1st Lt. Gordon's quarters.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"Wow" she said with a surprised look "smart and yet kinda creepy".
She chuckled to herself and took a drink.

[Major Randall Gordon]

"Thanks, I'm not really your typical Marine, though." he said, taking another drink of his water. "I ended up covering the Marine team's escape single-handedly...that's partly why I have this." he said, pointing to the medal that he still had pinned to his chest.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"I don't think you should underestimate working as a team. Especially in this line of work" she replied.

[Major Randall Gordon]

"I work with the team when its required, but I can also operate on my own or with my partner effectively. During the Academy I would often be in one of the holodecks when I was not in class or training, learning as much as I could about Special Forces tactics from some of the great men of history. I continued to work and train on that as time went on, and the results now are fairly impressive." he said, "I know the anatomies of most known races, mainly for their weak points or pressure points, I know the environments of a few Federation worlds, as well as Cardassia, what food is edible and what is harmful, ways of infiltration, ways of survival, escape, resistance, and evasion. And I do know my way around the computer systems of a starship."

He leaned back against the wall for a moment, sighing. "But, I'm going on too much about what I'm doing, and that's not very polite. What are some things you've done or some places you've been?"

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

She nodded as he spoke "Your very confident in yourself thats obvious. Me? Well I am in starfleet so I have seen a lot of the alpha quadrant really. Alpha Centari, Vulcan, Andor, Kronos, even went to Romulas once. Cadassia was interesting too. My Mother was an ambassador too so I saw a lot of them when I was a kid."

[Major Randall Gordon]

"When did your mother visit Cardassia?" he asked, his curiousity piqued now.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"A few times. Most recently a few months ago actually. Was quiet awful. Some terrorists attacked and her shuttle was shot down. We were all so worried but she got home alright in the end and my Dad refuses to let her go there again so....."

[Major Randall Gordon]

"Did she mention anything about how she got home alright?" he asked.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"A starfleet marine task force aparantly."

[Major Randall Gordon]

He nodded, its possible that the precious cargo wouldn't have remembered any operational details about it. "Well, if its the same incident I'm thinking about, the 'task force' mentioned was only a two-person Marine sniper team, along with a SAR team that deployed via fast-rope from a shuttle to attend to the wounded while under small-arms and anti-vehicle fire."

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"How would you know that?" Jade frowned.

[Major Randall Gordon]

"Because I was one of the two Marines that requested to go in by ourselves regardless of the possibility that we might be over-run, captured, or even killed." he said.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"You..." she started as her face dropped "you were part of that team?"

[Major Randall Gordon]

"Yes, my ship was in orbit at the time, we had been sent to investigate threats to the Federation presence on the planet, being the closest ship. Upon arrival, we learned that a shuttle had been shot down in one of the large cities, didn't have a chance in hell of avoiding the anti-vehicle ordinance used. I was also informed that the Cardassian government would not act or send any aid to the downed shuttle. Instead, we detected about 80 Cardassian Resistance fighters moving towards the shuttle from several directions, and my ship was unable to transport the survivors out, and our shuttles couldn't get through the storm around the planet.

It was then that I stepped forward after talking to my partner, and said, "Sir, we request permission to use transport enhancers to cut through the interference, go down, and secure the crash site until the storm clears."

He looked at us like we were crazy and said, "No you do not have my permission, its too dangerous." The three of us looked at the situation monitor again as they closed in on the site, "Sir..." I had said, and he turned around and looked at us again, replying with, "I want to know if you understand what you're asking for, so say it loud and clear." then I repeated what I had told him before, and he looked at me and said "And you realize I can't tell you when that might be it could take quite a while?" "Yes sir." I had said. And he says, "And you still want to go in there." "Roger that." Rosa had replied.

He paused here for a moment to finish his water as she listened to his story, and he got some more water before continuing.

The Captain had sighed, nodding slowly as he said, "Permission granted, I will try to get the SAR shuttle to you as soon as I can with a team of medics and ammunition aboard. Come back in one piece." The two of us saluted him smartly and said, "Semper Fi, sir, no one gets left behind." And after that, we had already geared up for this, we cut through the interference and transported down. The battle report is in the archives, and in the release that was sent to me earlier by one of the Cardassian news services, along with footage from their news drones."

He leaned back, taking another drink of water, having finished his story, for the moment. "That's what had to be done...and we did it. The CMO aboard this ship would probably view me as one of those crazy Starfleet officers that went off and tried to be a hero without thinking rationally, but the thing about that is, no one ever asks to be a hero...sometimes it just turns out that way."

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

"Wow" she said blinking "I...guess I have you to thank for bringing my mother back to me then. Deliver my thanks to your partner too."

She was taken back by the news. Of all the people she thought sshe would be serving with, her Mothers hero would not be one of them.