"It is not that we have a leak sir, it is less intelligent than that. We
found this site about two months ago, and we did an initial recon. The
results were not spectacular, but we got some good information. So, we did
another, and another, and another. Each time getting better evidence of a
staging area for a first strike. Well, it is not to say that we were not
careful, but that we kept going there. We were bound to be detected. I told
the LCMR Pembroke, the PYT with Commander Brell, that if we were to go back
to this site that we should do it right. Send in a full team and conduct a
detailed look see. I was thinking of a two to three day mission, on planet,
searching and evading any patrols. That would have done it. But instead, he
organized several successive missions with limited goals. We could have
combined all of his little excursions into one mission. The bad thing is
that most of these little trips, I had only a third to half of my team with
me. To boil this entire thing down, sir, is that Pembroke was a lacky on a
hand full of missions and now he is a Senior Operative planning missions. He
has no real idea what it is like out there. He refuses to listen to me, my
second or any of the other team leaders about missions. He just reads the
reports, and moves on. This little stick thinks he is an admiral up on high,
reads the summary of the reports, and plans his next mission. "
Realizing his slip of the tounge, "Aahhhh I did not mean you, sir. What I
meant to say that he skims the reports for the overall picture. That is not
his job. It is his responsibility to plan missions. Missions that can lead
to lives lost, and that can not, should not be done with a high level
assessmment of the situation. Sir." he thought he was just digging himself
in deeper so he decided to stop there.
She nodded, understanding all too well what was going on. "Well, parrrt of
that may be my prrredecessorr's fault, as frrrom what I underrrstand,
therrre wasn't much guidance frrrom above. But that will change, I assurrre
you. Howeverrr, that will do you no good if you end up dead on yourrr next
mission." Her tail swished violently, showing how much that thought upset
her. "Yourrr missions to that arrrea arrre overrr," she said sternly, "as
arrre those of everrry otherrr team on multiple missions to the same arrrea,
unless they arrre authorrrized by me."
He was in a bit fo a shock, and did nto knwo what to say or how to
say it. There was definately a sense of relief that things were to change,
but then again.... Always the pain in the ass....
"Second question. You said that the intelligence was prrresent, but the
quality was poorrr enough to be a prrroblem. Wherrre is the intelligence
coming frrrom?"
"The data that we got from SF Intell was fine, but as I said it was the
processing of that data that was a problem. When I got the raw data, I came
up with very different conclusions. Mine were mostly based on what I had
seen in the field, what my counterparts had experienced, and what I read in
field updates. The information that was presented to the teams was also
incomplete, and that is not a factor of what we get from you folks higher up
or from Intell. That is purely the command structure out here. If there
was information that the team should nto generaly have then fine tell me,
but do not send me out unprepared. *That* is the doing of Brell and
Pembroke. Sometimes I get the opinion that they do not like me enough to
set me up for getting killed in the field." he replied. It did seem
unlikely that a Spec Ops officer would set up another to die in the field on
purpose, but it was very possible that these idiots here were incompetant
(sp).
{response}
