Innocence Lost

Posted on Sat Oct 11th, 2014 @ 4:50am by Lieutenant Colonel Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan

2,052 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 86 - Discovery
Location: Holosuite Sixteen - Starbase 400
Timeline: Two days after "Junior Flight Cadet Corps - Part Two"

"Innocence Lost"

Major Jillian 'Phoenix' Sullivan
Rachael Yamaguchi

***** Holosuite Sixteen - Starbase 400 *****

Today was Saturday and normally Rachael would be in the simulator, flying a Peregrine during some of the more interesting fights of the Dominion War but she found herself lying in a ditch and while she hated being dirty, she however she would make an exception.

She hefted the rifle which looked almost oversized for her small frame as she regarded the Major who was with her as she climbed out of the ditch as she looked around. "Phoenix, eyes on.." she indicated the target.

Phoenix tossed a tennis ball roughly at Rachael's head, as if to draw home a point the girl needed to remember. "Head's gone though... Don' raise up til ya check ta see if you commin' out of cover is safe."

Rachael looked down at the fallen tennis ball. It had fallen after Phoenix had hit her in the head with it. She raised an eyebrow as she called it to her hand, without argument the tennis ball lifted up off of the damp muddy ground as it flew into Rachael's hand. "How do I check without sticking my head up?" she inquired.

"Rule number one for a sniper is ta stay in cover. That's where we shoot from safety," Phoenix spoke, speaking from her special ops history. "It looks cool, I suppose, when ya see a sniper in holomovies, come out an' kill bad guys, but it's a very bad move on your part. Cause ya don' know how many bad guys are out there. An' they'll nail ya easily from range, from their own cover."

"Fair enough." The teenager responded, she was covered in mud from head almost to her boots yet she didn't seem to mind about it, she rested the front end of her rifle against her shoulder, clearly getting comfortable with her weapon of choice. "Could we go back to the beginning.... so I can try all of tis again...?"

"Rule number two is for a sniper to be at the target's location, long before the target gets there," Phoenix told the girl with a nod to her question. "Scout tha area. Know the best vantage points an' use 'em."

Rachael nodded. "So hide and then find them before they find me." she mused. "Mmmm... requires patience."

"An' skill," Phoenix added. "Cause once ya fire your weapon, your cover's blown, in a field of many enemy guns an' planes. So ya gotta shimmy away from your vantage point an' move to a safe location, or another safe spot ta shoot more targets."

Rachael nodded her head. "Sounds straightforward, I should practice more." the two of them approached a small grove of trees as Rachael looked around, it seemed clear but she wasn't sure, she crouched before leaping up into one of the larger trees.

"I can see my house." she muttered softly as she proceeded to make herself comfortable. "I want to see the local area around us."

"Natural camouflage is more effective than a factory-made ghillie suit. Cause you can roll in tha mud an' dirty and use foliage to blend in better," Phoenix pointed out. "...But that's just from my own personal experience."

Rachael nodded right before something hit her, the holodeck program can be quite realistic as she looked down as she noticed a long beam of bright red light which bisected her as her chest seemed to fountain blood.

Rachael was unharmed but the sheer shock of it was enough to get Phoenix's point across to the teen. "I think..... you made an excellent point sir." Rachael whispered softly.

Phoenix remained quiet, for the same type of carnage would be found in Rachael's home, if the girl was determined to continue. Call it a sick joke, but Phoenix wanted Rachael to understand what soldiering really was about... Seeing good people die, and the @#!*% that kill them, live.

Rachael slowly took one step to the left as the harmless beam of light passed out of her body as she ran her hand across her chest, she was unharmed but she needed to be sure. "That was... illuminating." she commented. "What now?"

"Scan the area. Clear it of hostiles," Phoenix prodded gently.

Rachael lifted her rifle as she silently checked it over. "Full charge." she commented as she drew her tricorder before beginning a scan of the local area, she noticed that several areas were jammed but this suited her fine.

She turned and went into the nearby small grove of trees as she proceeded to locate a decent hiding place before she went to work on ferreting out the locals. "I'm going to hunt you all down..."

Phoenix flicked Rachael on the earlobe harshly. "Don' get cocky. That gets ya killed."

Rachael hissed angrily back at the other woman but didn't say anything as she sighted one target and before anyone else could stop her, she pulled the trigger twice, the first impacted on his rifle and the second, took his head off.

Rachael then shifted her weight as she quickly fell out of the tree, as one shot impacted the tree and the second outright missed.

Rachael smiled to herself as she was now totally covered in mud before starting to crawl to an area nearby where she made herself comfortable once she arrived.

Phoenix stayed in the tree, though a little higher up in the foliage. One by one, she lit up explosive charges on a hand-held detonator, meant to comply distort the young teen's perceptions.

Rachael blinked as she kept her head down as the explosions went off around her, she produced her tricorder as she began to scan for active jamming, she found none but she also found no life signs either so she decided to look the hard way, the old fashioned way.

Phoenix tapped her tactical ear piece and spoke to the girl, "Explosions is apart of ground warfare. Ya gotta learn ta avoid it when ya can' disarm it."

Rachael sighed softly, had she still had access to her abilities, she would have seen them, she said as much too. "standard Earthlike hellhole and I can't feel a thing..." she thought to herself. 'why did I agree to this again?'

"You wanted to learn the same skillsets I have, to be a good combat pilot," Phoenix reminded her simply, setting off another series of explosions close to Rachael.

Rachael sighed softly as the explosives went off, she waited for shards of metal to slice into her but nothing happened. "This is getting interesting."

"Treat it like a live-fire, Cadet. Or so help me, I'll start using paintball pellets on ya," Phoenix cautioned testily.

"Major, I am treating it like its real.... " Rachael responded evenly. "Err... under fire." there was a loud bang as the comline went quiet.

Rachael meanwhile had rolled into a ditch which was why she was still alive so to speak.

"Situation assessment... Why is your house a target?" Phoenix asked the girl as she triggered off another explosive.

"Because someone wants me dead." she commented evenly. "either me or someone in my family." she added as she sighed softly as she threw up a mental shield, which stopped a wave of dirt from burying her.

"Knowin' how an enemy insertion happens, tells ya who likely did it," Phoenix suggested. "For instance, transportin' in to tha site is a Starfleet tactic. Klingons like ta transport a fair ways from their target, so ta have an honorable fight."

"Someone wants me to keep my head down while they make their move."
Rachael responded as she moved out of the ditch, she kept low to the ground, rifle in hand as she quickly got set up as she looked for targets, seeing five Romulan's approach from the southwest. "I have eyes on.... five Romulan's, permission to engage?"

"Only cover ya got is tha house, against that many," Phoenix said as she popped up more explosive. "Is killin' all of them more important than learnin' what their mission is, and reportin' back alive with that Intel?"

"There are five of them Major and I am not a great shot... I doubt I'll get all five." Rachael responded. "Intel is only good if I can get my hands on it." she added.

"Wrong. You are the intel asset." Phoenix paused to let that sink in a bit before she added, "What you see an' hear is what is important. So you wanna sit an' wait an' listen. When it's clear, move closer to get a better idea of the situation."

"Understood." Rachael responded. "I wish I could listen in on the five of them talking.... does the rifle have a long distance microphone in it?" she inquired.

"No... An' if it did, it would be picked up on their tech by EM interference. Best ta sneak closer an' hunker till ya learn their mission. Then report back here," Phoenix suggested.

Rachael raised an eyebrow as she thought to herself, 'what's the best way over there?' she slowly began to move out across the boggy landscape as she kept watch for targets.

A short time later she approached her destination as she settled in to watch and listen to the five or so Romulan's who were apparently feeling at ease, enough to chat.

The conversation was usual. They had to meet the subcommander in thirty minutes, once they had finished a tactical download from the computer their engineer was hacking.

Phoenix listened intently to Rachael's comm chatter, curious to see where she would go next.

Rachael listened quietly as she slowly moved over the rugged ground, she knew she couldn't get too close because she wanted the information. She narrowed her eyes as she listened to her own movements, she turned her head. "I can hear you guys." she said softly as she slipped into the nearby muddy stream, clearly at ease with being covered in muck.

As the chatter turned to more common things, such as talking about the new Scorpion upgrades, and Romulan political views, Phoenix felt it time to intervene.

"End holo program," Phoenix spoke and everything dissolved until the teen was laying on the ground. "Thirty minutes is a time line you don't fool with. If you are alone and can't do the mission alone, you abort and head back to a safe location. Sometimes RECON is just that. Gathering intel and relaying it."

Rachael raised an eyebrow as she found herself looking up at an empty hologrid. "But you never gave me the chance to finish gathering my intelligence sir." Rachael picked herself up off of the ground but she didn't approach the Major, her clothes were still ruined as she looked herself over.
"What exactly am I supposed to learn when you terminate the program?"

"Fair point," Phoenix conceded. "This program was not a pass/fail exercise though. All this was, was my giving you a glimpse of what Spec Force... True, you could of learned more. But it takes a while to set up an effective tacheyon grid, which is why you can't risk sitting there too long."

"But I still learned almost nothing." Rachael commented evenly. "All I learned was being patient and being out of sight doesn't work." she explained. "you terminated the program before I had to face the issues you explained..." she paused. "Will there be anything else sir?"

"Being patient and staying our of sight is what ground folks do most of time," Phoenix answered, visually offended. "If you're RECON, you're not engaging the enemy. You already had the number of people in the area, and the fact they were waiting for a download that took a half-hour... List one reason to stick around when you got no backup with you?"

Rachael raised an eyebrow as she thought about what she wanted to say. "I'd never be sent into a situation with no backup and no measure of support." she commented.

"I can list a thousand, plausible scenarios where you'd be surprised to learn how situations like this happens," Phoenix asked, her temper continuing to rise. "You get shot down and are in hostile territory, for one. And you only have one shot to signal the good guys for help."

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