NCGB Orientation

Posted on Mon May 25th, 2020 @ 4:40am by Captain Ash Shultz & Level 2 Chiyo Takei & Level 2 Kitt Murrow & Level 2 Itishaam “Tim” Mughabghab PsyD & Lieutenant Tchaikovsky Ford & Level 5 Nicholas "Nick" Medhurst
Edited on on Mon May 25th, 2020 @ 2:40pm

Mission: It's... A Bus Station
Location: NCGB Meeting Room
Timeline: May 7th, 2020

The meeting room was basically a massive oval table that seated nine. Meant for small teams to come and get their mission statement and go. Four on each side of the table, and one seat at the far right-end. A long window made up most of the far wall, from the door and a 32" flat-panel smart MaxTV hung on the left wall.

Ash, with her two boxes of company swag, began to sit 10.4" x 8.2" boxes at each seat. Name tags were also at each seat. The second box of swag, she had in her chair. She would wait until the small rectangular boxes were opened before the other swag came out. Technically, Ash was already wearing some of the swag. What with the navy-blue polo shirt with the company's logo on the left side.

While she knew everyone was scattered around the station and outside - likely - looking at the ECTO fleet or watching Ford to crazy trick-shots with his proton pack. Ash chose to text everyone to be in the meeting room in five minutes. Then she turned the TV on, where the NCGB logo animatedly rotated on its primary axis behind a navy blue field.

Satisfied, she herself, went to her comfy high-back leather chair and sat the big box in the floor before she sat down with a huge grin. Maybe I will like it here.

Receiving the text a moment ago, got her finally out of her bunk room, she was getting used to it and tried to meditate, but Chiyo felt out of place as if something was around in this area. Chiyo had her uniform on, but with an open jacket as she walked into the room scratching the back of her head. She looked at Ash and just gave her a peace sign and took a seat at a random chair and pretty much kept to herself.

Well, this must be the right room; after all there were people in it and it was set up for a meeting. With a slight smile, Tim entered, his customary coffee travel mug in hand- though it didn’t always contain coffee. In fact, right now, it contained water. “H’lo,” he said with a nod to the two women present. He chose a seat next to the one he didn’t know. “I’m Tim,” he said simply.

Ash waved to both, smiled politely, and then pulled her tablet from her tan leather messenger bag as she looked to her notes.

Nicholas walked into the conference room, removing his wedge-shaped garrison cap with Naval Officer insignia on the side and placing it at an empty place at the table. He was dressed in his Service Khaki uniform, which was adorned with a set of service and campaign ribbons above the left breast pocket along with a set of golden Naval Aviator's wings. Nodding to each person present in the room, he set down his portfolio and waited for the briefing to begin.

His worn jacket with the GB logo faded on the back sat over a navy polo shirt, long legs strolled in wearing faded blue jeans and well-travelled boots and Ford's face sported a boyishly happy grin that lit his eyes.

"Morning, all!" He addressed the room in general, before flipping a box of freshly baked cookies onto the oval table. That done, Ford wandered round to take up a seat on the opposite side from Chiyo and Tim, his feet immediately propped up next to the little box Ash had left atop the table. "Oooh, what's this?" Ford asked, rhetorically and shot the station chief a bright smile.

"Are you one of those people that peek at your presents on Christmas Eve?" Ash teased back and shook her head. "They're tablets. But I'll get to them soon as our final member arrives."

Ford gently patted the packet and adopted 'mock hurt face'. "Me? Ruin Christmas? Nope. Not my thing." He nodded emphatically. No peeking, boss, got it," he accepted amicably.

"Good morning," Tim said cheerfully to the new arrival. "I'm Tim. Just arrived this morning."

"And I'm Ford, welcome to the team, Tim!" Returned Ford enthusiastically. He canted his head curiously at the obvious accent. "All the way from England?" He asked.

"Massachusetts, actually," Tim replied. "I came here for uni and just never left. What was that? Twelve years ago? Fourteen? My math is wonky. It's fifteen. Wow. Never realized how long it's been."

Ford raised a quizzical eyebrow at this revelation and smiled. "Time has a habit of rushing forward when you're having fun," he noted. "Uni man, huh - whatcha study?"

Hearing the new people get into the room, Chiyo kept to herself not going to bother with introducing over and over again to all the folks coming inside the room. Too much effort and too little to care for that. Chiyo leans back in her chair and looked outside the window wondering when this was going to be over, she hated the small talk and felt more and more to just walk out of the room.

Kitt came in and nodded to Ash, the only person he really recognized in the room. "Ooh. Assigned seats. Already better than my last job." He laughed to himself as he sat.

"Wiv little name tags, too, so we don't forget who we are," added Tim, holding up his own, which read his proper name. "But, pay no attention to this. Just call me Tim."

Nicholas' eyes narrowed at this comment- he wasn't above sarcasm but knew there was a place for it. "The name's Nicholas Medhurst, I'll be running Dispatch Ops," he said succinctly, sitting back in his chair and observing the rest of his coworkers.

Ford would have nodded to Nicholas in greeting if he hadn't still been staring at Tim's name tag, trying to fathom how to pronounce it.

"Right," Ash smiled and put her tablet down. "Most here are Trainees. Most here have been settling in and bored and want to get going... So orientation will not take long, and then we can drive down to the ATF's local ordinance disposal field and test out your new weapons."

"Testing portable particle cannons amidst high explosives- what could go wrong?" Nick said slightly sarcastically, pulling out a stick of spearmint gum and putting it into his mouth.

Ash allowed herself a moment to snicker at Nick's comment before she stood up and pointed to Ford. "That's Tchaikovsky Ford. He is our driver seat hog and also your Basic Ghostbusting instructor. I will teach Ghost Recognition. Ya need to know what you're up against, to use the right tools, so both classes come hand-in-hand over the next few weeks of training. Questions so far?"

Ford winced at the use of his full name, rolled his eyes, and shot Ash a warning look, but for once he didn't retort verbally.

Not really responding to Ford in any facial expression and looking a bit non-interested "What kind of classification are you going to teach us?" She looked at Ford with narrowed eyes "As in what will we be taught and what kind of ghost are we going to deal with in real life" Chiyo was a direct person and not afraid to show it.

In response to all the noncommittal and bored looks, Ford responded as any five-year-old kid might. He made the stupidest looking face he could possibly muster and aimed that comical expression silently at Chiyo.

"The short answer is knowing by observing," Ash began to explain. "We'll get into more detail during Ghost Recognition classes, but ghosts that are full-body and articulate, are generally the most powerful. Some ghosts possess an intelligence most others do not. So just shooting off our proton packs at first-sight is ill-advised.

Through assessing the situation, we can as team members form plans. More so when we don't know what type of ghost we're dealing with," Ash answered to Chiyo. "There are demons and demi-gods out there - like Gozer - that can kill us. So we don't jump in without understanding our quarry."

"And when you're done with figuring out who you can aim a proton stream at, and who you can't," Ford added. "Then you can practice with a neutrona wand."

Ash nodded in agreement. "So... Our mission statement is to eliminate or relocate troublesome ghosts. And because the federal government doesn't see us as a relevant protection service, we don't get federal funding. What we get, comes from donations and clients."

Ash pointed to the tablets in front of each person.

"GI's biggest sponsor is MaxTech," the chief went on to inform. "Most of our operating systems and non-Ecto-based technology for the job is from MaxTech - free of charge. So your protective jumpsuits have an embroidered logo of their company on the right shoulder. Because of this partnership, MaxTech tablets or phones need to be visible if a camera is in the room. Questions or complaints so far?"

Silence....

"Right then..." Ash continued on, diving into another box. "If not in the jumpsuit, lapel pins or polos with our logo need to be worn while out on a case."

The station chief began to layout the swag. Each with a blue and then a red polo with the company logo - like hers. Then passed out pins. "I'm not picky about uniformity, but paying customers generally refer others to us, if we are at least professional-looking and do a good job. So khaki slacks and brown shoes with your polo, if you don't like wearing suits."

No one seemed to contest this point, at least not openly or right now.

"Now that that's out of the way... The motel next door. If we want to use it as an extended part of the campus, as well as a single-person living complex, we have to clear it. This means mastering the proton pack. Mister Ford, you have anything you want to add to this?"

Ford took a studious look around the table, allowed his glance to rest on each person in turn as if he could determine their skill-set from mere glance, which of course, he could not. Then he stood up, looked briefly serious and held his arms out to the side to encompass them all as included. "Everyone has to pass a basic assessment before the Captain and I let them loose with a live proton pack out in the real world," he explained. "Safety first and all that, we don't need any deaths or legal violations on the first day. But, just so I know, any of you have any experience in this area at all? Live practice?" He grinned. "Comic-cons, fancy dress or computer games?"

Nicholas continued chewing his gum as he took in the silence around the room and waited for the others to speak. As he patience began to wear thin, he spoke up. "Judging by the deafening silence, I think I can speak for most of my colleagues here when I say that we should probably just jump in instead of sitting here talking," he said, motioning around the room.

He took a cookie from the box he'd brought, but that was as far as Ford moved when Nicholas urged for motion. Just making a point, the buster took his own sweet time in eating said cookie, his gaze lightly searching out the details of the man dressed in Naval uniform and medalled up to the nines.

Once he'd finished eating, Ford lifted his boots off the table and planted them firmly on the floor. He stood up in one clean upright motion and he gave Nicholas a curt nod, before turning to Ash and beaming a grin.

"Let's do this," Ford declared to the gathering.

Looking at the men talking she heard the magical words "Finally...." Chiyo mutters standing up and placed her hand sat each side of the pockets then walks towards the exit of the room to get to this basic training.

Kit sort of blinked. Like reality had set in. "Heh. Its gotta beat unloading trucks all day." He said, getting up in order to follow the others.

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