping up to bat.

First and foremost, I am very impressed with your willingness to work through the various stages of pre-review that comes with any good CO application. I’ve seen you go to great lengths for feedback from other COs in your gameplay, and the written contents of your application.

While this trait may go underappreciated on occasion, being genuinely open to advice when learning as an XO is an extremely valuable quality, one that you have demonstrated time and again.

Even just with me personally, I have lost track of how many iterations of your BE and Pardon answers you’ve sent my way, all in an effort to present the best possible application for review.

If you’re successful with your application, I have no doubt in your ability to provide the same guidance to others looking to join the whitelist.

Regarding your actual in-game performance, I have been continually impressed with your command and combat abilities over the span of the last few months.

Your announcements are detailed, informative, but also concise. You have become very good at relaying orders, intelligence, and information in a manner that is easily understandable for deployed Marines, while also being full of personality (something I myself struggle with).

As well as this, I can safely say your SL hours thoroughly shine through in your overall ability to grasp the big-picture of battle while in the CIC bubble. You very rarely miss a beat when it comes to tactical decisions on a large scale, and I am frequently able to place my full trust in you as the Duty Officer on the rare occasion I feel the need to deploy and PFC+++ as the CO.

My only advice to you right now, is to play XO until your brain feels like mush. Unfortunately, recognition is holding back your application, and I have no doubt that once you put yourself in the spotlight, the rest of the WL will be as impressed by your abilities as I have been.

All eyes will be on you in the next few weeks, stick to your guns, play it cool, and continue as you have been.

It brings me great pleasure to FINALLY be able to endorse this application.

+1!

[Ingwe]

One of the strongest SOs that’s on the same level as Ducky. Sorry @duckyworth but it’s not a diss.
+1.
P.s: I enjoyed getting pet and rp with you as Jones.

[BasilHerb]

I remember you XOing as Shivas, but haven’t really seen much of Clemens before this app- After this app though? Phew, Captain Clemens every round!

After playing through several rounds with Clemens as a grunt & SL, I can definitely say with confidence that you’ve clearly reached the competence benchmark for CO, perhaps even further!

You gave clear orders to everyone, ordered fallbacks when shit hit the fan, kept your cool even when delta ran off to kill themselves instantly, and slogged through a 2.5 hour hell-round. As a grunt, you were able to lead me to where I needed to go, and gave good call-outs.

As an SL, you actually listened and actively engaged with me, instead of ghosting me like most CIC players. My squad and I were constantly on the move to achieve new objectives you set, and we managed to wrestle back comms multiple times even after half the platoon had been deleted. You were quick and responsive with OBs (even being so fast you nailed the first queen with one), and you and your CIC crew spammed the absolute shit out of my radio pack when comms died (mfw Alpha, Charlie and Delta OW all call me ), something that just doesn’t happen enough in most games. You guys asked for SITREPs during the hell siege, called out queen rotations relatively fast, and were responsive with setting aSLs whenever I killed myself.

Overall, I can definitively say that you’d make a hell of a CO!

+1

[duckyworth]

I remember Shiva Ridge XO rounds in the past and I always thought that you did a fine job then. I’ve seen you play very well as SO and SL, definitely better than the majority of the player base. I haven’t been very active lately, but I’m hoping to see you do more! I’m excited to meet your CO character as well. As it stands right now I would absolutely feel comfortable dropping in a +1!

[renmagnum]

Seen them play XO a lot. Definitely knows his stuff. Honestly would make a fine addition in the CO ranks. +1

[gamekatuy]

I have seen you in XO some time and all my time under your command you did great +1

[Vaikas]

Shiva is a very competent all round player. Informative, disciplined and reliable. A soldier at heart who listens to orders well.
Though what i find lacking is your CMP and MP expierience, from my own expierience i know that lack of such knowledge can lead to bwoinks and unnecessary WL reports.
Are you sure you can fully deal with CLF prisoners and rarer ML breaches or appeal requests accordingly?
Other than that +1 from me.

[NessiePendragon]

Heya, @Zanfee! It’s always nice to see people taking an interest in CO Whitelist! I’d like to ask you some questions, and I’d be happy if you answered them:

1. CL acquires a Xeno egg and is busted by MPs and charged with sedition. The egg is in his private containment, but was never planted. CMO mentions that the CL was asking about growing a Xeno specimen, but since they didn’t have everything they needed for one, the conversation never got anywhere. CL is appealing his Sedition charge, what’s your move?

2. What are the characteristics of an incompetent Squad Leader?

3. You’re the CO shipside handling an appeal. You speak with a prisoner who has committed a Manslaughter, as well as MPs who witnessed the arrest and you’ve decided to pardon the prisoner, believing that he’s a good guy who doesn’t have to be brigged over an accident. Warden and CMP, however, disagree with you and not releasing the prisoner, claiming that you can’t pardon a prisoner who has committed a Capital crime, they are disrespectful to you the entire time, and the MPs are uncomfortable with both the CMP and MW. How do you deal with them and the prisoner?

4. What is Discretionary Detainment and what do you think about it? When do you think it would be appropriate to issue?

5. USS Hanyut’s Commanding Officer BE’d one of your Squad Leaders, that’s all you know. How do you proceed?

6. What is Duty Officer and what’s the difference between Duty Officer and Commander?

I liked your story, it reminds me someone’s However, 12~ months is a very short time to get promoted from O1 to O2. Something really significant has to happen for this to happen, it’s not a big deal though.

Good luck with your application!

[makhnovtsi]

+1, mostly cuz I think everyone deserves a shot at CO and I’ve consistently seen you do good work in leadership roles

But

@Zanfee

I deploy to lead the ground operation and I am notified on MP communications that research is creating their own hive after I told them not to. The Captain explains that he authorised it. I tell him that he could not do so as the duty officer and head shipside to deal with this myself. Upon reaching research I am informed that the captain locked himself in with the researchers and is refusing to come out.
In this situation I would BE both the research team and the XO. I have notified both research and my command staff that there will be no hive made upon my ship, yet both the Research and the Executive officer have ignored my authority and tried to create an unnecessary risk for the operation.

Is this fun though? CO should exist to create fun. Organizing an MP raid would be more interesting & ---- more importantly ---- it’d create fun for the MPs and ensure fun for the researchers that a.) didn’t want to ignore the XO’s orders or b.) perhaps weren’t tracking that CO veto’d it

[Zanfee]

Hey @NessiePendragon, thank you for asking me these questions. I hope my answers satisfy them accordingly.

1. In this situation I would first make sure the operation can be handled by the XO while I go to brig to deal with the CLs appeal. Now I would talk the CL regarding what he was planning to do with the egg. I believe accepting the appeal here or not is largely on the CL to convince me (since the Egg wasnt planted) that he just wanted the egg to be handed to Wey Yu and not to create a threat to my ship. I believe that I could reach an agreement with the CL, letting CIC keep the egg safe until a Weyland Yutani official can come to pick it up. (giving the CL some RP to be done with faxes)

2. What I view as Characteristics of an incompetent Squad leader: Impatient, Careless, Stubborn and Silent.

3. In this Situation I assume I have already delegated CIC to someone competent. Now to the facts first: Manslaughter is a MAJOR Crime not a capital one. The CMP and MW not knowing that raises some red flags for me and being an ass to me about it is not supporting their Case.

• My Actions: First of all I would call all MPs to the brig ensure everything stays in order with my next action. I am assuming here that I already gave them a chance to reflect on their behaviour by ordering the release of the pardoned prisoner but was denied as in your example. Then because I can have no confidence in a CMP and Warden to uphold the Law while being so obviously wrong and disrespectful about it I would charge the both of them for Major Insubordination, Illegal confinement and apply a NoD charge. My reasoning for this is that Pardoning someone is me ordering the MW and CMP in the brig to release them (Major Insub), they refused to do so (illegal keeping the prisoner confined) and furthermore also denied my pardon instead of contacting High Command, which they should do in a dispute with the Commanding Officer. I would then release the prisoner, assist the MPs with their duties and get everything back to normality while I contact the admins via ahelp about the CMP and MW.

4. Discretionary Detainment is a tool for commanding officers giving them the liberty to detain someone for any reason, for how long they believe appropriate, for the safety of the ship and operation. In my whole playtime on CM13 I have seen this tool only used twice so I believe its good that we have it as an option but use of it will even be rarer than pardons. I think it would be appropriate to issue this during times where something not listed on ML is hindering/harming the ship or operation in any way.

5. Here I would ask the Surviving Commanding Officer of the USS Hanyut to come to the CIC and discuss their reason to use a BE with me. If it is a valid reason IE; Self defence, Then I will not have a problem with it. However if it not a valid reason I will have the MPs arrest said Commanding Officer for Unauthorised Execution.

6. The Duty Officer is the officer in charge of the Combat Information Centre/whole ship during times the Commander is needed elsewhere (such as when leading the front effort groundside). The difference between the duty officer and commander are simple, the latter still has all say in certain subjects of ML such as for example medical experiments or shipside modifications and must approve of these before they can be approved/authorized.

I am happy my story is good to read! I have struggled with it for a few months now so I tried my best to make enjoyable. I will patch out the detail you mentioned once my CO app finished.
If you are unsatisfied with any of my answers please let me know. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my application.

[Zanfee]

Hey @makhnovtsi , I can see your concern here. When rethinking my answer due to the question asked by SgtMike I also realised that this could happen so I answered his question and included a more refined response to this situation.

@Zanfee

The researchers who were also informed that I denied a greeno hive before hand could have been persuaded by the XO not realising that he could not legally do so and I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

I hope this can clear your concerns.

[Zanfee]

@Vaikas , I know it might not be relevant but I just want to mention that I was a security main on other Space Station servers. The difference between MP and regular security is that one is constantly involved while the other occasionally in a two hour round gets to handle law related matters. I find MP gameplay exceptionally boring but I have been reading ML in preparation for this application and can understand / apply ML for when it matters. I hope my answers to Nessies Questions can endorse this.

[EmpressEri]

+1

I will die for Major Shiva Ridge on Solaris Snowball!!!
o7

To be serious, I’ve played with Shiva as marine as SL, XO, and SO. They are one of the finest SO’s that I wish were in CIC more often, and while I haven’t seen as much of their XOing, what I have seen is more than enough to give me the confidence to +1 this app! Hoping to see Major Clems soon!