“It doesn’t matter if I am ready or not, I have my orders, and I will do what I am told to do. You know it is who I am. We both know that Hicks is the one that forced me to take so much time off. If he is here now to get me, then it is a real disaster and every second count,” I said.
“Well, then we should make sure you are fit for duty Senior Chief.” She said with a grin on her face.
I awoke at 0430, dressed and began my morning workout with a ten-mile run around the lake. When I arrived back at the cabin, I found that Melissa had coffee made and breakfast on the table. We ate breakfast without talking. After we finished, we stood kissed, and she walked out the door. We never said goodbye because neither of us ever wanted our time together to end, but we knew that every time I put on my uniform and walked out the door, it could be the last time we would ever see each other. We had an understanding that if we didn’t talk about it, we could pretend we were not in love, and it was just a little fun between two adults. I knew I was in love with her. I have been in love with her since the first time I looked into her beautiful green eyes. Maybe someday I would become too old to keep up with the next generation of SEALs, and we would retire to a cabin in the mountains and live happily ever after, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
2.
TEAM 11
There are SEALs, and then there are SEAL Team 11 SEALs. Team 11 is to SEALs what SEALs are Navy boot camp recruits. Officially the Navy only has ten combat SEAL Teams. Team 11 does not exist; it is a reserved name for future expansion of the SEALs program if needed.
To understand what my Team does, you must forget everything you thought you thought you understood about the world around you and except a few things as truths. First aliens exist, they come from other planets and other dimensions. They are not your cute fluffy critters or friendly pointed eared Vulcans, or at least the one we were fighting weren’t. The ones that we are fighting look just like us, and on the average, they are twice as strong as your ordinary human and are hell-bent on plunging our world into war and chaos, causing us to destroy ourselves so they can march in and enslave the survivors.
It is the job of Team 11 to prevent this from happening. The Government gives us the best people and the most advanced equipment on earth. To be a part of Team 11 you have to be in the top 10% of all SEALs and undergo and an additional year of training that makes standard SEAL training seem summer camp with the boy scouts just to get on the waiting list to become a part of Team 11. The men that become a part of Team 11 only leave the Team because of injury, death, promotion, or forced retirement. So far in my time with Team 11, I have yet to see anyone retire out of the Team. Team 11 is different than other special forces teams in the fact that everyone in our unit from office clerk to the commanding officer completed the same three-plus years of intensive training and are deadly killing machines. Every member of the Team upon completing their first four years of service was required to take and pass the citizenship test. They are also required to take and pass their rank advancement test on the first try with a score of no less than 90% for the ranks of E-6 and below and 98% for E-7 and above. Due to the intense nature of the missions that Team 11 handles, all Team member is required to undergo a mental health checkup at least once a month unless deployed and councilors are not available. Under normal circumstances, my injury would have caused me to lose my billet on Team 11, but because of the Cybereye’s advanced capabilities, me remaining part of Team 11 was essential to thoroughly test it.
3.
Master Chief
“Alright, Skipper what’s going on that you would call me back from leave that you forced me to take in the first place?” I asked.
“Well Senior, it seems that the men you killed in the mall were not of this world as you may have already guessed, and Washington thinks that it was no accident that they hit the mall while you were in. You were not the only member of Team 11 that was targeted. While you were engaged with your group of terrorists, a much larger group of fifty attackers attacked our main base. The base was heavily damaged, and we lost three men. We believe these were probing attacks and that they are employing some new form of tracking to have been able to find you without you noticing them. The tech guys have a new upgrade for your eye that should allow you to spot them by the residual energy left on anyone who has passed through a gateway within the last week. They are working on a design that will be in the form of wearable googles for the rest of the Team, but they are still a few weeks out. So, for now, you will be our best detection device.” He replied, “When we land there will be a helicopter waiting to fly you, Walter Reed, where Melissa and her Team are ready and waiting to replace your current eye with the new upgrade. Surgery will take about two hours to replace the eye and upgrade the software in your head to be able to process the new data from the eye. Recovery time will be about four hours, then you will be back on active duty at the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer.” Replied the Skipper.
“Master Chief?” I asked.
“Yea after that stunt you pulled that lost you the eye in the first place the Admiral has had the orders on his desk waiting for you to return to active duty to put his rubber stamp on them. He said he wanted to make sure you didn’t go soft while on leave before he gave them to you. He signed them yesterday when he sent me to get you, he said after your little scrap in the mall he was sure you hadn’t gotten fat and lazy while on leave. Your orders make you the new Command Master Chief Petty Officer for Team 11,” he said.
With that, the Skipper pulled out two boxes out of his pocket and handed them to me. The first contained my new rank insignia and the second had a Purple Heart and the Navy Cross in it. I put the new rank insignia on and slid the box containing the medals into my flight bag.
“After the Doc gives you the all-clear we will be meeting with the SECNAV and the CMCPON (Command Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy) at the Pentagon.” The Skipper continued.
Ten hours later we found ourselves in the office of the SECNAV drinking coffee. Admiral Bates looked at me “So, your trip to the mall will be the last time you go anywhere without a sidearm and backup. Senior Chief Ellis and a security detail will be assigned to you and will be your shadow. We have intel that leads us to believe that after the mess you made of the enemy’s operations on the last assignment, they have designated you and Captain Hicks as high-value targets. We also believe that they have a gate set up somewhere in the Everglades. We are in luck there seeing how you grew up down in that area. Team 11 will be taking over the jungle survival training camp just outside of Everglades City. You have two weeks to bury your dead and get your Team moved and ready for action. It’s good to have you back to work Go-go,” the Admiral said.
“It’s good to be back, sir,” I replied. The CMCPON passed me a tablet,
“This is your new Command pad you will find all the updated data on your Team along with your updated command authority documents. It has been pre-coded to your biometrics. Your Team has been granted Alpha-1 funding priority by the Commander in Chief. So, anything you want or need for your mission has been authorized,” Memoli said.
“Thanks, Mike,” I responded.
“The only one outside of this room that knows your Team’s mission is the Commander in Chief. Going forward, you will only receive orders that come directly from Memoli or me and only if those orders are given in person,” Admiral Bates said.
“yes sir,” Hicks and I responded in unison.
We stayed the night in DC. The following morning, we left the Pentagon by helicopter for the forty-five-minute flight to our base where we would brief the rest of our Team. As we flew in, we could see the damage that the attack had caused to the base. A ten-meter hole had been blown in the two feet thick steel-reinforced concrete wall, and the front gatehouse had been destroyed by what looked to be plasma rocket fire. Just by the looks of the damage to the base, you could tell that the Team that attacked were professionals. I was sure that if this same attack had occurred at an
y standard military base, the death count could have been in the hundreds. We were fortunate that our death count wasn’t higher. The report showed that we had three dead and fourteen wounded. The replacements for the seventeen would arrive over the next week bringing our Team back up to full strength. Of our losses, six were senior personal (Chief Petty Officers and above), one of which was LT. Commander Eric Eastman, the Team’s XO. The LtCmdr was headed off base when his car was hit by a plasma rocket killing him instantly. The other deaths were the two men on duty at the gate who were also killed by the same missile.
Senior Chief Ellis met us at the landing pad with her full security detail; escorted us into the building, and to our offices. The first thing I noticed when I entered my new office was a coffee maker with a fresh pot of coffee brewing sitting on a mini-fridge “Half & Half is in the fridge Master Chief” Holly said as she saw me glance over at the coffee maker
“You know me too well, Holly, thanks,” I replied.
“You’ll find your personal.357 Desert Eagle with two extra clips in the upper left drawer of your desk, the SECNAV has ordered that you carry a sidearm at all times, your M-46 Rail gun is in the gun cabinet in the floor under the desk. My office is the next over, and there will always be two men assigned to you when you are inside and when you leave the building you will have a full squad. It is excellent to have you back Go-go, besides yesterday things have been rather dull around here without you,” She finished.
“It’s good to be back, see you at lunch?” I asked.
“Roger that.” She replied.
I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at my desk to review the records of the incoming replacements. Commander William Dallas from Team 6 would be arriving later tonight to take over as XO. Both Hicks and I knew Dallas well, he had been in BUDS class with us and his Team often worked with us on more significant operations. He would fit in well with our Team. As I looked through the list, I noticed that all of them were the best that Team 6 had to offer. I was sure that Captain Ganz was one pissed off sailor right about now, but they would pull men from Commander Rains’ Team 3 to fill in her ranks and make Team 3 run short for a few months until they had enough new graduates to bring her back up to full strength. I’d have to remind the Skipper to send them both out a good bottle of scotch to make their losses not hurt quite so much.
I sent out a notice to all Senior enlisted (CPO and above) notifying them of a deployment briefing at 0800 tomorrow morning, this would allow time for the senior staff that is arriving today to get settled in. It was time we got ready for our new assignment. I still had an hour before I met Holly for dinner, so I grabbed my railgun and strapped on my pistol before I headed to the range, nothing helped me focus more than shooting a few hundred rounds downrange.
4.
Work-up
There at the range stood the only Marine ever assigned to a SEAL team, Master Gunnery Sergeant (MGySgt) John Easter. The Gunny was the number one person in the world when it came to man-portable weapons, from the Marine K-bar knife to vehicle-mounted rotary laser cannon. Given the right equipment and materials, the Gunny could build a railgun from raw material. This wasn’t surprising as he was the inventor of the current man-portable version that our Team uses. His designs made him a multi-millionaire, but his love for the Marine Corps still had him eating MREs.
It took me about five rounds to get my rifle dial in and adjusted the rest of the hundred rounds I shot were dead center on target when I pulled my target forward there were five holes in it with only one of the holes being slightly larger than the others. I went through the same routine with my Desert Eagle making sure it was combat-ready after I put 50 rounds through it, I was happy.
Before leaving the range, I turn to the Gunny and say hey Gunny I have a joke for you. “There was a Marine Gunny in the Chiefs club on base. After drinking for a while, he had to go to the bathroom, so he asked the bartender where the head was. The Marine Gunny was dead drunk, and he was wobbling side to side down the hall to the head. Five minutes after the Gunny went in the head, everyone in the Chiefs club heard a blood-curdling scream followed by two more blood-curdling screams.... louder than the first one! The bartender goes into the head to investigate why the Marine Gunny is screaming. The bartender stands outside one of the stalls and knocks and asks. “What’s all the screaming about in there?! You’re causing a disturbance!”
The Marine replies, “I’m just sitting here on the toilet, and every time I try to flush; something comes up and squeezes the hell out of my balls.”
With that, the bartender opens the door, looks in, and says. “You idiot! You’re sitting on the mop bucket!!!!” The Gunny began to laugh and said,
“Good one Go-go, it’s good having you back this place has been a little boring without you.” Gunny said.
I went from the range back to my office, where I locked up my rifle before I headed off to the Chief’s mess for dinner. As I walked out of my office, I found Holly standing outside my door talking with my two guards posted there. “Heard you still know how to kill paper people,” She said.
“Yea, no Origami Assassins are going to take me out,” I replied as I laughed.
“No one told me why you are back early or why my squad and I are playing babysitters for you, what’s going on?” She asked. I gave her the quick and dirty version of what had taken place over the past few days and told her she would get the full details tomorrow morning at the briefing. We walked into the Chief’s mess to the smell of country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn, my favorite. “Before you ask yea, I told Petty Officer First Class (PO1) Jones you would be here for dinner, so he made your favorite to welcome you back,” Holly said.
I stuck my head in the kitchen and said, “Thanks guys I was getting sick fast food and take out. I am happy to be back where I can get a good home-cooked meal.”
There was a laugh and a few shouts of “Welcome back Go-go.”
Over dinner, Holly filled me in on everything that had gone on during my time away. “Shortly after you left on your vacation, Big Mike got promoted to Chief of the Navy, and the Skipper had me take over his job until you got back to us. He said there was no one else that deserved the job more than you and that your promotion was already sitting on the SECNAV’s desk, it was my job to try not to break anything that you couldn’t fix when you got back.” She said.
“Well looks like you broke my base,” I said to her with a smile.
“I have a division of Seabee’s arriving in the morning to begin repair to the gate and wall,” She said as she laughed.
“The delta force guys have an armored division playing guards and two drones armed with rockets and rotary laser canons on overwatch until the repairs are done. We tried to tell the SECNAV that we could handle our own security, but he insisted that we would be too busy spinning up for deployment. Colonel Adams of Delta said he owed you one from Cambodia and this was the least he could do for you. Which reminds me there is a bottle of fifty-year-old Glenfiddich Scotch in your room from him.” She said.
“Speaking of Scotch, have a bottle of Skipper’s private stock sent over to Cpt Ganz of Team 6 and Cmdr. Rains of Team 3 with a note telling them sorry for stealing their boys,” I told Holly.
As we walked back to the barracks, I thought back to the day when a young Petty Officer third class Holly Ellis had joined Team 11. She was the first female to complete the advanced training required to join Team 11. She was quick, smart, and looked like she could be just as comfortable as a runway model as she would be fighting four men in hand to hand combat training. She reminded me a lot of my older sister, and we quickly became close friends. We seemed to take turns pulling each other out of the pits of hell, so she was the perfect choice to head my personal security detail, and there is no one I trusted more.
“We know you can still shoot a gun but how are your hand to hand skills,” Holly said.
“I did just take out ten men with nothing but an ink pen just before I arrived back here,�
� I replied.
“Yea, I heard that it took you like three hours to do so,” She commented. “3.2 minutes,” I responded.
“We’ll see old man, see you in ten at the gym?” She said.
“Yea, we will see how soft you have gotten while I was away,” I taunted. I knew I was in for a fight; Holly was the hand to hand combat training instructor for Team 11. I don’t think that there are martial arts forms on the planet that she has not mastered yet. Holly has never gone easy on anyone, and I knew she would not go easy on me. We had been fighting together every day we could since that first day she came to the Team. About 75% of the time she won but that was the reason she was the instructor for the Team. What she did not know was that with the new implant, my reflexes and reaction had increased. Our flight lasted about five minutes before I found myself on my back with her sitting chest with her crotch in my face. She started to laugh when I flipped her off me, catching her in a forward chokehold causing her to tap out. “Guess I haven’t gone too soft,” I said laughingly.
“I would say you are good to go Master Chief,” She replied. We continued to spar for about another hour, trading victories, and we were both sore and roughly even in wins.
“Thanks for the workout Senior, see you in the morning at breakfast,” I said as I headed back to my quarters.
My quarters were just a basic two-bedroom, two-bath apartment. The second bedroom I had converted to an office. This has been my home ever since I made Chief. I was glad to find out that they hadn’t moved me into the CMCP’s house, being single it would have gotten really lonely there and I had no need for that much space.
5.
Strike Force 11 Page 2
