“You know you only have 4 hours off there is no way you can do it before lunch, you guys don’t even know that there is a supply of bubble wrap over at the mail warehouse,” I said. I then turned to Melissa and said, “You know this house has a pool, would you like to go for a swim.”
“Are you doing that thing where you pretend like you don’t know what this group is up to?” Melissa asked. At that moment Alley walked up to us and gave us both hugs
“I have to go I am meeting with Riley today,” She said.
“Ok, thanks for coming over; we will see you again soon, little sister,” I said as she headed for the door. She turned and said,
“There was a supply of building materials delivered to the site of the new barracks yesterday. The construction crews are off today. If any of it disappears, someone should send me a list so I can have replacements sent her first thing in the morning when the crews arrive.” She said while looking at Holly.
I heard Gili say, “on it” as he headed out the front door with the two marines that we in the security room.
“About that swim?” I said to Melissa. She laughed, and we went to our room to change into our swimsuits then headed out to the pool for a morning swim.
A few minutes later, Daniela came out carrying a tray of drinks “Mojitos?” she asked. She came and gave us each a glass before joining us in the pool. “At the Castle, we had an indoor pool, when we weren’t in the game, we spent a lot of time during the winter there. Only on the warmest of days did we go to the lake. The water that fed the lake came from the snowcaps of the mountains high above so even during the summer the water was cold,” Daniela said.
“I grew up right here in Florida, and I think I had the opposite, too often we would go someplace to go swimming only to find that the water was so warm it was not refreshing so whenever we could, we would go to the natural springs where the water was much cooler,” I replied.
“When this is all over will you take me to Disney World,” Melissa said,
“Yes, I want to go to Disney World also,” Terror said as she exited the house in a bathing suit.
“When we defeat General Fubar, we will all go to Disney,” I replied.
It was then that I heard the construction begin outside of my house in the yard. I sent a message across the battlenet to all the raiders “If you damage my lawn you will regret it” It said.
The construction stopped for a moment, then it began again, and a message came to me across the battlenet.
“We will be sure to repair any damage done to the lawn when we are finished,” Holly said.
“Has anyone seen the Gnome?” I asked.
“Yea he is with Jamie we are thinking about inviting him over to help with the construction and just tell him it’s a team-building exercise,” Holly said. I laughed so hard I almost spilled my drink.
“What are you cackling about?” Terror asked.
“Holly said they are inviting the Gnome over to help build the Trebuchet and telling him it’s a team-building exercise. I know it’s wrong, and I really should stop them before they start launching the Smurf across the base, but I really don’t like or trust the blue bastard. I get this feeling he is up to something, and he is not telling us everything he knows, so I just don’t have the desire to stop them.” I replied.
An hour later I heard what sounded like an explosion and scream of pain come from the yard followed by a call over the battlenet. “Could you ask Melissa to bring her first aid... no field surgery kit out to the side yard?” Holly said in an overly calm voice.
I turned to Melissa and told her of Holly’s request, and we both exited the pool and headed out to see what happened. We came out to discover Kevlar laying on the ground with a metal spike about 18” long sticking through his left shoulder.
“Ouch, that looks painful,” I said,
“Yea the tension break came loose and launched it through the air, I dove to tackle Holly out of the way and got it in the shoulder.” He replied.
“I guess I owe you a drink when you recover for saving me,” Holly said with a smile on her face. The remains of the Trebuchet were all over the side yard, and it looked like more than just Kevlar had been hit by flying parts based on the bruised and bleeding people scattered around the yard. It seemed the Smurf had avoided injury by diving behind a stack of bubble wrap.
“Wow, I don’t think that was supposed to happen,” Said Papa Smurf then he turned to see Kevlar and said “Kevlar my friend you are hurt, that looks very painful, injuries like that can often leave traumatic mental injuries. After the doctor is done, we should sit down and talk. I can help you work through your injury.” The Gnome said.
Kevlar scoured at the blue bastard and began to say something to him when Holly walked up behind the Smurf and hit him with the same electric cattle prod, she had used on Kevlar two days ago “Oh my, how did that happen.” She said with an innocent look on her face while staring at the gnome twitching on the ground before he passed out. Kevlar and I both burst into laughter.
“Owe, don’t make me laugh; it hurts,” He said.
It didn’t take long before everybody was patched up and back up and ready for work apart from Kevlar, it would take another hour or two before he was back to 100%. It took them an hour to get everything cleaned up then it was lunchtime.
53.
Clearing Florida
After lunch, we all found ourselves in the hanger looking at the video that the satellites with the new upgraded software had taken on its recent pass over Swaziland. With the software upgrades, we could clearly see the base, and we could also tell that the gate was not yet operational. This was good news; the others we saw in the photos was that construction was nearing its end. It looked as if it didn’t have more than about another two weeks before it would be completed. We would have to move soon if we wanted to take out the gate before it came online, but we had a matter to take care of before we could move on that base. We needed to secure the swamp. I pulled up a map of Florida on one of the Holo-tables.
“Terror can you show me where the general has his forces here in Florida?” I asked. She pointed out an area in the Withlacoochee State Forest close to Crystal River, that put their base of operation nearly 300 miles away. The only way we stood a chance of getting the jump on them would be an assault from the air. I called the Skipper; he said he would be right over. I then put out the word across the battlenet for the senior staff of Team 11 and the Marines to meet in the conference room in the hanger in ten minutes. That would give me enough time to get some satellite images of the location. I also figured this would be an excellent time to have Lt. Johnson contact the raccoons and ask them to scout the area for us as they would already have raccoons in the area. The little guys were everywhere and had an excellent spy network in place; it wouldn’t take more than an hour for them to give us some necessary information on the area and they could begin disarming the perimeter defenses for us. Once everyone was in the conference room, I started talking.
“Terror what can you tell us about the base?” I asked.
“When my unit left two more platoons were remaining at the location, but that was three days ago if he wanted, he could have brought over three more platoons of troops or six hover tanks with crews. Two tanks of a platoon of soldiers are about the max he can bring across in one day through a portable gate. The gate can only be run for about 5 days before it must be refurbished and recharged and that can only be done at one of the gate facilities on our world. Moving charged Portable gate systems through a gate can be really dangerous and has been known to destroy both. They have only had limited success in recharging them here and normally only allow for one more jump before the gate will suffer a catastrophic failure. So, I would guess that he has only brought over one or two more units.” She said.
“The satellite pictures of the area are useless; they are using old fashion camo netting and the natural cover of the trees to conceal their base from aerial reconnaissance. I sent word to t
he raccoons, and I have some GoPro cameras dropped nearby to see if they can provide us with any ground reconnaissance of the area and possibly disarm their defenses for us. Kevlar, Terror what do you think the General’s next step is?” I asked.
“He gave us till sunrise tomorrow to agree to his terms I would say he will have his forces nearby in the morning to either accept our surrender or assault the base the moment the sun breaks the horizon and they will have the order to kill everyone on the base or in the area.” Kevlar said.
“I agree,” Terror responded.
“Our choices are we wait for them to come to us or we take the fight to them. It has never been part of our mission to wait for the enemy to come to us. So, I say we hit them before they can hit us. What do you say, Skipper?” I said.
“Well, seeing how we haven’t finished the repairs from the last time they attacked I think we need to take this fight to them.” He replied.
“I say we show up at their base and open up a can of whoop-ass on them that they will never forget. This mission is going to be a search and destroy I am getting tired of holding back to try and gain intel. They are hiding out in a national forest so let’s try not to burn it down so leave the thermite at home. We are going to go with a HALO approach, death from above!” the Skipper said.
A round of Hooyah when up around the room.
“Ok here’s the plan,” The Skipper said then he laid out his plan for all of us over the next hour. At 2100 Alpha Platoon and the Marines would head out on the Helicopters for Homestead where they would board C-130 that would Drop them two miles out from the enemy base. From there they would hike in and implement a scorched earth attack and take out everything and everyone except for General Fubar; if he were there we would make an attempt to take him alive; maybe that depended on if I got to him before anyone else did.
“Go-go you have the lead on this one. LtCmdr Rogers your second on this one.” The Skipper said. He handed two award boxes to Rogers and said, “Congratulations, your latest Purple Heart is in there too. How many does that make now?” He said.
“Thanks, Skipper. That makes number twelve.” LtCmdr Rogers said.
“I want to go with you,” Terror said.
Before I could answer her Kevlar said, “We are going to need someone else to play watchdog for the Smurf because Jamie, Leroy and I are going with you.”
“Chief Ramos you have Smurf watch while we are gone, try not to kill the blue hemorrhoid. Holly, make sure Terror is geared out and giver her quick instructions on the HELO Jump.” I said.
It was 1800 when word came back from the raccoons. There were about 100 soldiers at the base and two tanks there were mines, and different traps around the camp along with cameras and motion sensors they would harass the motion sensors and cameras so much that they would shut them off or at least ignore them. They had scented all the mines and traps and would have a guide waiting for us to show us where they are.
We were all assembled outside the hanger and preparing to load onto the helicopters when Gunny Easter showed up with a large weapon case. “I have something new for you to field test I call it the Panzer Assault Cannon it has a 5 round clip and shoots 40mm APHEUD sabot smart rounds they will punch through almost any armored vehicle without an issue. Once you lock in on a target, it tracks to it and explodes when it hits the target.” He said.
When Leroy saw the new weapons he spoke up, “Can I use it?” He said.
“You want it you got it, Gunny, give Leroy a rundown on how to use it and as many rounds as he can carry,” I said.
The Skipper showed up to see us off “I am moving the carrier group up closer to the target they will be standing by to pick you when your mission is complete If you get there and it looks like they have already moved down here let me know and pull out without attaching. Hold on station so if they did come here and they try to run back there you can wipe them out. Don’t give yourself away for a skeleton crew. If they hit here, you will strike after we wipe them out here or after they run back to their base. No matter what bring our boys home,” He said. He put out his fist, and we fist-bumped.
“Roger that Skipper,” I said.
“If things get too hot there pull your people out and have the Obama Bomb them back into the stone ages and we will send in the department of forestry to put out the fires,” He said.
We loaded up on the Helicopters and left for Homestead where we boarded a C-130. It was 2230 when we reached the drop zone and jumped. Five minutes later we are on the ground and headed to the target the hike in was only two miles, but we were cautious about our approach and arrived at the staking point at 2300 where four raccoons were waiting for us. Lt Johnson stepped up and spoke with them.
“Everyone is still there, but it looks like they are planning to leave soon. The enemy is loading up trucks with stuff and is starting to break down the camp. It looks like they don’t plan to return. When you are ready to go, my brothers and I will lead you in.” One of the raccoons said.
The plan was to have a two-prong attack. This was the reason for the four raccoons two would lead Alpha Platoon, and two would lead the Marines in. Leroy and Jamie would be with the marines and would take out all the vehicles while the rest of us circled around and attacked from the rear. At 2330 we would all attack at the same time. Unless the vehicles started to move, then we would attack as soon as they began to move no matter where we were. Leroy would shoot the lead vehicle with the new Panzer Assault Cannon, and that would be the signal for everyone to attack. At 2320 we were all in position and waiting for the go signal, this was always the worst part waiting when you were in place early, and on radio silence so you couldn’t move up the attack. We didn’t want to risk that they could somehow pick up our battlenet comminutions, so we remained silent until combat began. It was then that Terror pointed out the portable gate system that was being loaded onto the last truck
“If we can capture that I can disarm the destruct system then we would have a gate of our own,” She said.
I broke comminutions silence and sent a message to everyone “Mission update capture the last truck do not destroy it. Go Now!” I sent across the battlenet.
Leroy fired the assault cannon even with the automatic sound compensator built into our battle helmets the cannon was loud enough to make the ears of those around ring but when it impacted with the front end of the five-ton truck it blew the engine into pieces making sure the truck would never run again and killing the two people in the drivers compartment instantly. With the sound of the assault cannon, everyone opened fired cutting down everyone around the trucks and sending the others running for cover.
“Ah hell, I’ve been hit again!” Rogers said as I took aim at the soldier in the back of the truck with the portable gate in the back of it. I fired, hitting him in the head, causing him to fall out of the back of the truck.
“How bad is it cap?” I asked.
“Not bad at all; just a graze across the upper left arm won’t even need stitches; just put some quick clot on it.” LtCmdr Rogers said.
“Sniper on the top of the truck, I don’t have a shot on him,” Holly said. A gun fired then I heard
“I got him.” Terror said. I looked into the back of the truck; I could see the hole in the roof that was dripping blood.
“Kevlar, you’re with me. We are going to secure that truck. Holly, Terror, cover us,” I said as I moved out of cover and headed for the truck with Kevlar next to me.
As we approached the driver’s compartment, a soldier stuck an assault rifle out the window and opened fired. I saw four rounds impact with the door, and he dropped the gun out the window. Kevlar opened the door, and the driver fell out dead. A second soldier in the truck lifted his rifle to fire, but he was too slow as both Kevlar, and I shot him in the head.
“Raiders secure this vehicle while Terror disables the destruct device on the portable gate in the back the rest of Alpha take the tents that are still up on of them have to be the command tent,” I said acr
oss the battlenet.
“The first tank is out of commission, and I want the next one of those Assault Cannons, it took out the tank in three shots.” Major Harm said.
Just then I heard a laughing across the battlenet followed by “Captain America just got shot in the foot,” Holly said.
“He is never going to live this mission down,” I thought. Behind me, I heard the other tank’s main gun firing.
“Medic! We’ve got 3 marines down. One of them is Gunny.” Said one of the marines.
“The tank is down,” Leroy said.
The battle continued for about another 10 minutes before we took out the last of the enemy forces. In the end, we lost two marines and one seal and had six wounded.
I called the Skipper as soon as we had the area secure.
“We are secure here, but we need a few APCs to come up here to escort this truck we captured back to our base.” I said to him
“Why did you capture a truck?” He asked.
“Oh, that’s an easy one. It has a fully functional portable gate in the back of it,” I said.
“Ok, they are on their way. How did you get a working gate?” He asked.
“That would be thanks to Terror; she was able to disarm the destruct device before they could blow it up. She said it is best if we move it by truck because the energy source could disrupt the helicopter’s systems.” I replied.
The helicopters picked up everyone but the Raiders and me and took them back to the base.
It was 1000 when we finally arrived back at the base with the portable gate. Melissa, Daniela, and Var were waiting for us at the hanger and had people there ready to unload the gate.
“Give us a week, and you will have a working gate that will connect to any world,” Var said while overseeing the unloading of the gate. He had that excited look on his face that a toddler gets when he gets a new toy. The Dungeon Master was running so type of handheld scanner over it as it moved.
Strike Force 11 Page 21