Rachel Connor

Lieutenant Rachel Connor was a Federation MACO officer and secret augment active in the early 25th century. (Bait and Switch)

Biography

Early life

Rachel Connor was born in the United States of America, a province of United Earth in the United Federation of Planets. At the age of 18, Rachel decided to go to Starfleet Academy for officer training in order to join the MACO corps, saying that she wanted to help protect the Federation from increasingly dangerous external threats. At the Academy, she met Kreetassian cadet Bev Kree-Sanat, who bonded with Rachel over mutual dislike of a particularly difficult class. (Liberation)

Military service

In 2403, Rachel graduated from SERE (an elite training course for MACO soldiers and the final qualification for joining the corps) and was commissioned as an officer. She served with distinction in the Arcaunis Arm campaign, where she was injured by a stray shot, and was promoted to Lieutenant and given command of her own unit by 2405. (Liberation)

In 2405, Rachel and her unit participated in a brutal battle between Federation, Romulan rebel, and Romulan Empire forces on the planet Oricon IV. The MACOs were deployed to rescue Federation diplomat Arthur Winslow from Romulan crossfire, and successfully extracted with their target after Rachel used an apartment building as a makeshift fort, holding off Romulan ground forces for some time, and modified a phaser battle rifle to use it as an antimateriel weapon against a Romulan tank. (Liberation)

Assimilation

In 2407, the Borg launched a surprise attack at Vega Colony, a Federation planet. Rachel and her second in command, Bev Kree-Sanat, volunteered for a highly risky mission on the surface: Targeting and destroying a Borg subspace beacon to divert Borg reinforcements. Connor successfully destroyed the beacon, but was captured by the Borg and assimilated after her rifle jammed. (Liberation)

Augment career

Sometime before 2408, Connor was disconnected from the Borg Collective and acquired by the Federation-ultranationalist terrorist group Section 31, who used her as a prototype for a genetically-engineered superassassin, designed by a rogue scientist. However, the geneticist failed to account for the effects of the modifications that he made to Rachel's body on the control implant that had been placed in her brain stem; Rachel was not subject to Section 31 control, and swiftly killed the geneticist and Section 31 operative th'Vathandras, then escaped the facility, eliminating the security team on her way. (Liberation)

Rachel was considered a "genetically-engineered combat asset, proprietary technology of Yoyodyne Systems, experiment number 87, prototype for planned Enhanced Combat Unit model 101" by Section 31. Section 31 operative Antonio Lopez called her "Subject 87", a term which was later used by Ellen Shaw. (Subject 87)

Rachel was picked up by Breen salvagers and spent the next several months attempting to evade Section 31 ambushes while returning to Federation space, and used a favor owed to her by Arthur Winslow, now a Federation councilor, to return to active duty, deciding to continue serving her nation despite the illegality of genetic augmentations. (Liberation)

For her actions in the Iconian War, in 2410, Rachel was awarded the Federation Medal of Honor by the Federation Council, and the Order of the Romulan Empire by Praetor Velal tr'Hrienteh. In 2411, she described boarding and successfully capturing the Iconian flagship during a major battle of this war. (Flesh and Blood)

By 2411, Rachel had been stationed on Captain Kanril Eleya's USS Bajor as a commando. In January of that year, she led an assault on a Borg installation in the Delta Quadrant, successfully recovering Borg tactical data with the help of Belka Saris (the alias of temporal operative Reshek Taryn). Connor was attacked by several Borg drones and injected with nanoprobes, but her heavily altered biology enabled her to dissolve the nanoprobes before they could affect her system. After Commander Reshek was forced to admit her real identity to Captain Kanril, Rachel was ordered to discontinue further inquiry into the temporal agent and her activities. (Brother on Brother, Daughter on Mother)

In February 2411, Rachel was called down to represent the Federation in a ritual hand-to-hand duel with a Tarin soldier. Unprepared to face a warrior-caste Tarin soldier, Rachel still won after severe injuries, and impressed the Tarin negotiator, who agreed to a closer relationship with the Federation. (The Diplomats Must Be High)

Two weeks later, Rachel met her distant ancestor, United Earth MACO Elham al-Omani, after the Bajor responded to a distress call from the temporally displaced United Earth warship Kaiser Friedrich. When al-Omani discovered Rachel's status as an augment, she reacted with extreme fear and hate, and Rachel supported her ancestor's position against Kanril's objections. When Captain Kanril lost her patience and sent both soldiers away, Rachel was confronted while getting drunk in Bajor's lounge by one of her subordinates, the Klingon combat engineer K'tar. K'tar accused Rachel of being racist against herself and told her that she needed to stop and think about her position; enraged, Rachel attacked him and was shot multiple times with a phaser, then held in a headlock in order to restrain her long enough for her to regain her self-control. After cleaning up the mess, Rachel's squad took turns telling her that her anti-Augment positions were nonsensical and dangerous to herself and her squad, and the supersoldier eventually decided to advocate for her rights as a sapient being after further advice from Captain Kanril. (Flesh and Blood)

A short time later, Rachel rescued a team of scientists from the Cardassian Third Empire terrorist group in the Kora system, and met Ensign Eleana Valen, a Reman/Trill hybrid who would later become her girlfriend. (Beneath the Surface)

In late 2411, Rachel was kidnapped by Section 31, who sought to copy her augmentations on a large scale while reprogramming Rachel to serve the group's goals. In captivity, Rachel was tortured and repeatedly raped by Section 31 operator Ellen Shaw, a cyborg commando who had been discharged from MACO for disobeying orders and torturing a prisoner to death. Rachel was eventually rescued by the crew of the Bajor, but was left deeply traumatized and was removed from active duty by Captain Kanril. (Subject 87)

Weeks later, Rachel remained emotionally volatile. suffering from insomnia, nightmares, and other symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress. Her girlfriend, Reman/Trill hybrid Eleana Valen, tried to help Rachel recover by notifying Rachel's family so that Rachel could spend shore leave with her supportive mother and sister, but Rachel failed to make sufficient progress to resume active duty when her squad was deployed to the planet Europa Nova to foil an assassination attempt by Shaw. Rachel disobeyed orders and beamed down to confront Shaw during the cyborg's escape attempt, but was disabled and again sexually assaulted by Shaw. Rachel was reprimanded for her recklessness but resolved to figure out a way to work past her trauma and defeat Shaw nonetheless. (Rock Bottom)

Over the next two months, Rachel began to recover with the help of regular therapy sessions and her girlfriend's and squad's relentless supportive attitudes. After Rachel figured out that Shaw had used Rachel's pre-existing self-loathing against her, and stopped repeatedly requesting to be reassigned to active duty, she recovered enough that the Bajor's chief counselor approved her reactivation. Rachel returned to duty just in time to assault a Section 31 base that was being used in an attempt to duplicate her augmentations, but the mission went awry when MACO Kimara t'Sehalien set off a high-yield explosive device in an attempt to kill Shaw, who had slaughtered the rest of t'Sehalien's squad. In the ensuing chaos, Rachel was separated from her squad and had to face Shaw alone while armed with nothing but a knife. Despite serious injuries, Rachel prevailed, and maimed and crippled Shaw before evacuating with the disabled cyborg. Confronting Shaw in the brig of the Bajor sometime later, Rachel threatened to kill the cyborg on live television if Shaw ever outed Rachel as an augment, and scoffed at Shaw's increasingly desperate threats. (Rachel)

Months later, Rachel had largely recovered from her ordeal, but still suffered from lingering trauma. Although initially uncertain about an order from MACO department chief Rear Admiral Tamanir Y'Chell, Rachel began to mentor MACO trainee Huang Bao, not realizing that the young Ensign was actually a refugee and defector from the Terran Empire. After Huang began to show increasingly erratic and unusual behavior, as well as fainting from shock at the sight of the Prime universe doppelganger of a deceased friend, Rachel attempted to support Huang, even after the traumatized Terran outed theirself as such. Although reprimanded for insulting several Starfleet admirals in a profanity-filled rant on Huang's behalf, Rachel was ordered to continue mentoring Huang, with an implicit caveat from Starfleet Intelligence higher-up Alvatrassi zh'Zoarhi to murder Huang if the young Terran turned on the Federation. Fuming, Rachel sought a way to break through Huang's ingrained paranoia, and took the immense risk of outing herself as an augment to Huang. (Live, not Survive)

This was successful, and Huang began to trust Rachel implicitly, even letting Rachel and her girlfriend Eleana Valen help Huang experiment with gender presentation (the Prime universe Huang had been a trans man using the personal name Shou-Hui, and it turned out that the Mirror Huang was also transgender, later taking the name Huang Shou-Hui to honor his doppelganger). Wanting to test Huang and his fellow trainees' abilities in actual combat, Rachel had the trainees beam down with her unit in a mission to capture the notorious Cardassian terrorist Kerim Morag, self-proclaimed "Father-Leader of the Cardassian Race" and leader of the rogue "Cardassian Third Empire" protostate. The mission went awry when Tzenkethi reinforcements arrived to aid Morag, and Rachel was captured; however, Huang successfully led the other trainees to safety and provided a distraction until another trainee could release Rachel, allowing Rachel to turn the tables on the Tzenkethi and kill Tzenkethi commando Warram Tzen-Gravu. Huang and Rachel attempted to capture Morag, but Huang killed the terrorist leader when he held Rachel's squadmate Aarno Kallio hostage. Rachel testified on Huang's behalf at a debriefing with Starfleet Command, and was commended for her work in helping the Terran cope with his mental health issues. (Live, not Survive)

In at least one alternate future, Rachel had been promoted to the rank of Captain, and served as Commander Reshek Taryn's immediate superior in Starfleet Special Operations Section Eight. Taryn was familiar with Connor's abilities, referencing her lie-detecting ability and superhuman strength. (Brother on Brother, Daughter on Mother)

Alternate timelines

In an alternate timeline created by the Enterprise-C being diverted into the future at the battle of Narendra III, Rachel was a cybernetically-enhanced soldier, rather than an Augment, in the Federation military, stationed to the USS Vigilant. On June 6th, 2409, Rachel's unit was part of a Federation task force that responded to a Klingon invasion of a Federation colony; the Klingons and the Federation-Romulan alliance, and Klingon Dahar Master Ch'zog sought to win a victory to keep the Empire alive Rachel's unit airdropped into the colony's capital city with Romulan backup and assaulted the Klingon positions; despite her second in command and sniper being captured by the Klingons, Rachel comprehensively defeated the Imperial forces under K'vor, son of Tavok with the help of her advanced cybernetics, and her task force was relieved by a Cardassian attack group (in this timeline, allies of the Federation) and a Romulan fleet following the crushing defeat of the Klingon fleet at Khitomer. Feeling sympathy for the defeated and despondent K'vor, Rachel complimented his skill at defending his position and encouraged him to return to the Empire and attempt social reform. (The Last Battle)

Abilities

Rachel was a decorated markswoman and successful special-forces officer before her assimilation and augmentation, awarded medals for meritorious conduct and marksmanship prior to 2407. After her augmentation, she displayed multiple superhuman abilities, including strength in excess of a similarly-sized Vulcanoid, superhuman speed, and the ability to regenerate from serious injuries in a matter of minutes. As an Augment, Rachel was also capable of altering the color of her skin, part of her intended function as an assassin. This ability was not fully under her control, however, and her chromatophores could rapidly shift in cases of intense emotion.

Rachel's senses had been enhanced to the point that she was able to detect minute shifts in vocal tone and even scent caused by intense emotion or lying, enabling her to act as a living lie detector. Her body was capable of dissolving or passing any foreign substance that entered her body in a matter of minutes to hours, and could adapt to damage, such as by rapidly growing fireproof scales after suffering a severe burn. Her adaptive and regenerative abilities also required massive amounts of nutrients to fuel them, which on top of her already rapid metabolism required her to eat at least ten times as much as a baseline Human in and after some combat situations. (Liberation, Flesh and Blood)

Rachel was physically strong enough to overpower and kill a trained adult Tzenkethi in single combat, and defeated superhuman cyborg Ellen Shaw in hand-to-hand combat. (Rachel, Live, not Survive)

Some of Rachel's powers could be temporarily suppressed by large doses of drugs. (The Diplomats Must Be High)

Rachel's augmented ability to grow chitinous armor in response to damage was excruciatingly painful (as the scutes grew inside her lower dermis and proceeded to tear her skin apart as they rapidly formed), and was extremely energy-intensive. After this triggered, Rachel required food urgently to maintain her health, and would even eat her own ruined skin if necessary to fuel her transformation. Re-absorbing this chitin appeared to take hours to days. (Rachel, Live, not Survive)

Personality

Rachel was a foul-mouthed but courageous Federation patriot, frequently engaging in self-deprecation and fond of hard drinking as a method of stress relief. Although she was allowed her own personal quarters, Rachel preferred a bunk in the same room with her unit, enjoying the camaraderie of her men. (Flesh and Blood)

Rachel was also a highly bigoted anti-Augment racist, as was common for Humans. Having been raised in Earth schools and exposed to United Earth's anti-Augment propaganda from an early age, Rachel believed that Augments were inherently dangerous, aggressive, mentally-unstable tyrants in waiting, and saw herself as a monster after her augmentation. This racism was so internalized that Rachel, despite wanting to be free and serve the Federation with full civil rights, still argued in favor of bigoted anti-Augment positions when challenged by non-Humans such as Kanril Eleya. It took multiple people telling Rachel that her position was nonsensical and wrongheaded to get her even to consider changing her mind. (Flesh and Blood)

Rachel began to re-analyze her views on augmentation and attempted to reconcile the beliefs she'd been taught with her reality, but achieved limited progress. After Ellen Shaw used these beliefs and her resulting self-esteem issues to cause Rachel considerable emotional trauma, Rachel eventually came to realize that her self-hatred was only holding her back, and accepted that her mind was still her own. (Subject 87, Rock Bottom, Rachel)

Rachel was kind and supportive to nervous young subordinates, and was anxious to please her girlfriend in bed despite numerous hangups about intimacy post-augmentation. She could be almost overprotective of those she considered to be her responsibility. (Live, not Survive)

In combat, Rachel was efficient and professional, openly disdainful of opponents who wasted time on gloating before securing an area. (Live, not Survive)

References

[1] New version: [2]

[3]

[4] Mirror on Archive Of Our Own: [5]

[6]

Beneath the Surface

Subject 87

Rock Bottom

Rachel

Live, not Survive