I turned and looked at Melissa with a smile on my face and said, “Can he do that?”
With a laugh in her voice, she said, “He is the king so yes.”
We talked to him for a while longer before we all disconnected. We all went out and grabbed some food. After we all ate Var connected the Gunny and the Skipper to the Orcs. Skipper and Gunny came to an agreement of friendship with the Orcs. They arrange for a future meeting between our leaders and theirs.
We set Var and his team up with rooms in the barracks. “We will all get together tomorrow morning at 0730 for breakfast then I will take you and your team over to meet with our geek squad in the hanger. The Dungeon Master will enjoy meeting you.” I told him then I headed to my own quarters.
30. New
Technology
Morning came too early. It was 0500, and I could smell the coffee brewing. I dressed and walked into the Kitchen to find Var was standing there next to the coffee maker waiting for the pot to finish brewing.
“How do I get one of these coffee makers in my room?” Var said.
““Yea I want one too”” Kevlar replied.
I hear a snicker as Melissa nimbly maneuvered between the two of them to pour herself the first cup. I laughed then we all laughed. We drank our coffee then headed down to the parade field for PT. Leroy and Jamie were standing next to Var’s team. After PT, we all went to breakfast at Skipper’s mess. Once everyone was seated Commander Dallas stood and announced the names of our lost brothers
“Never forget,”” He said.
“Never forgotten”” We all replied.
The Skipper stood ““Non-critical personal are on stand-down today,” he said. ““There has been a lot happening over the last few days, and we need a break. Steel Beach party on the parade field at 1600. Let’s Let’s keep patrols out in case there are any stragglers from the base still out there in the swamp. Go-go, you and Kevlar take Var and his team over to the hanger to work with the Dungeon Master, tell the DM I expect to see him and his team at the steel beach party. Otherwise, they will never leave the hanger. As it is, they have their meals deliver there.”” The Skipper said.
Then we finished breakfast and headed out.
Before we left, I turned to Holly and said, “An Admin Officer, a CDR got himself a new LCPO a female YNCS. She was pretty good looking and very professional. One day while talking to the CDR on some Sailor issues, she noticed the CDR’s CDR’s fly was open.
When leaving the room, the female Senior Chief said, ““CDR, your barracks door is open.””
The CDR did not understand her remark, but later, he happened to look down and saw that his zipper was open.
The CDR decided to have some fun with his new female Senior Chief, calling her in, he asked, ““By the way, Senior Chief, when you saw my barracks door was open this morning, did you also notice a Sailor standing at attention?””
The female Senior Chief, who was quite witty, replied, ““Why, no sir, all I saw was a little disabled veteran sitting on two sea bags.””
Holly laughed. After that, I took Kevlar, Var, and his team to the hanger and introduced then to John and his team.
““The first upgrade we need to install into your system is a software patch we can upload into your surveillance satellites it will allow them to spot the tears and gates allowing you to respond to their openings when they happen,”” Var said to me.
“LtCmdr John Kanash will be the person you will be working with; we all call him the Dungeon Master,”” I said to him.
Just then I received a call from the Gunny “Go-go I have a new sniper rifle design I got from back home I will have it put together in about an hour can you come help test it,” He said.
A smile came across my face, and I said: “Sure, mind if I bring another sniper with me?”
““That would work well with an extra set of eyes we may have it ready for full production by the end of the day,” He replied.
I told him I would see him soon. I then put in a call across the battlenet to PO3 Wonder ““Wonder, tell your chief that you are with me for the rest of the day and meet me at the armory in an hour.””
“Yes, Master Chief”” she responded.
I then called back to the Hummer that was following us and let Holly know that we were headed to the Armory after we dropped off our passengers at the hanger. She suggested we leave one of the Hummers with them and I ride with her. When we arrived at the hanger, I gave Kevlar the keys
““Make sure everyone makes it to the beach party on time, or the Skipper will hang us both,” I said to him.
Kevlar looked at me and with a straight face said, “Is deadly force authorized for those who resist?””
For a moment I couldn’t tell is he was serious or not but then he smirked ““No deadly force is allowed, but wedgies work wonders on computer geeks,”” I said to him.
“What’s a wedgie?”” He asked. I leaned in close to him and softly explained the art of the wedgie. He laughed so hard he almost choked. “Roger that Master Chief”” He replied to me.
Kevlar lead Var and his people in to meet with John.
I climbed it the Hummer with Holly and her team, and we headed to the Armory. During our ride to the Armory, I explained to her what I had told Kevlar.
“You don’t think he will really do it do you?”” She asked. I just grinned and shrugged my shoulders.
“I’m not sure, but I still owe the brave dungeon master for the time he set all the alert tones on my command pad to women moaning in pleasure,”” I replied.
When we arrived at the Armory, I saw PO3 Wonder standing outside waiting for us to arrive. We unloaded and walked towage the door
“Who’s this?”” Holly asked.
I reached where PO3 Wonder was standing pointed to her and said, “Senior Chief Holly Ellis this is PO3 Allison Wonder, Petty Officer Wonder; what do your friends call you?” I asked.
““My friends call me Wonder Woman,” She said.
““This is Holly, and I’m Go-go. The Gunny needs us to do some test firing of a new sniper rifle he’s designed, and I want to see how good a shot you are, so I thought we would have a little shooting competition between you and me.” I said.
“That’s great I heard you are the best on the team, and I was hoping to take that title away from you.” She said to me with a smile on her face.
“Spunky one you found here Go-go,”” Holly said to me, I laughed, and we went inside to speak with the Gunny.
When we walked in, we saw what looked like a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, the tried and true preferred rifle of any SEAL sniper, sitting on a workbench except it no longer shot .50 caliber rounds. It now was designed to be a railgun that would shoot four-inch long .50 Caliber tungsten darts.
The Gunny looked at us drooling over the rifle and said to us, “The rounds leave the barrel at around Mach 6. I figure that it will have less than 1mm drop in five miles.”
““I want to shoot first,” Holly said.
““Well we don’t have a 5-mile range so what I’ve I’ve done is I’ve set up a popup target each round it will get smaller until someone misses if no one misses we will switch to a pistol shoot out with an active avoidance drone and the first to shoot it wins. The first target is the two-inch target. Holly was the first to shoot and quickly hit the target.
“Wow this thing has the kick of a .22 rifle, and the trigger pull is perfect,”” Holly said.
The next to shoot was Wonder then I shot each hitting dead center of the target. This continued until we reached the quarter-inch target which Holly’s shot was off-center. Wonder and I continued to hit target after target until we reached the final target; it was only a 1mm target. We both shot, and we both hit dead center.
““Ok this is how the next part will work; you will both face away from the firing range on the count of 3 the first to shoot the drone target wins.” The Gunny said.
We took our positions, and on the count of three
, I stuck my pistol over my shoulder and shot the drone dead center causing it to explode just as Wonder turned around to see the pieces of it fall to the ground.
““Hand canons? Really?” Wonder asked.
““You should see the Skippers’ his is bigger,”” I said. Holly and Wonder laughed.
““So, what is it called and when do I get mine,” I asked the Gunny
““I call it the M82rg, and if you wait around for about twenty minutes for me to review the data from the rifle then you can have this one. The rest of the Platoon snipers should have theirs within a week.”” The Gunny said. We waited around for him to finish then I took the first of the new M82rg. “You ladies will receive yours tomorrow.”” He said to Wonder and Holly. By the time we were done at the range, it was noon, so we headed to the mess hall.
“There that’s done, PO3 Wonder you are now part of Alpha Platoon Squad 1, my personal security detail, also all of the top snipers in our team. Holly will get you moved in and introduced to the rest of the team after lunch. Meet her at the barracks at 1400.”” I said to her.
31. Bea
ch Party
Everyone began to show up at the parade field for the steel beach party. It really wasn’t a beach party; it was just a BBQ with lots of food and beer. There would be football, soccer, and volleyball games. The name “Steel Beach Party” comes from the parties that ships would have will underway usually on the ship’s fantail or the flight deck. In the Old days of the Navy, fleet commanders of naval and Military Sealift Command vessels participating in high-tempo, arduous operations were authorized to permit the consumption of up to two 12-ounce cans or bottles of beer by each member of the crew or embarked unit during an appropriate 1-day stand down at sea. Use was to occur in conjunction with proper moral enhancing activities such as flight deck or fantail cookouts where nonalcoholic beverages must also be available. One-day stand-downs were authorized subject to operational commitments and local threat assessments, for vessels which had attained 45 consecutive days at sea and would not arrive in a liberty port within 5 days of the day scheduled for consumption. Consumption was permitted on a one-time basis following every 45 days and was not a daily ration. Any voyage repair, upkeep period, or in-port period where any liberty was granted, and any at sea stand down under this exception constitutes a termination of a continuous at-sea period. A lot of things have changed since then, now with just one pill, a person could go from wholly hammered to sober in just about a minute. Sailor, we’re now allowed to consume alcohol whenever they were not on duty if they took the pill when they are required to return to duty. Even then, the men and women of TEAM 11 held themselves to a higher standard. As SEALs, we always had to be in complete control of ourselves. Shorts and t-shirts were authorized for any who wanted to wear them.
I saw Melissa and another elven woman walking my way. They both wore shorts and t-shirts.
“Go-go this is my half-sister Daniela she is one of the top cyber scientists from my world, she’s going to work with Jamie and me to come up with a chip design for the entire team that will integrate his technology and ours. Their bio enhancers are better than ours, but our cyber technology is better than theirs. So, you should be getting that accelerated healing soon,” Melissa said to me.
“That sounds exciting when do you think you will have a working prototype to install into me?” I asked.
“We are not sure maybe a week or so,” Daniela said.
“Well enough shop talk, this is a beach party lets have some fun,” I said as I handed them each a Guinness out of the cooler next to me.
“umm, this is almost as good as the Ale back home,” Daniela said.
We all got plates of BBQ and grabbed seats at one of the tables. More people began showing up. Kevlar, Var, and Holly grabbed plates of food and beers then sat down at the table with us.
“So now that we have secured the swamp when are we going to have us a wedding?” Holly asked.
“Maybe the next day or two I will check with the Skipper and Alley and see what they come up with,” I said to her.
“Well, it looks like the Skipper and the officers have taken command of the volleyball court. I think we should go take it back,” I said to the others at the table.
With a smile and a laugh, we all walked to the Volleyball court. I looked at the group of enlisted that were about to take the court
“Stand down men we will put these officers in their place,” I said to them.
“Go get them Master Chief,” They said. I looked around and realized we were one person short on our team. It was then that I saw the Gunny walking up.
“Gunny we need one more to beat some sense into these officers,” I said to him.
He laughed and took his shirt off, revealing his USMC t-shirt as he walked to the court. The rest of us took off our BDU shirts showing our t-shirt we were wearing underneath. It seems that wearing t-shirts under uniform shirts was universal. As we took the field.
“Well this should be fun; it’s been a while since I kicked your ass Go-go,” The Skipper said.
“Ha, you’ve never kicked my ass at anything other than brown-nosing,” I replied. We all laughed.
“Let’s get it on!” Cmdr. Dallas said.
The game began, it was brutal, it lasted about an hour, and in the end, we had won although I don’t think anyone walked away with welts from where we were hit by the ball at least once. The Skipper seemed to have been the worst. The Gunny had spiked the ball back across the net hitting the Skipper square in the nose, his nose was broken, but a quick patch by Melissa and he was back in the game. We played best two out of three. The Skippers team who the first game 25-24 but we won the last two sets 25-23 and 25-20. I was surprised by how well Daniela and Melissa played; they were the top two scorers of our team.
We all grabbed drinks and sat back down at our table
“You two were great out there,” I said to Melissa and Daniela
“In our college days we both played; we even took a year off from college played on a professional team before returning to school,” Daniela said.
“We play whenever we get the chance, but with us, in two different dimensions it has been a while since we played together,” Melissa said.
An hour later the Skipper announced that the Highland Games would start in an hour. A round of cheers went up from across the field. The first event would be the Caber toss. The Highland games were a recent addition to our beach parties, they had only been added after the Gunnery Sargent had joined our unit. He said that the Highland games were very similar to the warrior games they had back on his word. Everyone in our TEAM had grown to really enjoy them. The hammer toss was my event of choice. It was about 45 minutes later when a lone piper took the center of the field in full piper regalia and began to play Anchors Away followed by Scotland the Brave. As the piper began to play Scotland, the Brave four more piper entered the field and join in. It was then that I turned to see the pipers and I noticed that the first piper was PO3 Wonder.
It wasn’t long after that when the games began. I was surprised to see Var and Kevlar walking with the Gunny to line up for the Caber Toss.
“I’ll throw first so you wee little lassies can see how it’s done.” The Gunny said to Kevlar and Var.
Despite what many people thought the Caber Toss was not about who could throw the caber the furthest. The number one rule of scoring cabers is CONSISTENCY. Two judges were used to score the caber. If the caber toss results in a full turn, the back Judge scores the caber on the clock face. If the caber toss results in a partial turn, the side judge scores the caber on degrees. Around here the Gunny was undefeated. The Gunny briefly explained how the tosses worked and then he threw first scoring an 11 o’clock. Kevlar threw a 2 o’clock. Ten others threw before it was finally Var’s turn. While Var only stood 5’6” tall, he had perfect muscle tone, and he picked up the nearly 200lb and 19-foot-long caber as if it weighed nothing. He tossed the caber as if he had been doing this all
his life.
“12 o’clock toss,” the Judge said.
He turned and looked at Gunny and said, “What was that you were saying warthog?”
Gunny just stood there, shocked. While Kevlar laughed.
The next event was the Tug of war with five-man teams. The Skipper grabbed Gunny, Kevlar, and me, and we formed a team. We were clearly winning against all takers until Commander Dallas, who was the event judge, decided we needed a handicap and told the others to form ten-man teams. When that plan didn’t work, he said Charlie platoon to take the other end of the rope, and they were finally able to pull us over the line. He then declared Charlie platoon the winner of the Tug-of-war.
The games continued with the shotput, the weight for height, and finally, the hammer toss unlike the standard ball hammer used in traditional Highland games. We had a special hammer made for just our games; it was a 50lbs replica of Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. The winner of the hammer toss held the hammer as a trophy until the next games. If you could win the Hammer ten times in a row, then the hammer would be engraved with your name, and you got to keep it, and a new one would be made. This hammer was the first hammer, and I had already won it nine-time, and if I could win it this time, I would be the first to own one; it would also be the last time I could compete for it. Because I was the current champion, I would throw last. The hammer toss was the most popular of all the events as everyone wanted Mjolnir. When everyone had thrown the top throw was 136 feet 3 inches. My personal record was 143 feet, 2 inches. I stepped up to the line and threw the hammer. It was a tense few moments while the Skipper measured the throw “146 feet 4 inches. Go-go wins for the tenth time in a row.” The Skipper announced.
A cheer went up across the field. I walked out, picked up the hammer, and held it high above my head.
“Hooyah!” I yelled.
The others responded back, “Hooyah, Master Chief.”
Strike Force 11 Page 12
