Strike Force 11

by Forest Getter

  We spent some time in with the men in medical. “Well it looks like you earned yourself a new callsign Lt. Rogers,” I said

  “Oh, what’s that Master Chief?” he said with a questioning look on his face. “Mr. Clean,” I said then we both broke out in laughter.

  Holly looked at me and said, “You’re mean Go-go, funny but mean.”

  Then she joined in the laughter. I saw some of the guys starting to try to get out of their beds as if they were planning to head back into combat with us.

  “oh no you guys don’t, you’re staying in here until you are fully recovered. We have a battalion of Rangers out there and a group of crazy Russians. If one of those demons make it past us to the base, then you guys can join in the fun but between now and then I need you all to recover as much as possible” I said to them all. “That includes you too, Mr. Clean. This batch of misfit are going to need a leader,” I said to Lt Rogers. I had PO1 Anderson relay all the information we had received to Col. Ryan.

  We found our senior staff in an officer’s lounge the Major had set them up in. Kevlar, Leroy, and Jamie and grabbed one of the tables and were working on the device to shut down the gate. “How’s it going?” I asked.

  “It a lot of tedious work not hard but we can’t rush it the tolerances are extremely low. We have to get it perfect, or it could end up creating an EMP instead of closing the portal.” Kevlar said to me. “I know what you want to know. How long right. Well, it will be at least another three hours if we don’t have any more interruptions.” He continued.

  “Ok unless a demon makes it here to attack the base, I want the three of you working on that device,” I said to him.

  I grabbed a comfortable chair and a cup of coffee and sat down to relax. I knew things are going to get ugly soon until then I decided to take a catnap. “Whoever you have feeding you intel on the demons is spot on. What all did they tell you?” Leroy asked.

  I relayed what Aunt Mary had told us.

  “Wow, she is right on. I didn’t know anything about their political system only that they always send a scout first then they would send larger demons through next. I would really like to meet Aunt Mary and pick her brain.” he said.

  “That funny she said the same thing when I told her, we were working with you guys,” I replied.

  Two and a half hours had passed when two things happened at the same time. Kevlar announced that they were done and at the same time, Col. Ryan called and said they had something coming through the gate.

  We all jumped and ran for the Jeep and APC’s. Holly and I along with Kevlar, Leroy, and Jamie jumped into the Jeep and sped away to the portal, while Ensign Miller got the rest of our guys loaded into the APC’s and followed behind us. As we approached the portal area, we saw lightning bolts shooting out across the sky from the portal, hitting the ground around it and exploding. We got as close as we could without getting hit by the lightning.

  When the lightning stopped, we saw a twenty-five-foot demon standing there with a silver spear in his hand wearing a red armor trimmed in silver, he wore a full-face helm that even seemed to have some type of lens covering the eye slots.

  “Yep, this isn’t going to be easy this demon looked bigger, tougher, and meaner than the last one.” I thought to myself. Just then he walked forward and a second demon that could have been the twin of the first with the exception that he carried a silver glaive instead of a spear. Just the sight of the two demons standing there looking down at the remains of the scout was enough to make me wish I was back in Florida. Leroy ran forward to within 100 yards of the portal and activated the device that caused the portal to vanish from behind the demons.

  “Good news portal closed; bad news demons trapped here,” I said across the battlenet. “Ok the demon with the spear is target one, the other is target two. Tanks target the knees of target two and keep it down until target one is dead. Vasily had the Havoc’s attack demon one. Target the head with everything they have. Don’t let up till it is down or they run out of ammo.” I said.

  The major answered back that the Helicopters would strike in two minutes. The demons must have sensed the closure of the portal because they both turn just in time to see the portal disappear.

  The first demon yelled out, “Stupid humans, you will all die for this; I will feed on your flesh.”

  The second demon laughed “This will be fun,” He said.

  Just then the tank rounds slammed into his left knee, causing him to lose balance and fall on all fours.

  “Take cover!” I yelled as the Havocs unloaded with anti-tank missiles into the back of the head of the first demon.

  The demons head exploded, and he fell to the ground but not before throwing his spear into one of the helicopters, causing it to explode. The spear continued to fly off into the distance. Demon two rolled and jumped into the air and cut a second Havoc into two pieces with its glaive. The tanks adjusted their aim and fired again at the demon’s knee. Unlike the first attack, the demon seemed to ignore the tanks continued to fire. While the havocs had unloaded all their anti-tank missiles, one of them dumped a full pod of rockets into the demon’s face shattering its eye protection. It was a suicide move for the Havoc as the demon threw its glaive through the front canopy of the helicopter cutting the pilot in half and out the back of the causing it to explode. The demon sprinted to where the spear from the first demon had landed running down Rangers along the way, killing them in a single stomp of its foot or strike from its claws. Kevlar pulled out his glowing red knife and said to me, “Are you ready to try this again this time, remember you are the distraction, and I am going to kill it.” He said to me.

  We both charged at the demon; me straight on and Kevlar circling to the right.

  I fired at the demon and yelled: “Hey ugly, come at me.”

  He turned to face me and struck at me with his spear only missing me by a few inches as I dove and rolled to the left. I came up in a firing position, putting a burst of five rounds into its eye, causing the eye to vaporize. As fast as the eye disappeared, it began to grow back, I fired again, but the demon turned its head to the left, letting the round impact harmlessly into its helm. I clicked the selector on my rail gun to full auto. The demon struck out at me again with its spear. I jumped back allowing the spear to impact with the ground where I had just stood. Railgun fire erupted from the rest of the platoon all impacting into the demon’s head, causing it to stumble back and lose grip on its spear. It reached out and grabbed a Ranger who had gotten to close and threw him at me. This left me two choices; catch the Ranger and save his life or dodge him to get in range to get a clear shot on the eye again, risking the death of the Ranger if he impacted into the broken trees behind us. I caught the Ranger and rolled with our impact the demon rush forward to finish us off, but he was too late and too focused on me to react before Kevlar slammed his knife through the back of its neck separating the brain from the spine killing it instantly. Kevlar rode the demon forward as it fell all the while twisting his knife, ensuring it was indeed dead.

  I sat down right there pulled out my canteen, took a drink of water and offered it to the Ranger. “Thanks, I’m Lt. Sally Reeds,” she said, offering a handshake.

  “Master Chief Getter but they call me Go-go,” I said as I shook her hand.

  “You save my life there. I won’t forget that.” She said to me.

  “Just doing my job ma’am,” I replied.

  Just then, Holly came walking up behind me. “You ok Go-go?” She asked.

  “Yea I’m fine just have a drink her with the LT,” I responded.

  Holly reached her hand down to help me up. I took her hand and began to stand to say I got a joke for you then I started.

  “A Navy Chief who was married for over twenty years was at home on the couch watching TV when his wife asked him to describe her. The Chief looked at his wife for a while, then said, “You’re A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K.”

  The wife asked her husband, “What does that mean?
”

  The Chief answered, “Adorable, Beautiful, Cute, Delightful, Elegant, Foxy, Gorgeous, Hot.”

  The wife smiled happily and said, “Oh, that’s so lovely. What about, I, J, K?”

  The Chief answered, “I’m Just Kidding.”

  The swelling in his eye is going down, and the doctor is somewhat optimistic about saving his family jewels!”

  Holly and the LT burst out into laughter. I turned and helped the LT to her feet, saluted, and said, “See you around LT.”

  We turned and walked back towage our Jeep only to realize that the glaive the demon had thrown was sticking upright through the hood of the Jeep. And the APCs were smoking from the impact of one of the Havocs that hit them.

  I turned and look at Holly and said, “Senior Chief tells the troops to help the Rangers with their wounded, and then we will hike back.” I stopped mid-sentence as I saw two large white buses coming down the road, towage us. “On second thought, let’s get the wounded loaded up on the first bus and taken to the Major’s base for treatment then we will get everyone else there. I’ll call the Skipper and have him turn Bravo and Charlie around and arrange a pickup for everyone else.” I said.

  “Roger that,” she said in reply.

  “Tell everyone to keep their guard up we never know what type of surprises the gate jumpers may still have in the area,” I told her. As if on cue, my cell phone rang. “Yea Skipper,” I answered.

  “Great job there tell the Russians a big thanks from all of us. I’ll send a case of Vodka for the Major with your pickup in two days I want you to hang around there for a while to make sure our alien friends don’t show back up.” He said.

  “That works it’s going to take that long for my wounded to recover. I don’t have numbers on wounded and dead from the last encounter yet, but we should know soon. It looks like the Russians took the worst of it. The lost three havocs and two APCs along with their crews. The ranges also took a heavy hit from the initial assault. I will get back with you with numbers as soon as I have them. I am headed over to speak with AJ as we speak.” I said.

  “Ok as soon as you can get some rest call me back with all the details in the morning after breakfast. Delta Platoon is out scouting the base here and should have detail when they return at 0600 tomorrow” he replied, with that, he disconnected, and I continued over to the Rangers’ command tent.

  When I walked in the tent AJ was on the phone, but he pointed to the coffee pot in the corner, so I walked over while removing my cup from my pack and then poured myself a cup. I was once told that Navy Chiefs ran on coffee to that I say Ha! We do not run on coffee; coffee is our lifeblood without it, people would die. Not the Chiefs mind you but those we had to interact with. I slowly sipped the coffee as I walked over and took a seat at the Colonel’s desk just as he hung up his phone.

  “Thanks for Saving Lt. Reeds. She has a few broken ribs, but if it weren’t for you, she would be dead.” He said.

  “That what I do I run around and save officers,” I said.

  He ran his hand through his hair rubbing where an old scare once was then and said, “That you do Go-go, that you do.”

  “So, what’s your headcount?” I asked.

  “Ten dead, seventeen wounded, two are critical and need to be airlifted out.” He replied.

  “Don’t worry about trying to get them airlifted out just get all your wounded loaded up on the big white busses they will be transported to the Russian Border Guards’ base where they have doctors waiting. The CO there is an old friend and has orders from Moscow to help us in any way he can. He’ll take good care of your people,” I told him.

  A look of relief came across his face, and he looked at the Command Sergeant Major standing there. “On it, Colonel.” He said and left the tent.

  25. Rec

  overy

  It took several hours for us to get the area cleaned up, and our wounded and dead were taken care of before we returned to the Russian base. Nightfall had come and gone, and we were approaching morning. Holly and I did not even get on the bus we walked back to the base. It was a silent walk neither of us had anything to say. It was always a somber moment when you lost people even though they were not part of our team; they were still our people, and it was my operation, so it was my people that died. Just like I had many times before I committed the names of every person we lost today to memory. I knew that Holly did the same she had picked it up from me.

  “Never forget,” I said softly.

  “Never forgotten,” She replied. It was how we coped.

  We walked over to the medical building. The dead had been remembered the time to check on the living. When we walked into the medical building, we found Lt Rogers and Lt. Reeds sitting at a table in the lobby drinking coffee. “How’s everybody doing?” I asked.

  “Doing good Master Chief, the doctors here have done great work. Everyone is either resting in recovery or been sent back to their units.” Lt Rogers said.

  “OK, let our walking wounded, that are still here that we will have a briefing at breakfast if they can get there be. I am off to sleep the ship is yours,” I said then headed to the barracks we were staying in, thinking to myself, “It’s nice to have showers.”

  For breakfast the Russians were serving kasha (a type of porridge made from different grains), butterbrots (a kind of sandwich made of a single slice of bread and one topping such as butter or ham), boiled or fried eggs, and tvorog (similar to cottage cheese). As everyone grabbed food and sat down, I began the briefing. “Yesterday we lost a total of ten Rangers and fifteen Russian troops to the demon attack. A list of names is on the command-net. Never forget” I said,

  Everyone said, “Never forgotten.”

  I continued, “The Skipper said we would be here for a while just in case the enemy has any more surprises in the area. If the area is clear, we will be out of here in two days. We have drones and satellites along with full coms now that the portal is closed. So, it shouldn’t take long to get an all-clear. The Russians have agreed to host us if we are here. Delta is out on a scouting run of the base in Florida. I want our people integrated with the rangers to help do a complete search of a 2-mile perimeter around the explosion site. Also, let’s keep a defensive perimeter around the actual explosion area just in case we get another rift appearing. Leroy said there is only a 20% chance of another rift appearing here unless a gate is opened with two miles. If another gate is opened, even a portable one, then there is a good chance of another rift.”

  I looked at Lt. Rogers, giving him the floor. “Our platoon has been cleared by medical to return to duty. So, it looks like all you slackers will be working today. If you’re not on patrol or perimeter guard, get your gear cleaned and restocked. If you need more ammo or any other supplies go, see LT Reed at the Rangers Supply tent she will take care of you. Squad five you pulled the short straw you’ll be helping the Russians with cooking and housekeeping, make sure the areas are SEAL clean. The Rangers are sending some people over to help clean up medical, so you don’t need to worry about that.” LT Rogers concluded.

  With that, people began to finish up their breakfast and headed out. Holly had already sent out duty assignments and watch rotations to everyone. “I’m going to head to the Ranger camp and relieve Ensign Miller he’s been coordinating thing with them all night, so I am going to let him go catch a shower and a cat nap.” Lt Rogers said.

  “Holly and I will take the Russians,” I replied.

  I looked over at Kevlar, and he seemed to be doing well for a person who had been Donkey kicked by a demon just yesterday.

  “You seem to be doing really well for a guy who had broken ribs yesterday,” I said to him.

  “Yea I have a bio-implant that really speeds up my healing rate so as long as there are no open wounds, I can heal in a couple of hours it works well on repairs but not so well on replacements,” He told me.

  “I need to get me one of those,” I replied.

  “I’ll work with Melissa when we
get back and see what we can do for you,” Jamie said.

  I thought to myself how useful that would be for the entire team and made a mental note to talk with Melissa and the Skipper about it.

  I called the Skipper for our morning briefing. “Morning Go-go, I have a low orbit just arriving at your location in one hour I need you, Holly, Kevlar and his guys on it. Rogers can wrap things up there. Delta Platoon has not returned from their scouting mission. Tell Rogers that Team 6 will be arriving at 1300 when they arrive him and the rest of the platoon are to get back here. Bravo and Charlie are standing by for your return.” He said.

  I gave the Skipper a rundown on things here and told him we would be ready to go when the jet arrived. Kevlar, Holly, Leroy, and Jamie had all been in the room when I briefed the Skipper, so the header out to grab their gear and get ready to go. I called Lt Rogers and filled him in on the change of plan; I also let Col. Ryan and Major Mahanenko know what was going on and said my goodbyes.

  The orbital jet arrived right on time it was a VTAL model, so it was able to land on the helicopter pad to pick us up. The flight crew unloaded a case of Vodka which I gave to the Major

  “It’s a gift from Captain Hicks, we are grateful for all your help,” I said to him.

  “It was good seeing you again, Go-go. I’ll keep an eye on your people while they are here. Good luck, my old friend,” He replied. I saluted him then he embraced me in a bear hug. We loaded up in the jet and took off for home.

  26. Del