<USS Avalon> "The Lessons We Learn - Part 6 - Focus"

The Lessons We Learn 
Part 6 ? Focus
By Ensign Kyle Fenner with
Marksbury, Monroe, and Jameson


"Almost done."

"Heads up, he?s almost in. Let?s grab him and get outta here." 

In a single movement, Matthews, Jameson, Marksbury, and Fenner brought their 
crossbows up. Behind them the rear guard of Monroe, Forester, Whitt, and Harak 
were doing the same. The door slid open revealing the startled looking 
gentleman they were seeking, reaching to open the door. He wasn?t alone, and 
apparently was already being extracted. 

Five bolts slammed into three people dressed in masked combat gear, exactly 
like those of the Covert Ops teams. Reacting to the sound, Monroe and Harak 
turned and fired their own shots through the door as Matthews grabbed their 
target?s coat and dragged him to the floor. Abandoning their crossbows, covert 
ops charged into the enemy and began trading blows and knife swipes. 

Within seconds it was impossible to know who was who. Then someone produced a 
hand phaser and promptly began wrestling for control of it. 

Marksbury saw that things were going to hell. "No phasers! No phasers! Masks 
off, NOW!" she ordered while tearing her own mask off. 

Fenner couldn?t comply since he was rolling around on the floor trying to 
wrestle a phaser away from someone. "I can?t get his phaser and I?m being 
kicked, help when you can."

Jameson clubbed someone with her crossbow, then took her mask off. A quick scan 
of the room showed a likely Fenner. With two quick steps, she shattered the 
crossbow on the kicking person?s head, then tore the masks off of Kyle and his 
assailant. 

A beam lanced out leaving a smoldering black mark in the concrete walls. Fenner 
twisted around with both hands still on the man?s phaser and repeatedly kicked 
into the guy?s ribs until, spotting a fallen knife, he grabbed it and ran it 
along the shooter?s arm and into his neck. 

Ruby beams stabbed out from a corner, vaporizing Fenner and Jameson. Moments 
later Marksbury disappeared with them in a silent scream. Three knives embedded 
into the shooter and he slumped to the floor. 

James turned just in time to see her disappear, vaporized from the chaos all 
around them. "Liss!" he screamed. He only had a few moments to comprehend that 
she was no longer with him. If his team was to make it out alive, he had to 
pull himself together. 

Monroe felt sick as he pulled their target to his feet. "Mr Churchill, we?re 
from the Federation. We?re taking you in for questioning." He looked back on 
the stunned faces of his team. "WE?RE still alive, let?s keep that way!" 

They crawled through the pipes, their target pushed along in the middle of the 
group. Forester clamped down on his grief, they were dead, no time to dwell, 
they had to finish this. When Forester slid the cover away and climbed out of 
the hole, he wasn?t expecting the large and extraordinarily quiet vehicle to 
skid by him into a stand of trees. 

His fellow members, climbing out besides him watched as the vehicle tipped, 
full of screaming children. 

Forester turned to Monroe. "Sir, it?s my fault, we?ve got to help them." In 
several running paces, Forester was at the side of the already smoldering 
transport.


"Forester, get back here now, you have no idea what..." Monroe began. The child 
filled vehicle burst into a spectacular fireball before he could finish, taking 
another of their number with them. 

James closed his eyes, another member. How could they not listen? How was it 
all their training was evaporating before his eyes? Why couldn't they adapt as 
they were trained for? He took a few quick breaths, counting slowly as he tried 
to remember what their next objective was after surviving this ordeal.


No one spoke during the kilometer hike and ascent to space. No one could think 
of anything worth saying. Their losses had been too great.

Not a word was said until the shuttlecraft walls faded away to reveal a glowing 
blue wall behind the embarrassed faces of Marksbury, Fenner, Forester, and 
Jameson. 

Marksbury broke the silence. "Debrief is in one hour." Then she walked out the 
door, leaving a stunned group behind. Monroe bit back a bitter taste in his 
throat. 

"You mean... it wasn't real?" Sergova asked. 

--//\\--

"Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not much on dying. Let's figure out how 
we screwed this up," Marksbury said, pulling up the layout of their "mission" 
on the display. 

"Well, we were surprised and distracted more than once," Matthews piped up. 

"Which means?" 

Monroe spoke, eyes burning with a maddening fury, "That we weren't adapting and 
weren't focused on the task at hand. Especially in that room when the other 
team was there. And after it started to go wrong, we lost cohesion as a team." 

"I should've scanned for vehicles before lifting that cover... watching those 
kids," Forester shivered, "I still can't believe it wasn't real." 

"Sodding well better be glad, we'd have lost half our team otherwise," Jameson 
told him. "Including me," she added uncomfortably. 

"Part of it was my fault," Sergova admitted. "I lost you as I was tracking from 
the shuttle, some sort of interference and I couldn't get you back fast enough 
to warn you about the others..." 

"Okay," Marksbury said, taking the situation back in control. "We're not here 
to lay blame, we're here to fix our mistakes. What's that saying about being 
only as strong as your weakest link? One person's mistake is a mistake for all 
of us. We're here to learn, to get better, so let's go through this again." She 
gestured to the screen. "We won't make the same mistakes twice, will we?" 

Heads nodded, agreeing with her, as they leaned closer to puzzle out what went 
wrong and how to fix it. 

Marksbury decided to put the practical application of the exercise off until 
the next morning. Everyone was still a little shaken. Once they all left, it 
gave Monroe ample time to think about what he was going to do when he 
confronted Lissi about this "exercise." He waited until the last member of the 
Covert Ops team left, took a few moments to collect everything he was going to 
say, and left the room.

 



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