“Thank You, First Lieutenant.” Alex pointed his arm out. “Please after you.”
Elijah saluted and got onto the small boat closely followed by Alex. Once he was securely in the boat the engine was placed in a trolling state and slowly backed away from the dock. Alex sat next to his friend, both of them attempting to hide the anxious ticks they both had. Turning, the small craft didn’t bob much in the water due to the depth of the wharf and took off towards the large warship across the harbor.
“Hey Al, I don’t mean to pry yet, but this is a lot to build in the last Seven months.”
Knowing what he meant but unsure how to answer the question, Alex leaned over again and spoke to his friend, making sure only he could hear. “I’ll brief you on what I can when we get on the boat and in a secure location. Not sure how many eyes and ears are floating around right now.”
As it approached the gangway, the skiff slowed. From its destination a rope was tossed towards the boat in order to tie it down. One of the few deckhands grabbed it and slowly pulled the skiff in. Waiting for the Admiral, a small group of men, standing at attention followed the boat in with their eyes. Elijah stepped off the boat first and onto the platform followed by Alex and a few other deck hands. The man standing watch of the small group of men walked forward and met the men. He was a shorter man, not dressed in any specific uniform but it was obvious to those standing there who was the senior officer to them all. He stopped directly in front of Elijah and saluted.
“Welcome Admiral, I your executive officer on this boat, my name is Commander Felix Teller. I can’t tell you how great it is to finally have a mission for these boys to go out and execute.”
Elijah turned to Alex and then faced the man again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Commander. I am Lieutenant Maur, the gentleman to my right is Admiral Ehlinger.”
Embarrassed, Teller turned to Alex with his salute. “Admiral I apologize, they told me you were a younger fellow, and I am ashamed to say I didn’t expect you to be as youthful as you are. But I am certain you are more than qualified regardless of your age.”
Alex saluted the man. “It is not a worry Commander, I realize it could be a shock having me stand before you. If you please, permission to come a bored Mr. Teller.”
“Far as I was told it was your boat sir.” Teller said in a shock.
“True, but I intend to extend the XO, a man who knows the ins and outs of this vessel better than I, every courtesy expected.”
“Permission granted sir. Please follow me to the bridge.”
With that the XO led the Admiral and his entourage up the gangway and through the bulkhead onto the main deck of the ship. It was obvious the two flagships of the armada had been modified from their original purpose. The two were former luxury cruise liners that had been retrofitted with large cannons and various other weapons including missile silos. It stood fifteen decks tall, and aside from her sister ship was the longest ship of the twenty-two in the fleet. They entered the beast on deck ten and moved towards the middle of the boat to a main stairwell. Moving upwards they reached the twelfth deck and progressed to the bow. Steeping though the bulkhead, Alex saw his first official command of the war.
He saw the sunlight pier thought the glass. Gazing around the room he could see twelve men working diligently at various monitors and instruments preparing the vessel to embark. Upon the recognition of stepping into the room, the XO’s voice ran through to call the attention of the mean.
“Officer on Deck.”
At that the seat of everyman seemed spring loaded as they jumped to their feet and stood at attention.
Alex addressed them as one collective body, “Carry on men.” As quickly as they rose, the men retook their various positions. Light, like it does to so many others, drew him forward to the glass and there he could see the view from the boat. In the view from on high, he could see everything from the smaller vessels and men scurrying about a loud horn sounded; warning them how intimate their departure was. Elijah, the spoiler of every moment it seems, walked up to Alex and whistled in amazement. The two exchanged looks before a voice from behind them summoned the leader.
“Excuse me sir,” Teller said. “Your command a waits.”
Turning, Alex saw a large empty chair centrally located and sitting with perfect view of the entire window display. Stepping towards the chair Alex gave his first order before even taking his official post.
“Commander Teller, engage all engines, leave them in neutral, and prepare for departure. Relay to all vessels to do the same and that we will be leaving on course of 307° until further instructed.”
“Aye sir,” Teller turned to the men at his left, there were two men at the controls of the steerage. “All engines engage, set course out of the harbor for 3-0-7.” He then walked a few steps ahead and grabbed a microphone turned two knobs and addressed the rest of the fleet with the same order. “This is the Naglfar, and Commander Teller Our orders are as follows, all vessels will follow us out of the harbor at a heading of 3-0-7 until further instructed.” He took his hand away from the microphone and extended it towards Alex.
“Sir would you like to address the fleet?”
The question echoed off the inside of his own head. The thought of him commanding his own armada into battle had not quite sunk in until this moment, but there was no time to bask in the light. He knew he needed to say something, and after the obvious moment of hesitation he walked towards Commander Teller and took the mic from him.
“This is Admiral Ehlinger. I am aboard the Naglfar and will be giving the orders from here. I cannot divulge the particulars of this mission, because as of yet, I do not even know them. My orders are sealed until later today. At the designated time, I will relay my orders once again through Commander Teller. What I do know is that this mission is of great importance and will turn the tide in the war against the cowardice enemy of the MLM. We will be successful in our mission, and we will fight until the last man. Engine room, when you are ready, take us out.”
Alex gave the mic back to Commander Teller who nodded in an approving manner and replaced the microphone in its appropriate place. Alex continued his walk forward to a banister that lay in front of the large window of the bridge. We watched as men hurried among the docks and the smaller skiffs move out of the way. He could barely tell when his boat started to inch out of the bay and into the open water until the lighthouse on the right of the ship was practically on the starboard side.
When the boat turned out into the open sea, the large window, much like the Humvee that had taken him to command, had a come to life with information and data. There was a solid red line that extended to the horizon to the left, and at the top there was the heading, currently at 345 and started its count slowly downward bringing the solid line to the middle of the screen. On the right Alex could see the status of all engines including the speed and RPM’s that each was assisting in the propelling of the large vessel. Along the bottom, the time was displayed 1535, they had a little over an hour and a half before he would open the packet. Alex heard a pair of boots behind him and turned to see Teller approaching to his left. He leaned in close and whispered to his senior officer.
“We are about ten minutes a head of schedule, and I will be sure to keep us that way sir. Your things have been placed in your room on deck six, portside, officers quarters.”
Alex was a little surprised that Teller was informed of a timeline and he wasn’t “How do you know we are ahead Commander?”
“I spoke with Central Command this morning. The wanted us out of the harbor at 1545 and let me know that at 1700 we should be at a certain location. Plotting the speed and our current time into the computer, we will be able to reach that point keeping the current time, and letting you have enough time to look at the orders in private and dispatch to the rest of the fleet our next heading. I am also to let you know as far northwest that it seems we will be heading on the charts, all long rage radiobroadcasts will not reach command or any other no
rthern out post. The NVA lost Anderhill a few days ago and with us leaving the harbor, the radio at the outpost isn’t strong enough to relay to command.”
“So we are on our own out here with twenty two boats to accomplish this mission?” Alex questioned the man to see just how much he was informed.
“From what I know Sir, is we are heading someplace picking something up, and heading back with it. The other particulars are in your packet. If a contingency plan exists, I don’t know anything about it. I know the enemy has a few boats out patrolling the waterways, but they aren’t as heavily fortified as we are.”
“Where are you from Felix?” Alex asked the man turning to face him. “I’ve noticed a slight variation in your accent.”
Laughing Felix further educated the youth. “I’m from the port. It use to be a fishing village that would go out and fish the northern seas and make trade with some of the larger shipping vessels. The mountains you traveled through use to be a three or four day journey, only by foot. Then a year ago, the tunnel was made, and with it came men and the train that helped ship supplies into the village. Slowly more and more people came into the valley, and the dry dock and construction on some of these ships began. Then when news of the invasion came, nearly six months ago so did the military. They shut down access to the tunnel and had at least three armed men on each boat as it left the pier.”
It didn’t surprise Alex to hear that the military had control of the port not too long after the war began. “So you’ve lived here your entire life then?”
Teller nodded. “Yes I have, made the trip to Anderhill once with my family to see the Pillar. They wouldn’t let us smaller craft get near it when we are out fishing, too many of the larger boats in the shipping lanes. I was sad to hear what those Animals from Mispellem did to the city.” He then turned to see Elijah walking in circles around the bridge. “Does he have any military training?”
“Only what I’ve taught him. He’ll listen to any orders given to him by a superior officer, but just like any man not brought up in such a ridged ways of life, he’ll do what he thinks is best.”
“Has he ever disobeyed an order from you?”
Alex paused a moment. He noticed the question wasn’t a one for the general knowledge. Teller wanted to see whom the dog sniffing around his bridge would answer to. Alex laughed as Eli leaned over one of the shoulders of the men and questioned the sailor as to what he was doing.
“No, Mr. Teller.” Alex replied. “He as never had a reason too, he trusts my judgment and decisions.”
“Well then, I will trust your judgment for now as well.” Teller said as he walked away. He slowed down as he was passing Elijah to make sure he wasn’t hindering the sailors attempting to do their duties, and continued on to the other side of the helm. Eli made his way over to Alex a few moments after he realized that Teller would be leaving him alone for now at least.
“This thing sure is fancy, Sir.” Eli said in a sarcastic tone. “I wish I had one of these here screens back home to watch a few movies on. What is this, 1000 inch screen? Could you imagine what it would be like to watch a movie on this thing?”
Alex tried to conceal his laughter. “Alright Eli, you made your point, would you pipe down a tad, all we need is another one of these guys to question my or your authority on this trip.” Alex looked at the bottom of the screen and saw the time, 1603. “Alright, lets make our way down to my quarters and I’ll fill you in on everything I can.”
Alex increased the volume of his voice as he walked towards Teller. “Commander, the bridge is yours, I will be back at 1700 to brief the men.”
The Commander saluted and moved towards the large window letting Alex and Eli pass by him out of the bridge. After they had exited through the bulkhead Elijah’s voice echoed off the inside of the metal stair well.
“You know where we’re going right?”
1649 Zulu Time
Alex opened the parcel that he was given the night before. As he removed the folder, it looked much larger than it felt in his hands. He dropped the mission dossier on the small table in his nine-by-nine quarters. The muffled thud caused both him and Eli to laugh at the amount of information that had been assembled for them. Alex quickly flipped through the file and removed the papers that were stamped in red lettering across the top stating it was ‘Top Secret’. He tossed the remainder of the file across the table to his friend who was anxiously waiting. After the pair had finished looking over a section they passed it to the other. Alex knew that there were very sensitive details that he couldn’t yet tell his friend; mainly what they were after on this mission. Giving the relevant information to his friend, Alex kept the rest of it, folding it and placing it into his breast pocket. He looked down at a few pictures and a map.
Their mission was to blockade an island that, before the war began, was used as a port for the major shipping companies. After surrounding the island, they were to lay siege as needed and assault the compound and search and capture their target, alive. The garrison on the island had renovated and built a massive military instillation. The assault was expected to take at least three days to subdue the forces and establish their own FOB on the island. Each of the larger Ships in the fleet had multiple landing crafts, weapons cache, and cannons to bombard the coastline.
Intelligence on the MLM and the size of their forces, artillery, ect, was given to them by an unnamed mole in the MLM command. A battalion of men was on the island waiting for Alex and his armada. A few patrol routes of naval vessels were outlined in various colors on the map. It was apparent, by the different colors that at least four different ships were at all times providing security of the island. The main military section outlined on the map, was enclosed in a wall all around the facility. Several buildings were scattered inside with the main building located centrally within the walls to insure that it would not be an easy infiltration. On the top floor of the Operations Building, the target would be waiting extraction. Command would wait for confirmation that the target was on board to provide a return course for Alex and where it would be escorted and examined at command.
Since the location of the island was so far from their home port, and the furthest radio station north, that as of 1700, when they make the turn due north, they would lose all radio communications with between the fleet and Command. It was stated that if in four days time, Alex had not re established contact with Central Command; an unspecified contingency plan would be implemented to ensure success of the mission. Alex looked over the map of the island and noticed a waterway that passed by the eastern wall of the complex and snaked its way south opening into a cove at the furthest southern point on the island, he figured that would be the best option for a quick extraction if he could focus the majority of the enemy forces on the beach front.
Eli’s eyes were waiting for Alex’s when he dug his nose out of the file.
“Complete assault and dismantling of the enemy encampment?” Eli asked as he pointed at the papers scattered like buckshot in front of him.
“We both knew it was something big, they wouldn’t have used such secrecy to move us the way they did and assemble this entire thing,” Alex motioned around the cabin. “Obviously we didn’t quite understand the scope of it all.”
“A battalion, how many men is that?” Eli wondered loudly.
Alex looked at his friend, unsure if it was excitement or caution in his tone. “A couple thousand more than likely.”
There was a pause in the room as Eli mulled the number over in his mind as someone would after hearing the salesman’s first price while shopping for a new car.
“Last I checked, boats don’t walk on land, and there is no information in here about any type of land vehicles, like a four wheeler to help. Cannons can only shoot so far Al.”
“A man’s true enemy is doubt Eli. A thing I would not carry into battle against anyone.”
As Alex spoke, he couldn’t help but give some heed to his friends point, it was a solid one. It would require a
constant shelling of the beach and the surrounding areas to even attempt to land significant forces on the beach. Enemy artillery was unknown and that was the solitary thing that could cause major casualties. Command must believe that when their target is extracted and in custody, that he will order a cease-fire and the remaining forces will surrender, a theory that Alex was weary of counting on. The men who wrote this report weren’t there to see the enemy the first night of battle in Aurorae, their enemy will fight because they believe in a fundamental dedication to something bigger than themselves. At that point, Alex could understand how similar he and his enemy were; both of them believe in a set of values and would pay any personal sacrifice in order to ensure the success of their cause. The similar ideals stated in the Oath that was taken by the ‘watchers’ was very much instilled in these men.
“Take this,” Alex reached for the folded classified papers in his pocket and quickly found the paper he needed. “Go to the second deck, mid ship, and give them the classified code word at the top of the page. Find someone to go with you, no matter what their orders are tell them this supersedes them. It’s time for me to head to the bridge. Take my pack and AR with you; you’ll know what to do when you get there. Get things ready to go quickly, Understood?”
Eli nodded and watched Alex quickly exit his quarters. He read the piece of paper and grabbed Alex’s rifle and pack and made his way to the corridor.
1659 Zulu Time
Teller was waiting outside the bridge for Alex and once he saw him, led the way on to the bridge, with Alex in tow shortly behind him. Upon him stepping through the threshold, the men stood at their posts and saluted. Alex ignored the honor as other things weighed heavy on his mind. Teller noticed the to the absence of protocol and quickly motioned to the men that they could be seated once again. Reaching the mic, Teller quickly switched it to an all channel broadcast.
Pillars of Glass Page 16