This is my attempt at redemption, so to speak. I revised last week's scene with A.T.X.D. Stealth Angel in the hopes that I can make the team of the same name not just women-only but the story itself can still be the girl-power chapter of the Legacy. With this scene, I hope I've gotten the ball rolling to make the story less gender-discriminating.
After exchanging salutes, Douglas 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.”
“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 operatives currently enlisted in the force?”
“Edging towards the latter,” Douglas replied promptly. “Given that we have had some lucky picks this last recruiting season, I want to make this team a mix of newbies and experienced operatives. Four of the five T.C.O.’s we’ve recently certified have some incredible skill sets that would not only make this team a good testbed for HALO tactics, but also enable it to truly live up to its name as a stealth force.”
“Stealthier than any prior tactical team, sir?” Ashley questioned with a humored smirk.
“Well, let’s see what you think of these four, Captain Miller.” Douglas swiped his finger across the desk to display the newbies’ files on the large LCD screen behind him. “Firstly is that recruit you and Staff Sergeant Johnson have been training over the past couple weeks: Laney Davidson from Utah - 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. Next: Hikari Li Sano from Washington State - a former diver with the U.S. Navy who worked on the Virginia-Class submarine Arkansas as its electronics technician and also knows a thing-or-two about bomb disposal.
Third: Mikayla “Mika” Romero from Louisiana - a CIA operative who is basically one of our country’s equivalent to a Double-O (OO) Agent. She’s got….a thing for knives, martial arts, and among her list of kills and live catches, she worked a mission sanctioned by DESA to take out a particularly dangerous extraterrestrial target in Tennessee. And finally, there’s Nadine Salaam: an immigrant from Iran raised in New Haven, Connecticut. She and her family hold IRC-visitation cards to live in-or-visit extraterrestrial communities because they were sheltered by the Hali’shiquas Clan in the Middle East before coming here. But beyond just her clearances, Nadine herself is a telepath and an expert at Parkour, very much like your friend Jordan Ceva-Ankers, Captain Miller.”
Each of these candidates had Ashley’s eyes gleaming with intrigue, but something puzzled her: Reach was specifically referring these candidates to her. As far as it seemed, Rowan was being almost left out of the conversation. However, Douglas did say that four out of the five certified T.C.O.s were to be sent to this Stealth Angels team. Maybe the fifth was going to be sent to Alpha Team instead, otherwise it would only be Ashley here to take in the candidates. But then why was she here? As Team Leader of Bravo Team, Ashley was supposed to be informed of new operatives to that unit, unless….
“And this fifth recruit, sir?” Rowan inquired with a secondary element of curiosity, breaking Ashley’s focus.
“You’ll like him quite a bit, Major Nichols,” Douglas returned. “Raymond “Ray” Sanders from Texas. He is a former National Guardsman who later worked a decent eight-year stretch with the Austin Fire Department. He was part of the joint-brigade effort in New Mexico last fall to deal with that horrible wildfire that threatened a few towns and the Albuquerque Extraterrestrial Community - even saved a few non-terrestrial lives. He’s been certified as a new combat operative but has also applied to the force’s Tactical Rescue Service, so now your team will be better equipped to deal with emergencies that don’t require a gun.”
“Promising, sir,” Rowan returned with a satisfied look, considering that Alpha Team now had a few operatives with T.R.O. licenses, better than their friendly rival Bravo Team. “Now you mentioned there will be some enlisted operatives transferring over to this new Stealth Angels team. I assume both our teams will be saying goodbyes to a few.”
“In a manner of speaking,” Douglas returned. “Major Nichols, I’ll be transferring Specialist Cassandra Wayne from your team, given her expertise in extraterrestrial communication systems and languages. Also is Sergeant Melody Armstrong, given her experience as an Air Force Pararescuer.” Turning to Ashley, Douglas informed, “Captain Miller, two operatives will be leaving your team to join the Stealth Angels: one of them is Private Sophia Danes given her laserpoint accuracy and her own expertise in close-quarters combat.”
“Yes sir,” Ashley replied, a little disappointed to be losing such an upbeat and spirited young lady from her team. “And the other?”
“That’s where it gets complicated, Captain.” Ashley’s eyes widened with a wary trace of suspicion before Douglas continued. “Now Melody is a good Sergeant and she’s a solid hard-hitter where it counts. But a good leader - those are hard to find. That being said, there is one leader here who I think would be the most adept at leading this team…You, Captain Miller.”
“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. “I’m sure, given her aforementioned experience, Sergeant Armstrong will provide you with all the necessary prep work before the team’s first deployment. And most importantly, you’re not the only operative among the list I mentioned who hasn’t done high altitude paratrooper work before. Therefore, you and the other Stealth Angels are going to be doing a few exercises to get your skill sets in sync with each other, including some skydiving training a few days from now.”
“Sir,” Ashley replied plainly.
“But if I may, sir,” Rowan then added, “Who will be holding Bravo Team’s leash with Captain Miller gone? Also, it sounds like this team is women only. Will there be a chance for it to be co-ed like the other teams?”
“To answer your first question, Major,” Douglas returned calmly, “if I recall the chain of command, protocol requires that if the current Team Leader is captured, killed, transferred or discharged, then it is normally the 2nd Officer who assumes the post of acting T.L. In Bravo’s case, that would be recently-promoted Command Sergeant Dave Connor. And on the other matter, while the Stealth Angels are presently made of just women for the time being given our recent pool of recruits, there will definitely be a chance to make this team co-ed pending its successful deployment in upcoming missions: whatever those may be.”
“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 Thursday morning, three days from today,” 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 for the operatives involved.”