| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 26c, part two |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 17:24:55 07/01/09 Wed
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TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25d, part two - continued" on 16:25:09 01/08/09 Thu
Part two, 26c
Somewhere North of Mirbullah
With the drop zone report sent, Staff Sergeant Dallas’ team re-joined Mac and the rest of the unit. The report wasn’t the most positive in the world, but at least the rest of Colonel Livingston’s Force Recon Marines would be able to land without the risk of too many casualties.
Mac lay on the ground next to Kayce in between Sergeant Witt, and Staff Sergeant Reynolds.
“Did you send the intel regarding the alternate drop zone, Staff Sergeant?” Mac asked Leonard Reynolds.
“Yes ma’am,” replied Reynolds, “They have the intel.”
“Good,” Mac said as she scanned the area one more time with her binoculars, “Now let’s hope they don’t have to use it instead of the one that Dallas mapped out for them.”
Reynolds chuckled at her ironic humor. “Understood ma’am.”
“Colonel, we got a problem,”
Mac turned to see Sean O’Grady settle in beside Kayce and Reynolds.
The Light Colonel felt a knot of concern form in her stomach. “What kind of problem?”
“We’ve got a tango over by that grove of date palms on that low rise to the right…three o’clock, ma’am.”
Mac shifted her binoculars that direction. Sure enough, the unmistakable clean outline of a Czechoslovakian built OT-64 armored personnel carrier could be seen parked next to a decent sized palm tree.
She swore under her breath. “Was it there before?” she asked no one in particular in an irritated voice. Could Dallas have lied to her? Or was this part of some trap that O’Grady had stumbled upon?
Sean had sighted his sniper rifle on the Iraqi eight-wheeled APC. Kayce did the same with Barrett sniper rifle. “No ma’am,” he answered her as he adjusted the sights on his rifle, ‘it just pulled up and parked.”
Mac knew that the refurbished Iraqi Army wasn’t even assigned to this area, so that meant the insurgents had revealed just how well they might be armed.
“Great.” Mac looked again; the wheeled carrier not only had a heavy machine gun that could chop up the Force Recon soldiers before they even landed, it was also armed with a missile launcher. With a lucky shot, that weapon would make short work of any low flying KC-130 transport. They had to do something about this interloper and quick.
Sergeant Witt looked over at her, mike in hand. “Should we abort the drop, Colonel?”
They had come too far to let insurgents put a crimp in their plans at this point. “No. Staff Sergeant Dallas; take your team back out there and find out if they are the only uninvited guests to our party.”
Rather than arguing with her or stridently denying that anyone had been out there in the first place, Dallas was up before Mac had finished her order. He seemed eager to regain her confidence. “Aye, aye, Colonel; all right gents, let’s go! Keep your eyes peeled for any other surprise visitors!”
Dallas’ team again fanned out across the drop zone, hunting for any sign of more ‘late arrivals’….
No movement could be detected around the spotted OT-64 APC. This meant it could be manned by only a few insurgents and its weapons might not even be operational. Still, Mac could not take any chances. Her unit would have to determine just how much of a real threat this carrier was.
She could hear one Darcy’s primary rules echoing in her head
‘I believe in the traditional method of reconnaissance, Colonel. If we’ve fired a shot, that means we’ve failed our mission....’
Mac hoped that didn’t include calling in air support, because she really didn’t have many alternatives available to her. If Dallas’ team attacked that APC, no matter how silently it might begin, there would probably be some gunfire before they overwhelmed the crew and that would lead the insurgents right to them.
However, the Light Colonel did know that Colonel Briggs had secured close air support from the Air Force Special Operations Wing. They might be able to ‘surgically’ remove the tango, the worry with that was that they could be ‘discovered’ by the insurgents during the attack. Neither was a great option, but CAS might work more in their favor. For now, she had to be patient and wait to hear back from Dallas…that is, if he wasn’t part of some trap to ensnare her and the rest of Shark Two for Darcy and al-Sahood.
USS Patrick Henry
Harm, Pete, ‘Flying Cloud’, and his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer), ‘Smoker’, walked back toward the squadron ready room.
“Hey, I thought we were going to get breakfast…” Pete complained as they entered the ready room.
“And I *thought* you left your stomach out over the Persian Gulf, ‘Clyde’” ribbed ‘Smoker’.
“It never leaves me for long,” he shot back, “besides, ‘Flying Cloud’, you owe Hammer….”
Harm chuckled at the good natured jibes being tossed by the two RIOs. Then he saw Nicole. He wanted to finish the previous conversation they had started on Vulture’s Row. “You three go on to the mess hall, I’ll catch up….”
Flying Cloud noted Nicole sitting at the back table and gently urged the RIOs out of the room.
Nicole folded the newspaper she had been reading and laid it down on the table in front of her. Harm sat down across from his XO.
She smiled. “How goes the RIO training?” She knew the CAG had given him yet another new one.
Harm returned her grin. “I think he’ll do….”
“I’m pretty sure I got the better deal,” Nicole teased. ‘Pitcher,’ who had been Harm’s RIO, was now hers. The CAG had been playing ‘musical RIOs’ as more straggled aboard the Patrick Henry.
“My unofficial job is to train the new RIOs and then pass them on to less fortunate members of the squadron.” He said this with a perfectly straight face.
Nicole’s face colored at that double entendre. “Touché”
“Thank you,” Harm said graciously.
“So? How did it go?”
You mean the flight with ‘Clyde’?” He said evasively. “It went all right….”
Her face scrunched up in irritation. “No; you know what I mean; your phone call? To Camp Chesty Puller?”
Harm feigned dawning recognition. “Oh, you mean that….”
“Yes, ‘oh I mean that’, Hammer.” She gave him a piercing stare. “You did talk to her, didn’t you? Don’t tell me after all this that you didn’t talk to her….”
Harm’s playful smile melted away. “I did talk to her, but I wish I hadn’t….”
Now Nicole dropped the playful banter. “What do you mean?”
“The person in charge of her platoon was killed in action--”
“Oh God. Harm, I’m so sorry--”
“That’s not the worst of it. Now she’s leading the platoon….”
Although the situation that lead to her commanding that platoon sucked, why did he think her leading a platoon was not a good thing? In her mind, he wasn’t making any sense.
“Okay…clear something up for me; how is this bad?”
Harm elaborated for her. “The CO of her unit is a murder suspect. We also think she might be a traitor…
“She? A traitor? I thought all Marine combat units were all male….”
“She’s part of a pilot program,” Harm explained “…putting women in combat units….”
“And she’s a traitor---?!”
“Sorry; possible traitor,” Harm cautioned.
Nicole rolled her eyes at the lawyerese “Okay; with a ‘possible traitor’ leading it? You’ve gotta give me more, Hammer. What exactly has she done?”
Harm reeled off what they had already learned. “We know she’s involved in at least a half dozen deaths, connected directly or indirectly with several disappearances, and possible collusion with known Iraqi insurgent leaders and members of the Iraqi al-Qaida terrorist cell.”
Nicole couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Geez, is she planning on assuming the mantle of Anti-Christ too? Commander, are you absolutely sure about this?”
Harm nodded. “Dead sure. We’ve been investigating her since before the attack on JAG Corps Headquarters. Not only do we think she’s a possible traitor, we also think she’s recruiting others.”
Supergirl’s eyes got wider. “To join al-Qaida!? Then why aren’t you back there arresting her or doing what you JAGs do to bad guys!?”
Harm was the voice of reason and logic. “The flu bug that’s been going around. They activated all Reserve status pilots because you have so many of your pilots and RIOs in sick bay.”
Nicole shook her head. “I forgot; *you’re* a *Reserve pilot*….”
Another nod from the seated tall Navy Commander. “Exactly. Besides, to answer your other question; all we’ve got on her right now is hearsay and circumstantial. Mac’s job is to get the hard evidence we need.”
“Mac’s your friend? The one you were calling?”
Another nod. “Uh huh; short for MacKenzie…her last name….”
“Is there anybody out there helping her?”
“The two other members of my JAGMAN team…Commander Turner and Lieutenant Roberts who are following up any additional leads as she provides them and they in turn, are being assisted by an NCIS team sent from Washington, DC.”
Her eyebrows went up again. “So both JAG and NCIS are involved in this?!”
The aviator/lawyer nodded again. “Yep.”
Nicole was trying to sort through all that she was learning in this conversation. “And you’re out here flying ‘Cats with us instead of helping her….”
The Navy Commander steepled his hands together on the table. “That’s about the size of it.”
“And it’s killing you.”
“Would you hate me if I said ‘yes’?” He said half-jokingly.
She shook her head and gave him a sympathetic smile. “No, I think I understand…especially in light of the other things you just told me.”
“If it were as simple as hopping on a COD to get back to Mirbullah, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” He explained.
For the first time, Supergirl leaned forward and put her hands on his. “I don’t doubt you…but you can’t, can you?”
Harm sighed in obvious disgust and frustration as he pulled away from her. “No, I can’t….”
He didn’t like it, but it was the truth. He couldn’t just go U/A because Mac was in possible trouble. They had gone that route before. No, he had the lives of his squadron’s members to think about.
“Well, isn’t there anything we can do?”
“We?” That took him by surprise.
She leaned forward. “C’mon Hammer! You’re on board a United States Navy aircraft carrier with four squadrons of combat ready planes on board!! Surely we can do more than fly air patrols and make threatening gestures at the Iranians--”
He understood her passion and the motivation behind her passion, but he also had to bring her back to reality.
“Supergirl,” he said gently. Now he put his hands on hers.
Nicole, however, was intent on helping her squadron commander the only way she knew how.
“If we can locate this terrorist cell, Hammer, we can bomb it to oblivion--!”
“Nicole….” this time his tone was a little more insistent.
Nicole though, still wasn’t listening. She had convinced herself this plan might work.
“Dammit Hammer! This is what we’ve been fighting against all along! If we could just--!”
Harm had to bring her back to earth, quick. “Hey! Hey! Hey!! Take it easy, Argosian….”
That did the trick. The moniker threw her. She pulled back, a quizzical look on her face. “Argosian?”
Harm gave her a wry grin. “Well your nickname is ‘Supergirl’ and you kinda do look like her….”
Her playful grin momentarily came back. “Now you’re really reaching…,” but only for a moment. “Harm…Commander…we’ve got to be able to do something--”
“You both just might get that chance, Commander.” Harm and Nicole both turned to see the Oriskany’s Staff Judge Advocate [SJA] better known as ‘Lawboss’ standing at the doorway. Lawboss had been in meetings all evening with the Commander Aldridge. What these were about, Harm didn’t know, but he suspected something big was coming.
She gave the two Tomcat pilots a sideways glance. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
Harm gave her a quick smirk. “No, not at all; what do you need, Captain?”
She walked over toward the table. “You’re going to get an update from the CAG on this in a little bit; things are building….” She gestured to the empty chair. They both indicated for her to sit down.
“Things? What kind of ‘things’ are building?” Nicole didn’t like vague reports especially in light of what she just learned from the lawyer/aviator.
Lawboss understood her distaste for vagueness. “The 36th MEU is in the process of hunting down the insurgents that fired that Katushya rocket at their camp. The word is…it’s the same group that attacked JAG Corps Headquarters.”
Harm and Nicole exchanged a look. “Are they sure?” Harm asked bluntly.
Lawboss nodded. There had to be a reason why Harmon Rabb was being so blunt. But she’d focus on that later. “They have solid intel that ties them to both attacks. The 36th has one of Colonel Livingston’s Force Recon teams out tracking them down….
This time Harm and Nicole exchanged wary looks. That ‘Force Recon team’ was Mac’s team.
Lawboss picked up on the subtle change in their attitude. “What is it? Did I say something wrong?”
Harm was quick to reassure her. “Uh, no Captain, you didn’t…thanks for the heads-up.”
Harm quickly got up from the table. “If you’ll excuse me…” as he got up, he leaned over toward Nicole. “Supergirl, I’ll be back in little bit….”
“You’re welcome, Commander,” Lawboss called out as Harm headed out of the room. “Okay, now what did I say to upset him so?”
Nicole gave her an empathetic look. “You know his partner is undercover with Colonel Livingston’s unit, right?”
Natalia Seranovich suddenly understood Harm’s reaction. “No, I didn’t.”
“They suspect Colonel Livingston of murder and of working with the insurgents and Colonel MacKenzie is undercover with them to find out if the allegations are true.”
Lawboss was usually unflappable. Usually. “They suspect Colonel Livingston of murder and treason?!”
Nicole understood her being incredulous. “Yes.”
“These are the same insurgents I just mentioned…?” She added in a stunned voice. Her mind was spinning. Rumors about traitors within armed forces had been circulating since 9/11. This was the first case she’d ever heard about first hand.
“Yeah, the very same ones involved in the attack on JAG Headquarters….”
“What is he going to do?” Natalia had visions of the Commander flying his Tomcat to Mirbullah against orders.
Nicole held her hands up in supplication. “What can he do? We’re short of pilots. He’s our squadron leader.”
“Is she out there by herself?” She silently prayed this wasn’t another CIA operation. Word had filtered down even to her station about the recent Paraguayan operation and who had ended up salvaging it.
“The Commander told me that the rest of his JAGMAN investigative team and NCIS are assisting her.”
Lawboss looked down at her papers and shook her head. “God, this just got a lot more complicated….”
Now it was Nicole’s turn to worry. “What do you mean?”
“Scuttlebutt has it that the 36th is about to be engaged in a clearing operation against these insurgents and we’re going to be providing air support.”
Nicole suspected what Lawboss meant by that – an alpha strike, but she had to confirm it. “‘We’ meaning the *entire carrier group*?”
“Yes.” Natalia shook her head at the juxtaposition of these factors. A train wreck was coming. “If the Commander is right about Colonel Livingston, then this whole operation could be in jeopardy.”
Somewhere north of Mirbullah
Mac was about to say something to O’Grady about disabling the APC when her radio crackled. “SPOTREP!” Hissed Staff Sergeant Dallas urgently.
Mac clicked her radio “Send it!”
“One oh tee six four Charlie with Sagger and heavy machine gun; vehicle is definitely a hostile.”
Mac felt the knot in her stomach grow tighter. She clicked her talk button again. “Other tangos in the area?”
This time the news was marginally better. “None, ma’am. She’s the only one.”
Mac breathed a sigh of relief; they had a problem, but at least it wasn’t as big as first anticipated. Now that they knew they were dealing with a just one vehicle that made the solution an easy choice.
She changed frequencies on her radio and pushed her talk button. “Shark Two to Dust Devil….”
“Shark Two to Dust Devil….”
The female voice that answered was crisp and neutral. “This is Dust Devil, authenticate.”
“Dust Devil, this is Shark Six Mike Actual, I authenticate Charlie…alpha…juliet…uniform …november, over.”
“Confirmed Shark Six Mike Actual; what can Dust Devil One do to assist? Over.”
“Dust Devil One, we have an operational tango oscar six four hiding near our drop zone coordinates…can you help us out? Over,”
*~*
Captain Lea Brown, the pilot, exchanged a troubled look with her co-pilot, First Lieutenant Amiee Joshua. The insurgents at this point were supposed to only have a few technicals or pickup trucks with machine guns. Where did they find an operational OT-64 personnel carrier?
Captain Brown turned the Spectre gunship nicknamed Elvin Fury toward the source of the ground transmission.
*~*
Brad clicked his push to talk button. “Keep your eyes out for any of Colonel MacKenzie’s troops making contact with those insurgents,” he told his team. “The moment we do, we move in; ‘Doc Yader’ will do the rest….
The various members of ‘Rat Patrol’ clicked their talk buttons twice in response.
The Master Chief shook his head and chuckled. “Beats me why ‘Doc Yader’ chose being a Corpsman as his cover…he knows as much about medicine as I do.”
Brad kept his eyes focused on the insurgent APC. “It was the only position in Colonel Livingston’s Force Recon unit that the Navy had any legitimate reason for placing one of its own with her Marines. We take the opportunities where we can get them, Master Chief”
But Darrell Coskill’s tone betrayed how uneasy he felt about that ‘opportunity’. “What happens if someone gets hurt or injured, Commander? Then what is Ryan going to do?”
“Then he’ll stall until we can get to him,”
*~*
“Roger Wilco, Shark Six Mike Actual; we’ll take care of your tango…send coordinates and target info.”
Mac looked over at Witt and 2nd Lieutenant Matt Flemming. “Sending them now, Dust Devil One….” Sergeant Witt quickly relayed the drop zone coordinates.
*~*
Rat Patrol, which was on the south side of Shark Two’s positions, heard the hum of an aircraft first.
“Commander, I’d swear that was a four engine job….”
The Navy SEAL CO agreed. “Yeah, it’s definitely a C-130 of some sort.” “May to Patrol; everybody keep still.”
*~*
Aboard ‘Elvin Fury’, the crew was preparing for combat.
“Pilot to Gun Crews! Action station, left side!”
“Fire Control! Prepare to receive target information from Shark Two’s FO…”
“Roger Wilco, Skipper….”
*~*
Everyone in Shark Two could hear the thrum of a multiengine plane as it droned ever closer.
“Is that one of our transport planes?” Logan asked as she looked up into the night sky.
“No…that’s a gunship!” Kayce said excitedly. “We got us some real support now, a b1rd!”
“B1rd?” Mac wondered what Kayce Danvers meant by ‘b1rd’. She knew that in the world of military slang, b1rd was usually reserved for actual birds rather than aircraft. Her answer was quickly supplied by O’Grady.
“That’s just ‘Kayce talk’ for Air Force ground support aircraft, ma’am.”
---TBC... [part three will post in the morning]
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