She broke out in laughter. “If only you knew how accurate it describes him,” She responded.
I headed over to the tarmac to meet Mark when he landed. I introduced him to Harm and Rogers and left them to work out the details of their mission. We drove the perimeter to inspect the kill zone that had been established before heading over to The Grinder. When I walked in, I saw Lt Sally Reeds sitting at one of the tables.
“What are you doing here Lt Reeds?” I asked her.
“Well my CO told me to meet up with you this morning because you had a job for me, so I check around and found out that you prefer to work in the Conference room here rather than an office because this is the best place on the base to get coffee,” she said as she handed me a cup of coffee.
I took a sip, and it was just the way I like it; four Splenda and a splash of cream. “Ok Captain Reeds you are the new base logistics officer. Follow me.” I said as I passed her a set of orders and her new rank insignia as we entered the conference room. I lifted the two ammo cans full of the gold we recovered from the Gnomes and slid them across the table to her.
“This is your petty cash fund for any purchases that you can’t get through the normal supply chain. This base is no longer going to be just a training camp; it is our new Command center and is to be expanded to become a fully operational base to include on-base housing for families. The ammo cans have around ten million in gold coins so you will need to have it converted to cash. Keep good records of what you spend. You now report directly to the Skipper and me. Any questions?” I said.
She opened the ammo cans looked inside then calmly closed the lids then said, “Two, first can I get a couple of guards, and second where is a safe that I can lock this up in?”
“There should be a safe over in the supply building as far as guards when you need to leave the base to go exchange the gold grab a squad of Rangers to escort you. About a dozen people are working in supply that are holdovers from the last command here at the base before we arrived. Check them out if you like them let me know, and I will have them transfer to you, or if you have people in mind to work with you, we will get them assigned to you. I’m sure you have some of your own people you have been working within your unit. Grab yourself a hummer and a driver from the motor pool.” I said.
I spent the next hour assigning offices in the admin building to everyone that would need one. In the end, I decided to keep my office right here at The Grinder; after all, it did have the best coffee, and it was centrally located. I sent out an office assignment to everyone.
47.
Major Terror
It was lunchtime by the time I had finished getting everyone into their offices in the admin building. My phone rang, and it was the Skipper
“Hey, Go-go. I just got done looking over the office assignments in the admin building and noticed that you don’t have one.” The Skipper said.
“Well damn the luck I ran out of offices there, so I guess I will have to stay right here and work out of the Conference room at The Grinder” I replied.
“Hmm, imagine that your stuck working out of the bases only coffee shop because you forgot to assign yourself and office here in the admin building before; they were all gone. Somehow I don’t think that was an oversite on your part.” He said.
“Well, it’s too late to change it now besides do you really think it’s a good idea to have us both in the same building in case of an attack. At least this way one of us will be able to come to the aid of the other if we get hit like we did last time. Think of how bad it could have been if we were both in the Admin building when the Gnomes attacked.” I answered.
“I guess you have a point there. I will see you at the briefing, bring your new sidekick with you. I want to meet her.” He replied.
“Roger that Skipper,” I said, and we disconnected. “Holly can you call over to the Chief mess and have lunch delivered here for us,” I said,
“You got it Go-go,” She replied.
“Major Morgan, what do your friends call you? We don’t normally address each other by ranks around here. It’s a security thing. We get in the habit of calling each other by nicknames or first names so that when we are working covertly and trying to blend in with the natives, we don’t slip up and call someone by their rank and blow their cover. That’s why everyone calls me Go-go instead of Master Chief Getter. We only use name and rank with speaking with those outside of our command. So, you will notice that the Rangers will address everyone by name and rank while the member of Team 11 address each other by first names or nicknames” I said
“This is similar to the way we work in the Epsilon Force. My team members call me Terror.” She replied.
“Ok, then Terror it is. My boss Admiral Hicks goes by Skipper, Senior Chief Ellis goes by Holly and the 1stsgt there goes by Gili.” I said. I then reached into a box that had all my stuff from my office and pulled out my Blue Jacket Manual and handed it to her.
“This will give you a basic rundown on ranks, Navy terminology, and etiquette. I don’t know how much you know about our military, but this is a basic intro I will get you a command pad, and you will have access to a full library of information on our military and its history. For now, you will not have access to any classified information, that may come in the future,” I said.
I picked up my phone and called the Dungeon Master “John, I need a favor I need you to put Major Tera Morgan in the system as an LtCmdr and assign her to my personal detail. Issue her an ID, Command pad, and Battlenet gear only give her access to unclassified data. I am sending BioScan and pictures to you now. Can you send it to the briefing at 1330?” I asked.
“Sure, thing Go-go I will get one of my guys on it.” He replied.
“Thanks,” I said, then I called Captain Reeds. “Captain I have a request I need a full set of navy officer uniforms for LtCmdr Morgan. I’ll put her on the phone to give you her sizes have them delivered to the Command NCO House when they are ready.” I said.
“No problem. We can have them ready this evening except for the dress uniforms. They won’t be ready until tomorrow.” She replied. I then put Terror on the phone with her. She provided her measurement to the captain, and then they disconnected.
48.
Gnome on a Rocket
We headed to the admin building for the 1330 briefing. When we arrived, there was a member of the geek squad waiting for us with the gear for Terror, he gave it all to her and gave her basic instructions on how it all worked. We headed to the conference room and took seats for the briefing. The Skipper was already there and waited for everyone to take their s before he began. “Everyone should have your office assignments and should be moved in. If you’re looking for Go-go’s office, you will find that he has somehow managed to keep it at The Grinder,” the Skipper said, and a laugh went up across the room. “Let’s start with a report from the Rangers,” the Skipper said.
“We have established the half-mile kill zone around the base and are currently working on clearing the areas on each side of the road. It should be completed by 1700 tonight. Colonial Thorne has her tanks positioned so that they have 365-degree coverage of the base.” Colonel Ryan said.
“Tomorrow morning all of TEAM 11 and the Marines will be at the wedding. So, Colonel Ryan will be in command of the base until I return. Tomorrow and Sunday will be stand-down days. All those not on watch will be off. We will still be on high alert so no liberty will be granted. Any questions?” The Skipper said. There were a few questions which the Skipper and I answered. Then the Skipper dismissed everyone.
As I was walking out of the admin building, I received a call from Melissa.
“Alley is picking up Daniela and me to take us to prepare for the wedding we will see you at the wedding tomorrow,” She said.
“Ok I will see you there, I love you,” I replied,
“I love you too.” She said.
“I love you the most, I win,” I said then disconnected.
From the admin building,
I headed over to hanger 2 to check and see how the updates were coming along. We arrived at the hanger just in time to see Papa Smurf come running out screaming followed closely behind by Var carrying a sub-machine gun taking shots at the ground near the gnome. I sat there in my hummer, wondering if I should stop him. “Do you think he needs any help?” Kevlar asked.
“The Gnome?” Holly asked. “No, Var,” he replied.
I stuck my head out the window and yelled: “Var, why are you trying to shoot the Gnome?”
“I’m not trying to shoot him, If I were trying to shoot him, he would be dead! I am trying to get the annoying Blue bastard to go away and annoy someone else. If he does not go away, we are all going to start shooting him.” He replied.
I turned and looked at Kevlar and said. “Call Jamie and tell him that his little blue friend is loose on my tarmac and he needs to come to get him and take him out of here before someone shoots him. By shooting him, I mean shooting Jamie.”
“I’m on it,” He replied. A few seconds later, Jamie came running out of the hanger, he chased down the gnome and took him to a nearby hummer and drove off with the gnome. “Jamie said he was on the toilet and only left the gnome alone for 5 minutes,” Kevlar said. All of us but Terror erupted in laughter.
Var walked over to us and said, “The Gnome was lucky; I chased him off, the Dungeon Master wanted to send him to upgrade the satellites in-person.”
“I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have any rockets,” I said.
“He was on the phone with some guy called NASA and was arranging a trip for your blue buddy,” He replied.
We walked into the hanger, and John said, “If you have that damn smurf with you, I have a rocket fueling up at Cape Canaveral and waiting for him.”
“He’s gone,” I said.
He talked into the phone. “Yea Randy I won’t be needing the rocket right now but keep one ready for me just in case plans change. Yea I owe you one. Yea I will get you that GM spot over at Alpha Games, thanks, man. Yea I’ll tell him.” John hung up the phone and turned to me and said, “Randy said to tell you congratulations on the wedding he would get you a gift in the mail.”
“You were really going to send the gnome into orbit,” I said.
“If that smurf enters my hanger again I will put him into orbit, Randy said he could have me a rocket ready to launch in six hours no question asked” I snickered and handed him a thermos full of expresso.
“Brought you a present from Aunt Mary,” I said. He opened the lid and smelled it.
“I love that woman. Remind me to order a nice bottle of wine for her. She has sent me a thermos every day since she found out I was here on base. Did I miss anything important at the briefing today?” He asked.
“Just my wedding tomorrow. You’re going to be there, right? You and the Skipper are my best men.” I said.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world buddy, I thought you would never get married.” He replied.
“How are the updates coming along?” I asked.
“They are amazing; we just finished updating all of our systems here, and now we are uploading the new software to the satellites it’s going to take about thirty-six hours to complete so right now we are just sitting here making sure nothing goes wrong. The information that Var brought to us is jumping us lightyears ahead of anyone else on the planet. With the upgrades installed into my computer, I could hack into any government’s highest security systems in about ten seconds, with the new storage technology I could download the entire internet onto a device the size of a flash drive.” He said.
“I currently have a satellite in a fixed orbit above the Gate base in Swaziland. All I can see is the stealth netting they have over the base. Once the update is completed, we will be able to see through the netting and see what they are doing there. We have been tracking any vehicle that going in or out of the area. So far it just looks like supply trucks coming in. Fleet in moving a carrier group of the coast of South Africa then we will be able to get some drones in the area. All the drones are now running our new software packages so we should get a lot of good data coming in by morning from them.” John said.
“So, what was Papa Smurf doing that pissed you two off?”
“He was sitting over there at that workstation telling Var that he had an anger issue and then he spilled his soda on the computer. He is lucky it was just a desktop, and he only ruined the keyboard. If he had spilled it on one of the computers, we are working on I would have shot him with the rocket launcher in the corner. I don’t trust him any further than I can throw him.” Var said.
“I’m telling you Go-go if he comes around her again; To the Moon Alice,” John said.
“I just wanted to see how things are going here. I am headed to the pool for a swim I didn’t get to go to PT this morning and need the stretch.” I said.
“Count me in. nothing I can do here but sit and wait.” Var said.
“I’ll pass have some expresso calling my name,” John said, waving the thermos in the air.
We arrived at the pool. Kevlar, Var, Holly and I went for a 2-mile swim while the others went into the clubhouse. There is nothing better than a swim to loosen up the muscles.
49.
The Raccoons
My phone rang; it was the front gate. “Oh God, what happened now?” I thought to myself as I answered the phone.
“Master Chief I’ve got something bizarre here at the gate. There are four raccoons with a cooler here, and one of them seems to be trying to communicate using some sort of sign language.” The gate guard said.
“Ok, I will be right there,” I said.
I then called Lt Randy Johnson, “Hey Randy the raccoons are here. I need a translator. They are at the main gate.” I said.
“Yea I will be right there,” Randy replied.
We all arrived at the main gate at the same time. There at the gate were four raccoons with a white Yeti Cooler with the words “Property of US Coast Guard” Stenciled on the side of it. One of the raccoons stood on top of the cooler and began to sign to us. Randy started to translate
“Hello great chief our people have not forgotten your help during the great squirrel war our chief has sent you this present in the celebration of your joining with a mate,” The Raccoon said then he turned and opened the cooler, inside of it was a neatly folded skin of an Albino Alligator. “Our people have made you a cloak from the skin of one of our ancient enemies the Great White Gator” I removed it from the cooler and it was amazing, you would think that it came from one of the top tailors in the world based on the workmanship. “we would consider it a great honor if you would wear it at your mating ceremony our chief will be there. We have also brought you the cooler of your enemy.” He said.
“Your people honor me with such a grand gift I will wear it. Tell all your people I am grateful for this gift.” I said.
“The one you named Riley is our chief now and he said to tell you that you will always be his brother. If you should ever our help, he will be there for you just as you were for him.” The Raccoon said. With that, the raccoons all bowed and then scurried away.
It was five years ago when I discovered how intelligent the raccoons here in Florida really were. I was home on leave when I met a young Scientist named Angela Kitsune who was doing research on the local raccoons. She had discovered that they seemed to be smarter than the typical raccoons. It appeared that a local store had a break-in, and a lot of food had been stolen, when they reviewed the videos, they discovered not only had the raccoons picked the door locks but had also disabled the building alarms. Angela befriended a wild raccoon and began to teach it to sign language. She discovered that the Raccoon was quick to learn and was also quick to show other raccoons. Within a matter of months, all the raccoons in southern Florida knew sign language. With her help, I had begun to talk with one raccoon that I named Riley. I discovered from Riley that the raccoons were at war with the squirrels. I found the squirrels in the area would eat anything and
that they had started to raid the Raccoon’s food supplies, and this was causing the raccoons to have to break into stores and steal food. So, I did what any other SEAL would have done I taught the Raccoon’s knife combat then I provided them with knives and a supply of protein bars. Shortly after then, I returned to work and did not return to Florida until a year later. When I did return, I discover that the raccoons had killed every squirrel in Florida, they had also become allies with my tribe. The raccoons declared themselves their own nation. We had learned that both Angela and I were part of the Seminole Tribe they sought an alliance with them, with my sister’s love of nature and animals they reached an agreement quickly. The treaty forced the United States to grant the raccoons of Florida protective species status, making it illegal to harm them. The State of Florida made it illegal to own, transport or release squirrels in Florida. Squirrels were classified as invasive species, and people were encouraged to kill them on-site at any time of year. Riley claimed Angela and me as family making us both official raccoons.
The visit from the raccoons got me thinking, and I called Angela
“Hey young Padawan how are you?” I asked.
“Master Go-go it’s been too long since we last talked. I am doing great I hear you’re finally getting married.” She said.
“I was wondering if you had some free time and could come work for me for a while,” I said.
50.
Fight Club
The rest of the day passed by quietly. The Skipper had a special dinner for everyone. Surf and Turf was the meal of the evening for everyone. Every Dining hall on base was serving Steak and Lobster. Unlike what some bases would do were the jr. enlisted would have cheaper cuts of steak and frozen small lobster tails. The Skipper had gone all out; everyone got their choice of either Prime Rib or T-bone steaks grilled to order and fresh whole Maine lobsters. It was a feast fit for a king and a well-earned treat for everyone. There was no bachelor party our current level of alert even with instant sober pills; with the ongoing attacks, it wasn’t worth the chance.
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