Strike Force 11

by Forest Getter

  I headed over to hanger 3 to see what was going on. There were about a dozen people here all busy scanning all the document we had found into the computer to be analyzed by John’s Team when they arrived.

  “Find anything good yet?” I asked. Lt. Rogers sat at a desk with his arm wrapped in a bio-regenerator drinking a Mountain Dew,

  “Nothing yet, but we just got started they are mostly invoicing and such, so we may end up with a trail on their supply line. I’m sure the good stuff is on computers, tablets, and phones.” He said.

  “So, I guess you’re going to try to get out of PT today,” I said to him.

  “Well, I do have this bag over my arm with an IV connected to it,” he replied.

  I looked at him, shook my head, and said, “Slacker.” we both laughed.

  “If you haven’t had breakfast yet go to eat. This can wait till after breakfast, and by breakfast, I don’t mean grabbing a protein bar out of your pack. That goes for you too Cpt. America.” I said loud enough for everyone to hear.

  I heard a few grumbles as hands came out of their bags followed by a “Yes Master Chief” from the group as they all stood up and walked out of the hanger led by Lt. Rogers.

  Everyone met on the Parade field at 0530 for PT. Physical Training was something we tried to make sure that happened when it was possible. Even when members of the Team were on leave, it was still expected for them to maintain the same level of readiness as they were required to keep while on duty because you never knew when your phone would go off and you would be back on duty. Even after being up all night a good run and swim helped to get the blood pumping and start the day outright. After PT, we were all back at in the hanger. At 0730, I jumped into one of the Hummers parked outside the hanger and drove over to the Helicopter pad to meet John when he landed.

  When John came off the helicopter, he walked up to me, and we hugged “It’s good to see you up and about. The last time I saw you, you were the one coming off a helicopter on a stretcher with a big portion of your face missing.” He said.

  “Yea it always seems that our schedules seem to keep us working at different locations. I’ve missed you brother.” I replied.

  “and I’ve missed you too glad we are finally working together again.” He said. I grabbed his bag and put it in the back seat.

  “Anderson will get your Team moved into their quarters and then bring them to the hanger we are working out of. You and I will head there now, and I’ll get you moved into your quarters after lunch.” I told him.

  As soon as we arrived at the hanger, John grabbed a desk and a computer out of the stack of seized equipment we had. Within minutes he had hacked through the security of the machine and was transferring data to his datapad. “It’s going to take us longer to sort through all the data than it will to get the data off the devices. Other than basic password protection, there is no real security. Just at a brief glance, there is no intel of value on this one. Do we know which one belonged to the camp commander?” He asked.

  I grabbed what looked like a military-grade command tablet and handed it to him. He looked it over and then connected a cable from his Command pad to the one I gave him. “Now this one may actually be a challenge,” he said with an evil grin on his face.

  John had been working on the Command pad for an hour when the rest of his Team showed up. They started unpacking computer equipment and setting up. I knew this was my cue to go check on the rest of the Team while they went to work. “John I will be by to pick you up for lunch at 1300,” I said. He just waved at me and continued working. I called Holly and had her assemble the Team in the mess hall in 20 minutes for an after-action debrief.

  14.

  Debrief

  We all gathered at the mess hall. “First of all, let me tell you all thanks for doing a great job. Except for Captain America getting shot again, our mission was a complete success. We captured their command staff and got all their computers before they had a chance to wipe them. Dungeon Master and his team are working on gathering data off all their electronic gear. After lunch, I want Team 5 to head out and relieve Team 3. Team 4 will run perimeter patrols until 1800 then Team 2 will take over till until 2200 then we will break for the evening. Team 5 I want you to head back here to base at 1100 and we will leave security there to the automated systems. Team 1 will be on standby to support Team 5.” I said. “Make sure you have any personal data you collected uploaded before lunch today. Everyone, when you are not on patrol, continue to assist the base personal on getting this base turned over to us. Any questions?” I looked around, and no one had any questions.

  I signaled Holly that she had the floor. As I sat down, she stood up. “The geek squad is here, and PO Young said he would be free to do maintenance on any one’s gear that needed it. He also said that he would put a security upgrade on the server that everyone needed to download to their command pads. I need volunteers to clean the airboats after they are clean the motor pool staff with be filling in the scratches if your fee and can help let them know.” She said. “ For those of you that just arrived stop by medical this morning and make sure your shots are up to date The Zika shot is now only good for a year so if you didn’t get one before you left to come here get it this morning. Don’t let the master Chief or I catch you being lazy, or we will find you something to do, and no one wants that,” With that, a laugh went up across the room. When Holly sat down, LtCmdr Hampton stood up.

  “The Skipper said that the move is ahead of schedule, all the new personnel has arrived and they all should be ready to move in about three days. He said to tell everyone that once the move is made, he would throw a steel beach party day. We are working hard and will be on high alert until we find the base. He hinted at the fact that after the mission is over, this will be our new home port, so let all bring this place up to SEAL standards.” He said.

  The debriefing continued for about another hour, allow time for each senior personal to put out the necessary information to everyone. We then dismissed everyone to go about their daily tasks. Before leaving, I asked Ensign Miller to head over to the brig to start interrogating our prisoners. Miller wasn’t always an Ensign before going to OCS he was a Senior Chief, and he has always been one of the best integrators the Teams have to offer. He has been a part of Team 11 almost as long as I have. He just returned to us from OCS about two months ago. I told Holly I was headed back to the hanger to see how the wise and powerful DM was doing with the command pad he was working on.

  As I walked into the hanger, I saw the command pad go flying across the hanger and heard John scream, “Damn alien technology!”

  “What’s the problem?” I asked.

  “It’s a completely alien device. Although it looks like one of our command pads, the software and hardware are of a complete alien design. None of our gear is compatible unless you can get the owner of it to unlock it, we have no way of accessing any data from it. It would take months for our guys to reverse engineer it if we are lucky.” He said with a frustrated sound in his voice. “The rest of the stuff doesn’t give us a clue to where the main base is.” He continued.

  “Well, I sent Miller over to integrate the prisoners, so let’s hope he can discover something good,” I replied. I hung around with John until lunchtime then we both loaded up and went to drop his bag off at his quarters then have lunch.

  15.

  The Enemy of My Enemy

  Just as we were approaching the Mess hall a call for me came across the radio “Master Chief we need you at the front gate ASAP,” the gate guard said.

  “Ok, I am on my way,” I replied.

  As I arrived at the gate, I saw three men whose skin was Olive green, and one of them was waving a white flag. Surrounding them were six guards looking nervous and pointing rifles at the green guys. I got out of the hummer and approached. “Hello, I assume you are the person in charge here?” One of them said.

  “Yes, I am, who are you, and why are you here?” I replied.

  “My name
is General William Kevlar. I am a member of the Old Guard. We are here to help you stop the people you refer to as Gate Jumpers. I will be happy to give you more details if we can move inside out of this heat and possibly get access to some showers and freshwater,” He said to me.

  “Sure, we can do that if you would be willing to surrender your weapons to my guards while we talk. I will ensure your safety while you are on our base,” I said to him.

  “If you are the one known as Go-go then we have an agreement,” Gen Kevlar said.

  The three of them turned their weapons over to the guard and allow themselves to be searched. We all loaded up into hummers and went over to the Hanger 3 on my way there I called Holly and told her to grab her squad and meet us at the hanger. When we arrived at hanger 3, we allowed them to shower and provided them with clean BDU’s then we all entered the conference room where there were bottled water and a fresh pot of coffee brewing. When offered, they each grabbed a bottle of water and drank it down.

  “Passing through the gates leaves you dehydrated, and out personal water bottle have been empty since we crossed over two days ago,” General Kevlar said.

  “So General Kevlar how it is that you came to arrive at the gate of this base asking for me?” I asked

  “Please just call me Kevlar. We crossed across a temporary gate two days ago from a top-secret facility. We came through about a mile south of the camp you raided last night. We had been watching the camp when you and your people came storming in and attacked the place. We had been monitoring the camp to try to find out where the main base is when we picked up your commutations that how I discovered you were the leader here. I planted a tracker on her (pointing to Holly) when she was up the tree-killing the sniper. Then we just tracked you back to your base” He said then turned to Holly and said, “It’s a nanite in your hair that transmits video, audio, and location to my cortex chip but do not worry I’ll send the kill code to it now that we are here.”

  Holly smiled at him and said thank you. “Ok, with that said why are you here?” I asked.

  “That’s the complicated part. As I told you I am a General in a resistance force called the Old Guard, our leadership is direct descendants of the Imperial family. Around 50 years ago they turned the control of the government to Parliament and became just figureheads with no ruling rights. Well, some bad people got in control of the government, and they decided that the empire needed to grow, and they began using the gate system to try to take control of other worlds. I served as a member of the Emperor’s guard, known as the Old Guard. The Emperor asked my squad and me to help the members of his family to stop this. We were attempting to shut down one of the gates they were using to come to this world, but we were caught and had to flee through the gate. That’s why I’m here hoping we can work together and stop your party crashers, in turn, helping me to complete my mission.” I looked him in the eyes, and I knew he wasn’t lying to us.

  “Ok but I need you to show me why I need you on my team instead of back at some office talking to someone giving them all you know that would be of use to us,” I stated.

  “Sounds fair how about I show your techs how to bypass and security on any devices from our planet. We then hack into the bionetwork in the brains of your prisoner to start.” Kevlar said with an evil grin on his face.

  It was then that I knew that he and his team were going to be a significant part of my team and that they would fit in just fine with the rest of my misfits. I called PO Anderson and asked him to send lunch for everyone to the hanger and to get a full set of uniforms for Kevlar and his team. I paused and said,

  “Hey, Kevlar I know you’re a general how many stars do you have,” I asked.

  He paused like he was thinking and then replied, “I just got my 7th two months ago,”

  I thought to myself we would worry about rank insignia later. Then I asked Anderson to have Melissa come to the hanger when she was free.

  I led Kevlar out to the hanger and introduce him to John within minutes the conversation reached a level of geekiness that was beyond me, so I went to get another cup of coffee. I call Miller and let him know that it didn’t matter if he got any information from the prisoners his new goal was just to keep them off balance and not understanding what we are up to. His interrogation was now about feeding them disinformation and thinking we had no idea what they were doing out here. “Don’t even let on that we know that they are aliens,” I told him.

  He laughed and replied, “No problem, Go-go, this is really going to be fun now.” We both laughed.

  Twenty minutes later, Anderson showed up with uniforms and food. Kevlar and John broke up their conversation long enough to grab some food out of the conference room before they returned and started work on the command pad that we had captured. I sat down and began talking to Kevlar’s team. The first guy I spoke to was Sargent Major Jamie Nightwatch He was a vehicle specialist, he claimed that if it could be driven or flown, he could operate and repair them. The second man introduced himself and Admiral Leroy Gin. He said he was a heavy gunner/bomber. I found out that they called the gate jumpers Epelts after the name of the Barony on their world that the current controlling political party comes from. It is believed that the Politian’s are being controlled by the Baron of Epelt. It has been well known throughout their history that the Epelt have always sought to take the Throne. I also found out that they didn’t have to eat there field rations like we thought it was part of the brainwashing the Epelts troops went through they are made to believe that without them they will die, that didn’t just apply to the troops that came here it was that way no matter where they are because of the bio-implants they receive when they enter the military. When the truth of the matter is that if they stopped eating the rations for a week, the implant would die, and they would be free from the control of the military. It was 10 minutes later when John and Kevlar enter the room.

  “We are in!” They shouted at the same time.

  16. The

  Invasion

  We all jumped to our feet and followed them back to the tech room where there was a globe floating above the Holo-table with 10 flashing red dots across its surface and one red dot flashing on the moon revolving around the planet.

  “Oh, Shit,” I said as I saw the image. “Are those what I think they are?” I said.

  “Yea those are Epelt bases,” Kevlar replied.

  I looked at John and said, “I need the Skipper and the SECNAV on a conference ASAP.”

  “Give me 10 minutes and get everyone in the conference room,” He replied.

  I then told Holly to get Hampton and Rogers at the conference. While we waited, I had Kevlar fill me in on everything they had discovered on the Command Pad.

  Ten minutes later everyone was in the conference room with the Skipper and SECNAV on the two screens at the front of the room. The first thing I did was catch them up to date on Kevlar and his team. Then I had John and Kevlar fill them in on what they discovered on the Command Pad. John brought the planet and moon on the holographic display with a total of eleven flashing red lights.

  “These flashing red dots represent locations of major enemy bases around the world and on the moon,” John said. Everyone was silent for a moment before John continued. “The camp we raided is what they call a recruitment camp that they are actively using to recruit what they refer to as the native population. Which they plan on being there first wave of attackers. By implanting bionetworks into them and using mind control. There are about a hundred of these camp locations marked on the map of them only about 30 of them were marked as active. Fifty were labeled as the site selected and of them, twenty were labeled as under construction. The ones that are under construction are all scheduled to be completed in the next ninety days. We did not find any detailed plans or facilities notes. This was all the information we have discovered at this point,” He concluded.

  “Kevlar told me that he has the ability to hack into the prisoners Bionetwork and find out what they know. B
ut this will take a few days my people have to drive them to the point of exhaustion so that their mental defenses weaken and that is going to take us 3 to 4 days depending on their personal endurance.” I told them.

  The SECNAV was the first to speak. “Put General Kevlar and his people on the payroll and pay them according to their equivalent rank. As long as they are here and get them any documents and ID’s they will need so that they will be able to blend in with the rest of the team. Kanash can your boys take care of that?” he asked.

  “No problem boss,” He replied.

  “Captain Hicks I am going to send Team 17 to you to take over the move I want you and the rest of your team in transit to MBO today. We need to get the full firepower of your team moving on the base down there ASAP. Go-go do you best to make sure the enemy does not discover the attack on the camp for as long as possible.” The SECNAV said.

  “Go-go intergrade Kevlar and his squad into your personal security force. I will see you at dinner time. Make sure that there are racks for everyone,” The Skipper said.

  “I will let the Admiral know that the rest of the unit will be here today,” I replied. With that, we ended the call.

  “Anderson get quarters set up on my floor for Kevlar and his squad,” I said.

  I turned and looked at Kevlar and asked, “So how much does a 7-start general get paid?”

  He gave me a funny look then said, “We don’t get paid we are volunteering the old guard just provide for our needs you know food, equipment, a place to sleep, and any gear we may need.”

  “Hmm, let’s go about this a different way,” I said.

  I handed him a list of military ranks that included what their leadership roles were and average time in service to achieve that rank “Which one of our ranks would most closely match yours,” I asked.