“I call dibs on shooting the smurf,” Kevlar said. And the table erupted into laughter.
“Were not going to kill the Smurf,” I said to him
“Yea you say that now but if that changes, I call dibs on killing him,” He replied.
“Hey, that’s not fair I wanted to kill the Smurf, I say whoever gets to him first gets to kill him,” Var said.
“That sounds fair.” Kevlar said.
“So, it’s settled whoever gets to the little blue pain gets to put him down,” Holly sounded in. By this time, we were all rolling in laughter.
“I want to make this perfectly clear We are not going to kill the Smurf. If it comes to the point where we must kill the Smurf, I am the one in charge of our unit, and I will be the one to do it.” I said to them all. Everyone grumbled. “Ok, let’s rollout,” I kissed Melissa, and then we loaded up into the vehicles and headed to the Helicopter pad.
It was dinner time when we finally arrived on the Mighty Sara. We would stay the night onboard the Carrier and would fly out tomorrow evening just after sunset. We were all given cots and put up in one of the hanger bays for the day we would be here. The Skipper and I had dinner that night with the Ship’s captain in his private mess with the Air Boss and the rest of the department heads. After dinner, we all wander back to the hanger bay.
“Come check this out,” Kevlar said as he walked over towage Rogers’ shield holding an ultra-violet light, he shined it on the inside of the shield to reveal a logo on the inside that matched his name. I burst into laughter as I heard Rogers say,
“What are you two doing with my shield.” Kevlar turned and reveled the ultra-violet paint job as we both continued to laugh.
“You Bastards,” He said and then joined us in laughter.
I walked over to my Pelican case and pulled out a five-pound bag of coffee and went off in search of the Mess Chief. If we were going to be here for any length of time, I was going to make a coffee upgrade to the Chief’s mess. I walked to the mess deck and spoke to one of the cooks,
“Where is your department Chief?” I said.
“He is either in his office or the Chief mess I will call and find out for my Master Chief.” He replied.
“Thanks,” I said. A few minutes, Senior Chief Mendez showed up.
“I’m Senior Chief Mendez, but everyone calls me Cookie,” he said as he held out his hand.
I shook his hand and said, “Everyone calls me Go-go, good to meet you. I have a present for your Chief mess,” as I handed him the five pounds of Grinder Coffee. He opened the bag and smelled the content and smiled.
“Let’s go make a pot, the chiefs are going to love you.” He replied.
“I was hoping you would say that,” I said as I pulled the empty coffee cup from my cargo pocket. We laughed as he led me to the Chief Mess. I sent a message across the battlenet to Holly, Kevlar, Var, and Terror, letting them know where to find the excellent coffee. It didn’t take long for them to see me sitting in the Chief Mess drinking coffee with Cookie and a few other Chiefs that were part of the Ship’s crew. We spent our time on the Ship reviewing all the latest intel to come in on the Gate Base and relaxing until the time came for us to move out. The Marines headed out first thing in the morning, which allow them to get into place before the rest of us arrived. It was 2000 when we flew out for our target.
Forty-five minutes we saw the base approaching it was just then that Papa Smurf pulled a square object out of his bag and slammed it into Holly’s chest a spike shot out of the object embedding itself into Holly’s chest. I stood and kicked the Smurf out of the Helicopter and turned to Holly.
“It’s a bomb,” she said then she pushed me out of the way and jumped out of the Helicopter. Kevlar and Var grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back into the Helicopter as we hear an explosion and flames flew up past the door setting the door gunner on fire causing him to lose his position and fall out of the Helicopter. Anger filled me as it had never done before.
“We are going to kill everyone one on that base,” I said.
I then sent a message across the battlenet explaining what the traitorous blue gnome had done. The outrage came from the team “We are implementing Scorched Earth protocol on this mission. Kill everyone that is not part of our unit,” The Skipper said.
We hit the base hard and fast, killing everyone and destroying everything. I don’t remember much of the attack only flashes, and I don’t know how many I killed But I remember at one point pulling out my K-bar and slamming it into the skull of one of the gnomes as I had emptied my pistol into the face of another. We grabbed a few computers that were not destroyed, and we pulled back to the Marines. The Skipper then called in an airstrike on the base. I stood there covered in blood and watched the napalm rain down on the base as tears filled my eyes. When it was done, there was nothing left but smoldering ruins. We spent several hours searching the area where Holly had gone out of the Helicopter, we found the door gunner, but the only thing we found of the Gnome and Holly was the remains of Holly’s dog tags.
Epilogue
Terror had been the one to find Holly’s dog tags. And she had handed them to me “I am so sorry Go-go, she was a great warrior, and she accepted me like family,”
Tears began to fill my eyes, and I took the dog tags into my hands. “Never forget,” I said through my tears.
A call of “Never Forgotten.” came from those around me.
When we returned to MBO, we had a wake for Holly. There was no funeral for Holly; that was one thing she had always said “If I should die Go-go promise me you won’t have a funeral for me, just through a huge wake and everyone gets drunk as hell. Don’t mourn my death, celebrate my life,” she had once said to me.
“Ok, I promise, but I am sure I will be the first to get myself blown up,” I had replied.
We had lost six others during our mission, and we celebrated their lives also. I felt like a part of my heart had been torn out. I swore to myself that I would not rest until I made sure that the only where gnomes will be found is in fairy tales and lawn ornaments.
The Skipper authorized liberty for everyone and arrange for busses into Fort Meyers and rented out all the rooms in a local hotel for everyone to use. Over the next two weeks, everyone got a chance to get a couple of days off.
Two days after we returned to the base, the Skipper and I met. “Go-go we need someone to take over Holly’s duties as the head of your Raiders.” He said.
“I’m going to have Gili start working with Terror to train her to take the job. I don’t want anyone new in my team right now. We all need some time to get used to Holly not being around,” I said.
“I understand I won’t request a replacement for her for now and if we get someone to fill her billet they won’t be assigned to your team,” He said.
“Thank you, Skipper,” I said.
“Oh, by the way, we will have our gate up and working next week what do you think about visiting the elves?” The Skipper asked.
“I think I am going to Disney World,” I replied.
The End
Thank you for taking the time to read my book If you enjoyed it please take the time and write a review. If you want more join my Facebook group Go-Go’s Raiders https://www.facebook.com/groups/gogosraiders/
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If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for my next book in the series “Go-go’s Raiders” you might want to read some of the following Author
Chris Johns
https://www.facebook.com/Author-Christopher-Johns-395181804663491/
Michael Chatfield –
https://www.facebook.com/michaelchatfieldsbooks
Harmon Cooper –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/340842693023697/
Dakota Krout –
https://www.facebook.com/TheDivineDungeon
Apollos Thorne
https://www.facebook.
com/official.apollos.thorne/
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