I recently revised this scene in book 3 of my A.T.X.D. Series. Previously, the scene was rather dry and didn't fit the context of A.T.X.D. as it is now, considering that this is from an older draft. I was also worried, however, that the scene in question was previously a little sexist because the team formed - the Stealth Angels - are a women-exclusive team originally. While I still want to keep the "girl power vibe" of the story and start the Stealth Angels off as a team that just as female operatives, I wanted to make sure this scene didn't sound like it was trying to exclude the possibility of men or nonbinary characters with the qualifying skills and features from being included somewhere down the road in the series.
After exchanging salutes, General Reach stood up from his desk and began the briefing.
“Ladies,” Douglas began with his hands clasped behind his back, “I’ve been thinking about adding something to our list of tactics.”
“What might that be, sir?” Ashley inquired.
“Lieutenant Commander Dawson has been working on this for a while,” Douglas relayed, “But she believes, and I agree, that a tactic we seem to have not taken advantage of like our friends in the U.S. Military is the use of HALO Parachuting. But rather than require all our tactical teams to undergo extensive retraining for such a movement, I figured we would instead develop a team exclusive for this job; you could say it’s a pilot project to employ a new tactic with new recruits chosen for the task. Dawson calls it the Stealth Angels. But there’s a catch here that I know your boyfriends won’t be especially pleased by: I’m in agreement with the Lieutenant Commander that, for the moment, this is a tactical team made up exclusively of women.”
Ashley and Rowan’s eyes widened with surprise at the mention: practically every team in ATXD history had been co-ed.
“Sir, please excuse my impudence,” Ashley politely requested, “But why is it exclusively women only?”
“A fair question, Captain,” Douglas politely returned. “As you are both aware, nobody just applies to the A.T.X.D. force - the force is the one who selects the best candidates. Now of course, we have some very skilled, talented, and yes lethal, ladies in our ranks, such as you two.” Rowan took a moment to give Ashley a goofy smirk, which caused the Captain to blush ever so slightly while their Commander-in-Chief continued. “But I’m sure you’ve both noticed that our tactical recruit pool has been predominantly male-centric even recently, you might say. Dawson has been trying to fix that as of late, and I agree that if the International Code forbids us from discriminating against extraterrestrials in our ranks, then why the hell should we even think of applying any similar pressures against women. So although the outside world is still struggling to keep up with the times, we have been fortunate to gain a handful of new recruits who are women this training season."
“Yes sir,” Ashley acknowledged. “So if I may, sir, are we just assembling a whole new team from scratch out of these recruits or will it also be available to women currently enlisted in the force?”
“The latter,” Douglas replied promptly. “Among this recent batch of recruits, a few women of various backgrounds stand out according to what their handlers have informed me, so this may be a good place to send them. But of course, I will also transfer a few existing women from our ranks to this new team to give the newbies a first hand understanding of how things work here.”
“Who’d you have in mind to be in this new team, sir?” Rowan inquired with a secondary element of curiosity.
“Well,” Douglas began, “First of all, I’d say that new Davidson girl you and Staff Sergeant Johnson have been keeping under your wing, Captain Miller. According to your reports, she’s a fast learner, a former Marine with an underappreciated yet incredible skill set and some victories to show for it, and someone we’ve been keeping a discreet eye on for a while. Therefore, I’m sure she’d be willing to jump to the next level.”
All due respect, sir, Ashley thought to herself but sealing her lips, Laney has only just rolled out of the academy, and her service record doesn’t show her doing parachuting operations with the Marines. Is having her jump out a plane high above the clouds really a good idea?
“Next on the list,” Douglas stated, “Private Sophia Danes, Private Cassy Wayne, Sergeant Melody Armstrong - all currently enlisted. Then the newbies: Private Hikari Li Sano, Private Mika Romero, and Private Nadine Salaam. These three have recently passed their training and are just waiting for their team assignments.” Douglas then locked direct eye contact with Ashley and added, “And while Sergeant Armstrong will be tasked as the second-in-command of the team, I’ve decided that you - Captain Miller - shall be the one to lead the team.”
“Me, sir?” Ashley repeated, stunned by the news.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve lost your guts to take risks like the cadet I once knew years ago, Miller,” Douglas inquired with an imploring glance.
“No, sir,” Ashley replied, keeping a firm tone but her mind still reeling, “I’ve just never parachuted into a combat zone before. And this is High Altitude - Low Opening jumps? That’s got a helluva lot of risks attached to it.”
“Well, don’t worry about that, Captain Miller,” Douglas reassured her. “As I recall, Sergeant Armstrong was a former pararescuer with the Air Force, so I’m sure she’ll give you all the necessary prep work before we conduct the field test.”
“Sir,” Ashley replied plainly, but then Rowan added out of slight concern, “Are you saying that Captain Miller’s leaving HQ, though?”
“Not even the slightest,” Douglas reassured her, and his face had that playfully stern look the Major always admired about their Commander-General. “Like all our teams and operatives based in North America, the Stealth Angels will remain right here and continue to interact with their comrades in other teams. And in any case, the basic parameter here is that, while one of our other teams engages the hostiles directly, the Stealth Angels can descend behind hostile lines and sabotage their military might or secure the objective by other means. But in order for things to go that smoothly, I can’t emphasize enough the importance for these lethal ladies to remain connected with their teammates in other squads. Cooperation among the ranks.”
“Understood sir,” Rowan and Ashley replied in unison, then the Captain posed one more question. “When and where do you plan to conduct this field test, sir?”
“Hopefully early tomorrow morning,” Douglas informed. “My contacts in JSOC have agreed to reserve us a nice flat space in rural Wyoming to conduct our field test and ensure you ladies have a safe landing. The weather is also forecasted to be relatively cloudy that day, allowing for better shielding of the test operation and improving the realism of the test for the operatives involved.”
As Ashley and Rowan walked out of the Commander-General’s office to inform their teammates of the new squad’s formation, Rowan inquired, “What do you think about this Stealth Angel program, Ashley?”
“Full of risks,” Ashley replied. “I’m just not sure if I am ready to strap on an oxygen mask and jump out a Falcon or some other high altitude aircraft. And back in the Navy, I was just a sailor and a mechanic, not one of the lucky girls behind the stick of an F-18. I haven’t even been skydiving before, so I feel like I’m back down at the rookie level.”
“Well, even for the leaders who stay on solid ground,” Rowan returned with a hybrid expression of reassurance but also heartache from prior memories of the Naskorian Incident, “we all have our moments where we feel like we’re back at the bottom. Questioning ourselves, doubting our skills. But sometimes, all it takes is a little support from the ones closest to us, and we’re literally flying back to where we were in the best case scenario.”
“Yup, been there before,” Ashley admitted, recalling her own war trauma from the Kronosian War.
Rowan then lightened the mood by commenting, “I bet you’ll be missed in Bravo Team though.”
“Oh nonsense,” Ashley returned with a reassured smile, “You heard what Reach said. I’ll still get to interact with Richard, I mean Bravo Team, on our downtime hours. And in further agreement with the Commander-General’s point, my new squad and I will most certainly need to coordinate with them and Alpha Team for some of our ops. So it shouldn’t take long to adjust to the new setting…on my end at least.”