Strike Force 11

by Forest Getter

  I contacted the base and had them re-task a drone to scout ahead of us for possible ambushes, and we grabbed our gear out of the airboats and began out on foot to track our unwanted visitors. With every step, the swamp would suck your feet down below the muck up to our ankles while this did make it easy to follow the tracks of out targets it slowed us down to just faster than a crawl. This was nothing new for me, I grew up coming out here to camp at White Tree every couple of weekends when I was in high school. After about two hours of drugging through the swamp, we stopped and took a break the water was getting deeper, and it was becoming more difficult to follow. If it were not for my Cyber eyes, we would have already lost them. The water was now up to our waists, and I was only able to see where the aliens had sometimes grabbed a tree or plant and left gate residue were. This was the only reason we were still able to follow them. Unlike the uniforms my father wore, our uniforms had an advance quick-dry technology so in just a few minutes on a patch of dry land and we were mostly dry. It helped against the water, but it did nothing to get rid of the mud in our boots, and it was only temporary relief. After drinking some water and having a quick protein bar we were back in the water and tracking the enemy. It took us another hour of trudging through the swamp before we spotted someone in a tree stand armed with an ArmaLite AR-50 .50 Caliber Sniper rifle. Rather than risking alerting anyone else in the area that we were here we dropped below the surface of the water and swam past the lookout. Our goal was not to try and take out any aliens we came across, ours was to scout the area and try to discover where their base was. We did locate a small base camp with about fifty people in it, but it looked to just be a temporary outpost there were five large tents set up and razor wire around the area.

  After watching the camp for about an hour, it looked to be a training/ patrol camp because they seemed to be training people and sending out small three-man teams on patrols of the area. Their patrol area was a three-mile area around the base. While this was not their main base and we did not see any fixed gates here, it could be a good source of information to help us find their main base. We could see the active camouflage that was up over the entire camp, and it would explain why this camp was not detected by drones or satellites it could only be seen from ground level. We took pictures and videos of the camp, marked the location of the command post, guard posts, snipers, and mines before returning to the airboats and then back to the base. We arrived back at the base around 2200 and found that there was a small kitchen crew still on duty and it only took them a half hour to have some burgers and fries for us.

  “Ok team meet in hanger 3 at 0730 tomorrow for debriefing,” I said as I got up and headed off to my quarters.

  “Wait up Go-go I’ll walk with you,” Holly said as she walked up behind me. “So, What’s your plan?” She asked.

  “No Plan yet but I do want to capture that camp and as many of the people there as possible. I will call Alley and have her get the Johnson brothers over here at 0600 tomorrow morning, so we can get them geared up and ready to go out with us. I will also have the Skipper scramble Bravo Platoon to us tonight. We will need their help to capture the base. In the morning we will see what all intel we have and come up with a plan. In the meantime, get some sleep, I will see you at PT in the morning,” I said.

  “Roger that Master Chief.” She said before heading off to her quarters as I entered the mine.

  Melissa looked up from the book she was reading and pointed to the shower. When I came out of the shower, my dirty uniform and gear were gone. “Anderson said it would all be cleaned and returned in the morning,” Melissa said as she saw the questioning look on my face.

  11. The

  Plan

  The next morning, I awoke went to PT with the rest of the unit, followed by a quick shower and breakfast. I arrived at hanger 3 at 0715 to find the Johnson brothers there along with the senior person from Bravo Platoon waiting for my arrival. I headed straight to the coffee pot and poured myself a cup. While I was doing this, the AI in my chip was assembling the all the data collected by our people that were on the mission yesterday, and then it linked to the conference table and created a holographic picture of the base showing everything clearly down to the troop movements we had picked up while we were there. Right now, the image was replaying the mission at about double speed. At a thought, I could speed up or slow down the playback, but for now, I just let it play, allowing everyone here to sit and observe. After it had played for about fifteen minutes, I paused the playback and began the briefing.

  “We could easily surround the base and destroy it, but that is not my plan. As you may notice, there are no communications satellites or radio towers so it is safe to assume that any comms with their main base must be done by runners because there is no cell service out there. This makes it an opportune time for us to capture some of them and get the location of the larger base. We are going in there to try and capture the leadership located in this tent,” I said as I made the command tent light up green on the holographic display. “We will break down into two squad strike teams which will give us five strike teams. I will be with team 1, and each of the Johnson brothers will be the other four teams,” I continued. We continued planning for about another hour assigning mission and targets. We made plans, change them and started all over several times before at 1130 we had finally come up with an assault plan that we felt was our best chance of taking the base and capturing the command personal at the camp. We would move out at 2000 tonight and move in on the camp from 4 different directions, and our fifth team would rear guard and pick up anyone that was on patrol or that managed to escape the base during the attack. We then broke up for lunch. After lunch, the team leaders would go over their parts of the plan with their team.

  As we broke up for lunch, I told Holly that Melissa said she would have something special cooked up for us for lunch, so we headed back to my quarters to join Melissa for lunch. When we arrived, we discover that Melissa must have found a grill to use as she had grilled chicken and vegetables with white rice. I like anyone who ever got the chance to try it, loved her grilled chicken. The spices she used when cooking it were something that could not be found on earth, she had brought them with her from her world. It was sad to think that she was almost out of the spices, and soon there would be none left, and there was no way for her to get more. She has been recently experimenting with earthy spices to create the same flavor profile and had come close, but it still was not the same. After we finished lunch, Holly would go brief our team while I contacted the Skipper and filled him in on our plan and got his go-ahead for our plan. While he had given me full freedom to run things here, with a mission this important, I wanted his eyes on our plan just in case he saw any way to improve it.

  The Skipper had a way with group tactics like no one I had ever met. If there was any way to improve our plan, then he was the man to find it. Too many times in the past he had the senior person of the team come up with an idea and then come in when we were done the planning and show us a completely different approach that was better than we had come up within only five minutes of looking at our plan. Before we sat down to lunch, I e-mail the Skipper our plan and let him know I would be calling after lunch to review it with him.

  I called the Skipper, and we reviewed the plan together. I made a few minor adjustments before he gave his approval. “I wish I was there to go with you guy on this one. Although your teams have the numbers, with the objective being to capture their command, it makes the mission that much harder. I wish we could just send you all in to just wipe them out, but we need to find out where their main base is. This plan is our best hope of doing that. Tell everyone Good luck from Go-go and me, bring them all back safely if you can.” The Skipper said.

  “Roger that Skipper, I talk to you after the mission is over,” I replied. I sent the new adjustment to the plan to everyone after the Skipper hung up.

  At 1930 the team was assembled at the hanger bay making a final check on their gear and
the vehicles we would be using. Assignments were as follows; Senior Chief Ellis and I would lead team 1 and approach from the front (an approach from the north) of the camp, Lt. Rogers would lead the second team in from the west with Lt. Randy Johnson acting as Guide for them, LtCmdr Ray Hampton from Bravo platoon would lead Team 3 in from the South with Lt Barry Johnson as Guide, Ensign Briggs would lead Team 4 in from the east with SPC4 Eric Johnson as Guide, And Senior Chief Micah Walker leading Team 5 with Sgt Bill Johnson as their Guide. Ensign Miller would remain at the base and would oversee the support team. He would keep the drones in the air, ready for an airstrike if things went sideways. The Skipper had the rest of Team 11 on standby, if the shit hit the fan, he could have them on station in 45 minutes.

  12. The

  Assault

  The teams were ready and loaded into the APCs. At 1955 we rolled out of the base and headed to the airboat launch points for each team it would be 45 minutes before all the teams reached their separate launch points, boarded the airboats, and headed to the enemy camp. The plan had us all in position and ready to attack the camp at 2300. Assault team 5 would approach the camp from White Tree with assault team 1, splitting off when we were about a kilometer from the camp and begin hunting down the patrols. When we were in range, Holly sneaked around the backside of the tree where the sniper was stationed, climb up the backside and took him out. Her speed and agility made quick work of him.

  It was 2250 when the last team reported that they were in position. This meant that each team had taken out any perimeter snipers or guards and had a clear approach to the base. Team 5 would be actively hunting down all the remaining patrols. I sent a confirmation to everyone letting them know that we were still a go at 2300. I pulled out a thermos from my pack and drank some coffee while we waited for the final minutes before the strike to pass. Right now, I was sure that everyone one was taking drinks and possibly eating protein bars before the attack because it was what we always did, quench our thirst and fill our bellies before the strike. While we had planned as much as we could, there was a saying we had about plans; very few plans ever lasted past the first engagement with the enemy. When 2300 arrived Team 2 had cut through the razor wire and were in place outside the command tent, they were responsible for capturing as many people in that tent as they could. My team would take out the guards at the guard towers at the entrance to the camp. Team 3 and 4 would move on the other two tents; a sleeping quarters and a mess hall. I gave the command to go. Holly and I threw frag grenades into the guard tower, with the explosions the teams began firing and take out enemy troops. With numbers being basically one to one it didn’t take long for us to seize control of the base and when all the shooting was over, we had captured six command level personal, and only one of our personal was injured, Lt. Rogers had taken around in his left arm it was clean through and through and he would be good as new after a few hours of cell regeneration. We gathered up all the electronics papers and the prisoners together to take back to the base and left team 3 to secure the camp. Team 3 would set up cameras, sensors, and claymore mines around the camp. They also planted explosives charges under the tents. They would then spend time burying the bodies and doing repairs to the guard tower. They would plant some of the bodies in the tower and in the sniper stands so that the camp did not look like it had been wiped out. After they completed all of that they would monitor the camp through the next day in case any patrols were outside of the perimeter, we had set up.

  Based on what they saw over the next day while they were there we would decide if we needed to have a squad replace them or if we would leave the camp unmanned.

  As we headed back to MBO, I began to talk to Holly “A Navy Chief is a patient at the hospital out in town and is lying in bed, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young, student nurse came into his room to give him a partial sponge bath. “Nurse,” the Chief mumbled from behind the mask “are my testicles black?”

  Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, “I don’t know, Chief. I’m only here to wash your upper body and feet.”

  The Chief struggles to ask again. “Nurse, are my testicles black?” Concerned, she overcomes her embarrassment and sheepishly pulls back the covers. She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles in the other.

  She looks very closely and says. “Don’t worry, Chief. They look fine.”

  The Chief pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her, and says very slowly. “Thank you very much. That was wonderful, but, listen very, very closely, are my test results back?” A laugh when up through our team.

  It wasn’t long before we were back at White Tree where we loaded back up in the airboats and traveled back to the docks, loaded the boats on the trailers and were on the road back to the base.

  It was 0300 when we arrived back at the base. We put the prisoners in the base brig and took everything else to hanger 3 so that we could begin going through it. After we went through all the data, we had collected, we would then start the integration of the prisoners. I told everyone to go get some rest until and we would begin processing the data after lunch. I reached my quarters, took a quick shower, and called the Skipper. “Hey, Go-go how did things go?” He asked.

  “Not bad, Rogers took a round through his left arm, it missed the bone so a few hours under a cell regenerator and he’ll be fine. The mission was picture perfect we captured six and recover their computers before they were able to wipe them. We have a lot of data to sort through before we start integrating the prisoners.” I told him.

  “I’m going to put our top hacker, LtCmdr Kanash with his intel team on a Defiant right away to get down there to help you.” The Skipper said

  “We are planning to get started on that after lunch, but you know our guys, I am willing to bet some of them have already started, they can’t resist a challenge. I’m going to grab some breakfast and coffee, and I will be headed down myself to see what I dig up.” I replied,

  “Ok keep me up to date Kanash and his team should be there by 0800,” The Skipper said before he disconnected.

  I grabbed my flat black Yeti 30oz thermal insulated coffee mug full of steaming fresh joe and headed to the Chiefs’ mess to grab some breakfast. When I arrived at the Chiefs’ mess, PO Jones had a full breakfast spread already cooked up. “What can I get for you, Master Chief.” He said when he saw me walk through the door.

  “How about an omelet with the works” I replied.

  “No problem it will be ready in 5.” He responded. Five minutes later, he set a plate down in front of me.

  “Thanks, Jones,” I said. He nodded and said

  “No problem, Coffee is fresh” as he returned to the kitchen. As I began eating my omelet, Holly sat down across from me.

  “Morning Go-go, no nap for you?” She said teasingly to me.

  “You know once you make Master Chief you’re not required to sleep anymore,” I replied.

  We both laughed. No matter what was going on or how deep the shit got, we never took ourselves to serious. It kept us humble. Even though I was the top NCO of the most elite fighting force in the world I knew that on any given day I could end up getting killed by a stray bullet and all my train would mean nothing, so we tried to enjoy life to the fullest when we were not in the field.

  13. Dat

  a Processing

  Unlike everyone else LtCmdr Kanash and his Team were not part of Team 11, they were part of the Naval Anti-Cyberterrorism Division (NACD). His Team is the top nerds from NACD on permanent assignment to Team11. Every one of them is ex Blackhat’s recruited by the Navy to fight the growing threat of cyberterrorism. LtCmdr Kanash, before joining NACD had been part of the leadership of a group of elite hackers called The Legionnaires the group had single-handedly brought an end to communism in China which had led to the downfall of communism in the world replaced by a socialistic system in most former communistic countries. The Legionnaires were also one of the first groups to discover the Gate Jumpers. It’s my understandi
ng that when he joined NACD, he brought his Team with him. Every intel group in the world was trying to recruit him to work for them. Not very many people know why he joined the Navy, but I do. You see when our Team needed an excellent hacker to help us. I picked up my phone and called my high school best friend and explained what we were doing and asked him to join us. While John Kanash may be receiving a paycheck from the Navy and officially hold the rank of LtCmdr he didn’t consider himself part of the Navy the closest he came was wearing a flight jacket with silver oak leaves over his jeans and t-shirt. The jacket had a name tag on it that said, Dungeon Master. His thought was if Pilots could have callsigns, so could he. Because he was one of the best in the world, the Navy didn’t tell him otherwise.