by John Ringo
"Dad will dump that ghost-ridden tug in a heartbeat, sir," Faith said. "Trust me, he likes it about as much as I do. Eventually, you'll need somewhere bigger to put people. And you need to be able to feed them.
"What you need is a cruise ship that's not too wrecked. Bottom line, you want no more than one direction the infected can attack and if you can get out on water you're golden. You're going to need supplies. There are fricking boats alongside, wrecked, drifting, every way from Sunday. Salvage. You got supplies. Not sure about helo supplies. Don't know about that. But you can do it. We can't do it. You can do it. It's just a matter of doing it.
"If we take a liner, we can show your Gurkhas and the new Dutch Marines the Wolf Way of Clearance Fu and get a liner for you to use at the same time. Of course, they take a bit of clean-up, but that's the breaks. For ammo and even helo parts I'm sure we can get a shipment up to you from time to time. Or you can come back to Gitmo and do pretty much the same on the other side of the Atlantic. Up to you. Sirs."
"Sounds like the first thing we need is a not-too-damaged liner," Whiteshead said after a moment.
"Saw one alongside in some docks just upriver," Faith said. "Of course, it's alongside in a city. A really big city. But you can probably use it. You just got to do some serious scrumming to get the main hatches closed," she ended with a feral grin.
"We don't have gunboats to support you this time, Sis," Sophia pointed out.
"Where'd we put them fifties?" Faith said. "We made the other ones right here on the Grace."
"You are suggesting clearing a liner which is alongside, Lieutenant?" Hamilton asked. "Tied to a dock."
"It'll be easy compared to most of the stuff we've done, sir," Faith said. "Among other things, this time I don't have to climb over the side. We can slide down, sir."
"I thought you didn't like air-assault," Sophia said.
"Beats climbing up into a scrum over shark-filled water," Faith said. "Beats it all hollow."
"I'd have to check on changing the mission orders," Hamilton temporized. "And only after the main mission is complete."
"Understood, Colonel," Prince Harry said. "If it is possible... It would be a great aid to the British people."
"We'll look at the feasibility," Hamilton said. "After the main mission is complete. Lieutenant, Ensign, get your final preparations for tomorrow's mission done, then get some rack time. Tomorrow is not going to be a walk in the park. Even Washington Square."
"You rang, Colonel?" Steve said. It was earlier in the day in Gitmo and while Hamilton had put off replying on the prince's plan, he was interested in the answer as well.
"His Royal Highness brought up some points in our first meeting I thought you should be aware of, sir," Hamilton said.
"Which are?" Steve asked.
The colonel gave a quick precis of the discussion before asking, "Not do you approve the notional plan or disapprove, sir," Hamilton said. "I'm wondering what you think?"
"With some rather critical bits left out, you just covered Plan Sisyphus," Steve said, leaning back.
"The Greek legend of the man who was condemned to roll a ball up a mountain, sir?" Hamilton said.
"The same," Steve said. "Details you left out, not to mention getting ahead of yourself. Take about ten barges, lash them together. Cover in steel plates. Stick some containers onboard with housing and support. Anchor in the water source of the major city. You now have a helo-port that infected cannot access. Use a liner if you have one available as discussed to house the refugees. Otherwise find some land facility with strong defenses, such as the Tower of London, to do so. I'd suggest using the Tower until you have a liner cleared. But that is the simplest synopsis of Plan Sisyphus."
"That won't clear all the cities in the world, sir," Hamilton said.
"Ninety percent of the major cities in the world are on a navigable waterway, Colonel," Steve said. "Some of them will be difficult to get to, but they're mostly on water. It's practically a requirement to be a major city.
"With enough helos or time, you should be able to rescue ninety percent of the survivors in a major city. Which in the case of, say, London, will require more than one liner. To do it, you'll need some trained personnel. Since you're not focusing on boat crews, as we were at sea, you'll need a core of trained personnel to train the willing. Which is why I need the sub crews.
"No disrespect to people like Staff Sergeant Januscheitis, but what takes six weeks to learn for your average aviation mechanic is a week's class for a nuclear machinist's mate. They're simply a different breed of cat. They can absorb the information at phenomenal rates. Their primary purpose won't even be wrench turners. Their primary purpose will be ensuring that newly minted helicopter mechanics are doing the job right. There's not enough sub crews in the world to maintain all the helicopters we're going to need. And we need them for other tasks.
"You'll also need more helos and more helo pilots. And a better, more mobile, platform would be useful. I said--Jesus, it seems like years ago but it was in my first serious discussion with the Hole--that I'm going to need the Iwo Jima and lots of helicopters. Now you know why. Questions?"
"Am I the only person you've discussed this with, sir?" Hamilton asked curiously.
"You, my wife and Mr. Walker," Steve said. "He was the one who suggested the helo barge. I was still at your plan or using the deck of a ship. He also extensively critiqued my written version. I'm starting to lose patience with 'just leave him alone.' I need his brains and experience, whoever he is or was. Whatever he is or was. Anything else?"
"Should I authorize the mission?" Hamilton asked. "Getting ahead of myself, sir."
"As long as the primary one succeeds," Steve said. "With the caveat that until we've built up the right force structure, the prince is going to be more or less on his own. All we'll be able to supply is some parts, not as many as he'll need, and some ammo. Starting an area and then having it bootstrap itself is part of the plan. Wolf Squadron, the U.S. Navy, the entire pre-Plague U.S. military were it still extant, cannot make a dent in clearing the world. Every nation will have to bootstrap itself. All we can do is give them the seeds. But we still need the sub crews to have any chance of even that succeeding. So we are back to the primary mission. What are your thoughts?"
"If they can access and close the doors," Hamilton said, "I think they'll be able to clear the building, sir. If they cannot...Abort. We also don't know if the materials are available."
"Positive thinking has long been shown to have an effect far beyond the strictly rational," Steve said. "Some quantum physicists argue that sufficiently large belief can move a sufficiently small mountain. In other words: Don't take counsel of your fears. You will succeed. We always do. After which we get a more impossible mission," he added with a grin. "Wolf out."
CHAPTER 32
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
(chorus)
--"The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
"Think you have enough weapons, Lieutenant?" Hamilton asked, looking at Faith's rig-out.
Faith was rigged up the way she'd been since the Voyage Under Stars, now with more ammo. She had three pistols, twenty magazines for those, Saiga, forty magazines stuck absolutely everywhere, grenades in pouches, kukri, trench knife, half a dozen other knives tucked in various places including hanging off of magazines, Halligan tool and machete strapped to her assault ruck, and Trixie staring out of the back of the ruck.
"This is going to take some serious clearance, sir," Faith said, squirting some CLP into the action of her Saiga and cycling it. Then she tucked Trixie into the ruck all the way and zipped the top. "I'm pretty sure this is going to be all hands. If I bring any of the ammo back you can take it out of my pay, sir."
"Oorah," Hamilton said. "The real question is can you
handle the fast rope with that much weight?"
"Just watch me, sir," Faith said, tapping the helmet cam she was wearing. Due to the questions about what, exactly, they were supposed to be looking for and where it might be, all of the Marine "leadership" down to team leaders were wearing helmet cams.
"I shall be," Hamilton promised. "Let the grunts take the lead, Lieutenant. That is their job."
"There's a time to lead from the back and a time to lead from the front, sir," Faith said. "When I need to lead from the front, sir, I am going to lead from the front, sir. With all due respect, sir."
"Understood," Hamilton said. "But you can't lead from either position if you're dead."
"Zombies don't bother me, sir," Faith said, dimpling cutely. "They're insane, hungry, angry animals. They won't kill me from professional courtesy, sir."
"Mr. Walker," Sophia said uncomfortably, as the "civilian" walked out of Grace in full clearance rig. Somewhere, he'd found a complete set of Army combat gear. Instead of bunker gear he was wearing Army camouflage rain gear, Army kevlar helmet and body armor. He had at least as many weapons and as much ammo as Faith. And an H&K 416 instead of M4. "I don't remember including you on the mission plan."
"Ensign?" Walker said. "You know that at some level I outrank you, right? And you need the help. Both in looking for the materials and as a shooter. You're not questioning my abilities as a shooter are you, Ensign?"
"No, I'm not," Sophia said. "I'm questioning your age...sir."
"I think I've got one last battle in me, Ensign," Walker said, grinning. "Ever heard the line that 'a general should die with the last bullet of the last war'?"
"No...sir?" Sophia said.
"Remember it. It is appropriate to the situation."
"This is a big one!" Faith boomed as the chopper cycled up. "As always, when possible, let the zombies come into your fire zone, don't sneak into theirs. But do not allow that to stop you moving forward. WE NEED TO SECURE THIS BUILDING. Hit them! Hit them hard! Keep hitting them! MARINES ARE THE FINEST SHOCK TROOPS ON EARTH AND TODAY YOU GET TO PROVE IT! The Marine battle cry 'Oorah' dates all the way back to when we took the fortress of the Bey of Tripoli. 'Urah' is Turkish for 'Blood!' And if you don't want to drink the blood of the infected, Marines, THEN YOU ARE IN THE WRONG UNIT! IT'S SCRUMMIN' TIME!"
"OORAH!"
"OOORAH!" Faith shouted, sliding down the fast-rope. There were infected pouring onto the roof but that was what a Saiga was made for.
She dropped off the rope and went to pistol since it was faster, targeting the infected and backing away from the rope to let Sergeant Weisskopf have room to land.
Fire started to pour in from the door gunner on the Seahawk. They'd gotten the helo into operation overnight and Captain Wilkes and Colonel Kuznetsov had split duties with Harry taking the copilot position on the Super Stallion. The combined fire of the landed Marines and the machine gun quickly had the roof cleared.
She dropped the pistol and went Saiga, pumping out shotgun rounds until the last infected was cleared.
"MOVE!" Faith bellowed while reloading, her voice muffled by the gas mask. "DOOR, DOOR, DOOR!"
Speed was paramount. The door was the choke point and taking that was just about the most important portion of the mission. They had to fight their way down to the bottom floor, find all the doors and get them closed so they could clear the massive research facility. But first they had to take the high ground.
"Weapon, ma'am," Sergeant Weisskopf said, picking up her .45.
"Thanks, Andy," Faith said as the lead squad piled up on the door. They were pouring fire into the interior but clearly not making much headway.
"CLEAR!" Faith yelled, charging the doorway, kukri in one hand and a grenade in the other. "IT'S SCRUMMIN' TIME!"
She hit the infected at the top of the stairs at chest height, knocking him over and riding him down the avalanche of bodies following him. With only her own mass it probably wouldn't have worked. Another hundred plus pounds of ammo and guns did the trick. She took out a throat at the same time as she pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it over the side of the stairs down to the other landing. The fragments from a grenade in such a confined space should have bounced all over the place. Instead, they were caught by the press of bodies below.
Then she got down to some serious scrumming...
"Oh, good Lord," Hamilton said, holding his head in his hands. "I knew I should have gone along."
Of course, it was now hard to see out of Faith's helmet cam since it had immediately splashed red.
"We are missing this!"
Since Faith's exploits tended to be a bit of a morale boost, if not for the squeamish, the helmet cam videos were available for public view. And the Gurkhas had decided to see who this child was who carried a kukri as if she was due and was going to "instruct" them on clearance.
"I can go to war!" Lance Corporal Ombahadur Ghale shouted. "I can fight! Let us go to war!"
"There will be war aplenty to come," Sergeant Jitbahadur Rai said. "We must regain our strength to fight these battles. And if this is the way of such war...A great war it shall be! Oooiya Ghorkali! Look at her go!"
"Oooh," Lieutenant Commander Tuttle, commander of the Louisville, said as Faith swung a Halligan tool into an infected's crotch. "That had to hurt...."
The video was sent without sound. Only the leadership was on the broadcast which had been upgraded to continuous two way. So Colonel Hamilton, along with any "higher" who wished to listen in, was getting Faith's usual running commentary. And he was starting to wonder if she really enjoyed being an officer...
"You want some? How's this for a mission plan! Action plan my fucking ass, you bastards! Sure, here's an acronym for you! And you! I'll PowerPoint you, asshole! There, I just transynergized your fucking head! It's time for BUZZWORD BINGO MOTHERFUCKERS...!"
"Your daughter scares me, Captain," Under Secretary Galloway said quietly.
"She scares me, sir," Steve said. "But she is well suited to the present situation."
"Oh, screw this," Januscheitis said. They'd dropped a few grenades over the side but they couldn't fire into the mass swarming the lieutenant. "I'm going in..."
He pulled himself up on the railing and dropped off onto the lower stair. It would have been a boneheaded move dropping nearly a story, sure to bust an ankle if not his neck, but he was cushioned by the tide of infected. Not to mention all the bodies, blood and guts.
"IT'S SCRUMMIN' TIME...!"
"Oh, hell, yeah!" Lance Corporal Freeman said, climbing up after him. "TIME TO HIT THE BEACH, MARINES!"
"Mr. Walker?" Gunnery Sergeant Sands said as the diminutive "technical expert" trotted past him. Most of the Marines were now clogged into the stairs, scrumming the zombies, creating a macroscopic version of antibodies fighting an infection.
"You're seriously going to miss out on this, Gunnery Sergeant?" Walker said, pausing to draw a trench knife. "What has the Marine Corps come to?"
"Well, when you put it that way," the gunny said, pulling out a Ka-Bar. "Can't let the Army have the glory. After you, sir."
"Once more unto the breach, dear friend," Walker said, breaking into a sprint. "OR CLOSE THE STAIRS WITH OUR AMERICAN DEAD...!" Despite being nearly seventy and carrying as much weight as any of the Marines, the "civilian technical expert" cleared the rail in a bound and disappeared into the maelstrom below.
"Civilian, my ass," Gunny Sands growled. "LEAVE SOME FOR ME!"
"In retrospect," Faith said, sharpening her kukri, "we should have let them get up on the roof and machine-gunned them from the choppers."
It had taken nearly thirty minutes of scrumming to clear the top two floors of the stairs. And they were still coming up. While the rest of the Marines got their combat time in, Faith was sitting on a good zombie while ammoing back up and fixing assorted "issues" that had cropped up during the scrum. Like her kukri needing sharpening, and straightening out her machete.
"But sometimes it's just good to get yo
ur mad out," Faith added.
"Probably would have worked better, ma'am," Gunny Sands said, pouring some water into one of Faith's magazines to get it half-ass cleaned. "And I'm not sure it was precisely necessary to scrum the stairs, with all due respect, ma'am. Once we had the landing, we could have used firepower."
"Really, Gunnery Sergeant?" Walker said. "It would have been a superior choice to pour fire into a stairwell that is angled so as to bounce at least thirty percent of the fire back at your position? Especially given that five-five-six would pass through the bodies and continue to rebound?" He was honing his own blood-splattered trench knife.
"Which was what I was thinking, believe it or not," Faith said, looking over at him curiously.
"That is a point, sir, ma'am," Gunny Sands said thoughtfully.
"You just did it 'cause you enjoy scrumming, Faith," Sophia said. She'd stayed out.
"Well, that too," Faith said, standing up and putting away her kukri. "But I think I got one of my filters clogged with blood. That's a first."
"And the colonel sent that he'd appreciate it if you could wash off your helmet-cam, Faith," Mr. Walker said.
"Where's my water bottle...?"
Hamilton reran the video from Faith's entry and considered how the rounds would have bounced around in the stairwell. Then he frowned.
"I hate when she's right," he muttered.
Dr. Rizwana Shelley had wanted to see the conditions of London so she had accessed the camera video as soon as the group left the boat. The young lieutenant and one of her sergeants had spent the flight at the back of the helicopter which had given an unfortunately complete view of the conditions. Idly--and if truth be told, somewhat morbidly--curious, she had continued to watch as the assault took place.