| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 26d, part one |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 16:26:52 09/11/09 Fri
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25d, part two - continued" on 16:25:09 01/08/09 Thu
A/N1 - thanks for everyone's kind words to us while we're struggling to clean up the damage done by that hacker. We're getting there - it'll just take a bit longer than we anticipated. In the meantime enjoy the next part of FMS - sorry for the delay, but you know what happened.
A/N2: In memory of those on Flight 93 who selflessly gave their lives....
Chapter 26d, …For Meritorious Service
SEAL Team ‘Rat Patrol’
The SEAL Team worked quickly and quietly to recover all members of Pelican 3 that had been able to bail out before the crash. Fortunately they were able to locate all of the aircrew before any of Darcy’s Force Recon Marines could.
“Where’s your Crew Chief?” Commander May asked the Pelican 3’s co-pilot.
“Dead….” Carl Tanner said in a dull, listless voice. Tanner stared off into the distance. May knew the 1,000 yard stare when he saw it.
“You mean he died in the crash?” Coskill probed, as he checked the man for injuries. Coskill worried that Tanner might be in shock. Amazingly, Tanner and his surviving crewmates had gotten out of the doomed KC-130 physically unharmed.
Carl looked at the Master Chief Petty Officer, but it was obvious he wasn’t looking at him. “No…he had been shot…they all had….”
“Shot?” It was almost too incredible for May to believe. Darcy wasn’t just satisfied in downing the aircraft; she had wanted to make sure everyone on board, except for her confederates, were dead.
“Not all of them were shot, Commander.” Pelican 3’s navigator replied quietly. His voice wasn’t listless anymore; it was filled with anxiety? Fear? “Some had been stabbed….”
Brad knew the people his unit was following were killers, but he didn’t know they could be so savage. “So some were shot and others were stabbed? How many?”
The navigator looked up at him with a drained stare. “About…about a half dozen, uh, including the Corpsman, sir.”
Coskill and May traded grim looks. It was obvious that they had gotten rid of anyone they couldn’t trust. “Petty Officer Stone….” Darrell said bitterly. Stone, along with Ryan Burke aka, ‘Doc Yader’, had volunteered for this same mission.
There was nothing that could be done for Stone now. Except to add his death to the list of charges building against Colonel Livingston and her crew. Brad May motioned to his unit’s Senior Chief Petty Officer.
“Brachett….”
Nick Brachett had been checking with the teams’ vehicle drivers to make sure they were ready to move out at a moment’s notice. He made his way back over to the SEAL CO. “Yes sir?”
“Make sure the air crew’s chutes and any other debris that can be tied to them is buried deep or taken with us. I don’t want Colonel Livingston’s cronies finding out these guys are still alive.”
“Already done Commander,” Brachett reported with grim efficiency. “We’re ready to move out when you are, sir.”
Brad nodded and looked over at Chief Petty Officer Davis who had taken over keeping an eye on Colonel MacKenzie’s unit.
“What’s the sitrep, Davis?”
There was obvious disgust in Davis’ voice as lowered his binoculars. “Looks like Colonel MacKenzie *is* hooking up with Colonel Livingston, sir.”
*~*
Darcy Livingston, Leader of Force Recon unit ‘Shark’, was struggling out of her parachute harness when Mac and the other members of her team reached the Force Recon CO.
Mac reached out her hand to help her CO to her feet. As Darcy stood, she gave her a quick acknowledgement of thanks. “MacKenzie…”
Mac nodded back. “Ma’am….”
Darcy stood with her hands on her hips surveying the hellish landscape. Her face had an appropriate look of anguish painted on it. “I wish that we were meeting again under better circumstances, Cher.” She said distractedly to her subordinate.
Mac looked back at the burning wreckage. It was hard to keep her tears from showing.
“Yes ma’am. Did the pilot say anything about having problems?”
Darcy shook her head as she gazed at the burning wreckage. “No, no… everything was fine as far as I knew. The first sign of trouble was when the co-pilot came back and told the Crew Chief that they had an emergency up front…”
Mac looked down at the ground, she wondered whether that was the truth or not. “Did the rest of the crew make it out, ma’am?” she asked quietly.
“I-I don’t know Colonel, right now I need to contact Briggs…Colonel Briggs…and tell him what’s happened.” Darcy seemed disturbed about what had happened. Either it was a good act, or what had taken place was not something she had planned.
For now Mac was going go with the Force Recon CO not having expected this to happen. “Yes ma’am.”
Corporal Gonzalez silently made his way over to Darcy. She motioned to the radio-telephone operator who handed her his radio mike.
“Sharkleader Actual to Bullgator; sharkleader actual to bullgator, do you copy, over?”
The reply was curt. “Authenticate Sharkleader.” Mac recognized Brigg’s voice.
“I authenticate Charlie…alpha…juliet…uniform …november, over.”
“Confirmed Sharkleader Actual.”
“Sitrep; all Shark elements at DZ; Casrep to follow…nine hushed, four ducks and one goose, over.”
Mac knew this is not what Colonel Briggs had been expecting, nine killed, four injured and one transport plane shot down.
He was clearly shaken by her report. “Say again, Sharkleader.”
Darcy sighed heavily then clicked her mike again. “Nine hushed; four ducks and one goose.”
After a moment Briggs’s voice came back, stronger, but not as strong as when they first started this conversation. “Affirmative, Sharkleader Actual…Rabbit?”
Darcy looked at the Force Recon troopers around her. Ashton Briggs had just given her the option to abort the mission. She surveyed their faces then clicked her push to talk button “Negative, Bullgator. Grizzly…I repeat…Grizzly not Rabbit.”
Briggs actually sounded buoyed by her decision to continue the mission. Despite the casualties, she was going ahead with the mission. “Affirmative Sharkleader Actual, Bullgator out.” If he had only known what her response actually meant.
Darcy handed the mike back to her RATELO. She sighed again as she glanced at the burning wreckage.
“It leaves us a little short handed for the mission at hand, but we’ll just have to deal with that, won’t we? We all know the fortunes of war….”
It was cold and Mac said the only thing she could at this point. “Yes ma’am, the fortunes of war….”
Darcy gave her a sad smile. “I’m glad you understand, Cher.”
Darcy turned her back on the flaming wreckage. “We are all going to be stretched thin, but then again, we had prepared for this possibility. Colonel MacKenzie; I will lead Shark One and Shark Three and since your unit is still intact, Shark Two will take the point.”
“Thank you ma’am,” Mac said in as neutral a voice as she could manage.
Darcy gave her a sardonic smile. “Don’t thank me Colonel; I haven’t done you any favors.”
That barb earned Mac some snide chuckles from Darcy’s troops. The JAG Corps Light Colonel noticed that her Marines were conspicuously silent.
Darcy took note of the lack of laughter coming from Mac’s platoon. Normally Colonel Livingston would praise solidarity, but not this kind. No, this kind was dangerous. It meant that Mac was respected more than her and that could not be allowed. Well, she’d rectify that little problem soon enough…. Right now, she had to focus on explaining their ‘mission’.
“…as for our current situation, we’re down two forward observers, and that, I’m afraid, puts us in a bind--”
“You’re only down one forward observer, Colonel….”
Darcy’s eyes immediately went to the voice. As did every other set of eyes. “Captain Lewis,” she said in a tone that didn’t betray any surprise or relief. “I’m glad to see you made it all right….”
Jacques Lewis nodded. “I did ma’am, but we had another casualty.”
“Who?”
Captain Lewis continued. “PFC Alton, ma’am. His parachute malfunctioned. He didn’t make it….” Mac felt her skin crawl when she thought the Captain had grinned and she thought she heard some of Darcy’s Force Recon soldiers actually begin to laugh. Maybe it was just her imagination….
“Well Captain, we can make up for most everyone killed by doing some reshuffling in Shark’s One and Three, but that still leaves us an observer short….”
Jac accepted her clinical analysis and added some of his own. “I think 2nd Lieutenant Fulmer can handle being Shark One’s observer and I’ll take over as Three’s artillery observer, ma’am. That is, if you don’t mind officers being observers.”
Darcy faked a wry smile letting him know she appreciated (that is, as much as she could) his joke. “Thank you, Jacques; I knew I could count on you....”
Somewhere Northeast of Mirbullah
As Lieutenant Chapps’ team took care of Sadoon and his crew, Ra’is Mohammad al-Sapir nosed his BRDM-2, mounting four Konkurs, or Spandrel, Anti-Tank Wire Guided missiles, to the edge of the clearing. The scouts from Bahi’s HMMWV found their primary target; a slight hill that rose above a grove of date palms. An ammunition dump. They pointed out the ‘hill’ to al-Sapir and his crew.
It was a long shot, but maybe al-Sapir’s BRDM could destroy the dump.
As Lieutenants Chapps’ and Pope’s men traded rifle fire with the insurgents, al-Sapir’s crew made its move. The noise of the gun battle was drowned out as one of the BRDM’s missiles streaked from it’s position and slammed into the side of the berm protecting the ammunition dump. Designed to take out NATO main battle tanks, there was no way to know if this would work. It might pass straight through the reinforced wall and out the other side.
Mohammad al-Sapir was shocked to see several bodies thrown high in the air as the Konkur missile found something solid to set it off. The resulting explosion sent flames shooting up above the trees. But the fire ball was only momentary; it had not been a knock out kill.
*~*
In response to the attack, Kasim Vladovich and his men looked for targets of opportunity. Kasim, a veteran of battles in Chechnya, could make out a Marine patrol slowly making its way across the field. They’d pay for the damage done to the ammo dump and the death of his friends.
*~*
Corporal Daniel Falls and his unit, ‘Rover Two Alpha’, moved gingerly out into the crop field. The tall waving sorghum would give them some cover, but their movement unfortunately would be ‘telegraphed’ to whoever was watching them.
Daniel felt as if he had weights on his feet, too many of the sorghum stalks seemed to be moving – at least to him. He looked to his right, PFC Dorner, his grenadier, nervously fingered his rifle. On his left, Lance Corporal Kellen gave him a quick hand signal indicating there was still no sign of the enemy movement. The smoke from the ammo dump and Sadoon’s burning APC were the only indications of casualties at the moment. Automatic rifle fire had now reduced to some occasional staccato bursts, so it looked like each side was trying to decide what to do next.
The Corporal started to raise his hand, but he never finished the movement as a wild rippling burst of automatic rifle and machine gun fire raked his little group.
Daniel Falls felt a burning sensation in both of his arms as he tumbled into the dirt.
0530?? Local
South of the Line of Departure
Stuart Dunston adjusted his helmet and coughed. The diesel fumes from the AMTRAC’s engine were not as strong as they had been when they’d first moved out, but they still bothered him.
“Thought you said you’d done this before…” Brad was more jocular than Stuart thought he should be at this hour. Had to be because he was young. Man, he couldn’t wait to get behind that anchor desk….
“It’s been a while since I rode in one of these,” Stuart grunted as he shifted, trying to find a more comfortable spot on the bench.
“Apologies for the fumes,” called out a grinning Corporal who was sitting just in back of the driver.
Sully just nodded his acknowledgement and went back to checking his equipment. Brad and Stuart chose to just give him a friendly smile.
Stuart knew the Corporal didn’t mean a word of his ‘apology’. He figured Brad thought the same thing.
“Have we reached the line of departure yet?” he asked, trying to show that he understood military jargon.
The Corporal just turned and grinned at them again. “Sorry gentlemen, but we haven’t even reached the Release Point yet….”
*~*
Zeke Fuller’s ‘wingman’, Corporal Jake Appleton of ‘Rover Two’, saw his patrol leader go down. He could see flashes from a trench next to what looked like…damn! Another APC!
“Gunner! Sabot APC! Then give Falls and his team cover fire!!”
“On the way!” barked his gunner.
The 25 millimeter M-242 chain gun began thumping, sending a mix of high explosive and armor piercing rounds slamming into the trench line. In response, one of the hidden concrete bunkers revealed themselves, opening fire with its 120mm mortar and 12.7mm machine guns. A hailstorm of fire rained shrapnel on the LAV-25 as Corporal Appleton switched his radio to the platoon net.
“Rover Two to Four! Could use an assist!”
“Gotcha covered Two; fall back!” Rover Four’s LAV-25 moved forward out of the tree line, heading diagonally across the crop field toward Appleton’s armored vehicle.
As Zeke’s LAV started pumping rounds into the bunker, 14.5mm bullets began pinging off his cupola. The Staff Sergeant frantically waved Falls’ team toward the open rear doors of his LAV-25.
“Zeke!” Chris Kirtland, his gunner, yelled. “Get your butt in here! That APC is getting ready to part your skull with a Sagger!!”
“Ricky!” Staff Sergeant Fuller began banging on the turret to get his driver’s attention as he watched smoke erupt from the conical turret of the enemy APC. “Back us outta here!!”
As the LAV driver threw the vehicle in reverse, Falls’ team rose up and gave what cover fire they could. Chapps and Pope’s squads joined in the fray, trying to throw off the aim of the ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) gunner.
Watching all this, Sergeant Lane DeWard had had enough of the insurgents being able to lob guided missiles at them whenever they wanted. It was time to even the odds.
“Gunner! TOW! APC! 1000 meters dead ahead!!”
“Aye, aye, Sergeant! On the way!!” yelled the gunner.
The LAV-TOW vehicle bucked as a missile shot out of the left side tube on the hammerhead launcher.
The Malyuka, or Sagger, and the ‘tube launched optically tracked wire guided’, or TOW, ATGMs crossed each others’ paths, laying out their lines of fine optical wire as they headed toward their intended targets.
Just down the way, al-Sapir’s BRDM launched another Konkurs missile at the burning ammo dump. ‘Arif Bahi, who was leading Sapir’s scout team, added his team’s own firepower to the assault.
The next few moments seemed to occur in slow motion. DeWards’ TOW missile found its mark, tearing a large hole in the Czech-built wheeled carrier, sending its conical turret sailing through the air. Before he was killed, the insurgent ATGM gunner had started to duck incoming fire from Marine and Iraqi Army patrols, causing the Soviet-built Malyuka missile to veer wildly off course. Fuller dove back into his turret hatch as the insurgent anti-tank guided missile detonated to the right of the LAV.
Al-Sapir’s Konkurs missile found its mark and the smoldering ammunition dump ignited, sending spirals of burning ammunition cart-wheeling out of the reinforced berms. A secondary explosion caused two of the grove’s date palms to reel drunkenly and then crash to the ground.
Almost simultaneously, the 25 millimeter armor piercing rounds from Fuller’s LAV found their mark, silencing the concrete bunker’s 120mm mortar and setting off the mortar’s spare shells. The resulting explosion leveled the bunker.
Before anyone could react to what had happened, two more concrete reinforced earthen bunkers sitting on a hill behind the burning OT-64 joined the firefight along with two seemingly abandoned blockhouses.
Gouts of dirt and flying sorghum stalks marked the near misses next to Fuller’s and DeWards’ LAVs. These were caused by the blockhouses’ 45mm M42 anti-tank guns. While not lethal enough to take on a main battle tank, these cannons could easily knock out any vehicle in the reconnaissance unit.
Fuller and DeWard, while firing their 7.62 anti-aircraft machine guns, activated their smoke grenades blanketing the Marine and Iraqi Army squads in front of them with dense white smoke.
Zeke quickly switched his radio to the company net. “Rover Leader to all Rover elements! Fall back! Fall back to the tree line!!”
MTAC, NCIS Headquarters
Washington Navy Yard
Tom Morrow watched on the large video screen the satellite feed of 36th MEU’s ‘Gatorforce’ as it left Camp Chesty Puller and headed northeast. As impressive as this was, the Director of NCIS knew there was trouble brewing. With the evidence mounting against Lieutenant Colonel Darcy Livingston, and al-Sahood still underground, the potential for disaster was growing.
While Tom tried to sort through in his mind the political implications of the Marines’ star female combat officer possibly being a traitor to her country, he almost didn’t hear the communications technician who was trying to get his attention.
“Director? Director Morrow? I have Special Agent Shepard in Beirut waiting to speak with you….”
The Director acknowledged her request. “Right side of the screen, Audra; I want to keep the satellite feed from Mirbullah as well….”
The technician nodded as she quickly punched a few buttons on her keyboard. “Yes sir, on screen now, sir.”
“Sitrep Jen,” Director Morrow was not in the mood for the usual niceties.
“We lost our contact in the Lebanese Army. Al-Sahood is covering his tracks.”
More bad news.
“What happened to your contact?”
“He was murdered in his office. They were on to us as well. They tried to eliminate us with a car bomb when we were about to apprehend them.”
Al-Sahood’s flair for the dramatic wasn’t going to take a back seat to his upcoming terror attack. He was a showman in every sense of the word. The fact that he had tried to kill Jenny Shepard and Ziva David shook him.
“Are you and Officer David all right?”
Jenny gave him a brief smile as acknowledgement for his concern. “We’re fine, Director.”
Now that he knew they were both all right, it was time to get down to business. “We need to know what he’s up to, Jen.”
Jenny Shepard talked off screen for a moment with her Mossad contact. “Agent David believes she has a lead on another contact.”
“How viable is this contact?”
Jen looked back at Ziva David. Again, they conferred off screen. Then Agent Shepard was back. “Officer David believes he can help us learn what we need to know about al-Sahood and his ties to the 36th MEU.”
“Time’s running out, Jen.” Morrow said grimly.
???? Local
Somewhere Northeast of Mirbullah
As the recon unit for Gatorforce Two fought for its survival, Sergeant Kyle Sewett and Corporal Jason Raden moved their combined Marine-Iraqi Army recon unit for Gatorforce One into the tree line, just north of Two.
Kyle didn’t like that silent tree line ahead of their unit. The gunfire and explosions they could hear to their south indicated this area was ‘front line’ for the insurgents as far as they were concerned. Rover Three’s commander decided to radio his acting CO and see how far they had pushed into enemy territory.
“Rover Three to Rover Four--”
His call was interrupted by Rover Four’s incoming message. “Rover Four to Three –contact! Heavily entrenched forces at map coordinates R 21 V 19! Setting up defensive line east of there!!”
So much for traditional silent reconnaissance. This was now a shooting match. He hoped they were the ‘firstest with the mostest’. “Roger Four, Good luck, Three out!”
Kyle checked his map. Behind this row of crop fields was a set of low rocky hills dotted with date palm groves. The hills offered a perfect view for anyone trying to defend the area. With a grove of palms and other native trees lining the far edge of the fields, al-Sahood’s men had nearly perfect defensive positions. It was almost guaranteed that every field both north and south of Gatorforces’ current positions was similarly defended. They’d have to get an aerial view to see just how deep this defensive belt was.
“Rover Three to One; get us a bird’s eye view of this area so we at least have an idea of who is over there, Over!”
Fuller had named Corporal Raden as the primary coordinator with his unit’s fire support team. His response was professional and terse. “Rover One to Three, Roger!”
Jason quickly switched his radio to the Fire Support Team (FiST) LAV frequency.
“Rover One to Hawk One…”
‘Hawk One’ sat in the woods in between two reconnaissance units. The original idea was that the fire support team would be able to see both fields as the two recon units advanced and provide any artillery or close air support as needed.
Commanded by Sergeant Stephen DeWald, Hawk One had a crew compliment of four – himself, his driver – PFC James, the forward air controller - Corporal Yamura, and the artillery observer - Corporal Roca.
“Hawk One, go,” replied Stephen.
“Need another bird’s eye view of map coordinates; R20 through R26 and V 17 through V 21, over.”
Hawk One had already had four Predator drones scanning the area since early this morning. They had not found any sign of insurgent positions in this area and had moved further west toward their primary objective. He had heard over the battalion net that Staff Sergeant Fuller’s unit was heavily engaged with insurgents in the south field. He could call in fighters to strafe and bomb the targets, but both recon units were ‘danger close’, meaning chances for casualties from friendly fire were high. Because Colonel Briggs had grounded the attack helos, Gatorforce was essentially fighting this battle with one hand tied behind its back.
Stephen DeWald muttered an expletive under this breath. A second pass on these hills would mean they were taking ‘eyes’ away from the search for al-Sahood’s hideout. But without the close air support from the helos, Fuller’s recon units needed to know exactly who they were up against and their unit strength and this was the only way to accomplish that.
“Hawk One to Rover One, roger. Should I send in close air support as well? Over.”
Jason Raden’s reply was curt. “Negative Hawk One on the close air support; just recon of requested coordinates. We’ll take care of the rest, over.”
“Hawk One to Rover One; affirmative, out.”
Kevin Yamura gave Stephen a disgusted look. “This sucks,” he said bluntly. Briggs should have never grounded the whole helo unit just because Lieutenant Lukens and Chief Buell shot in the direction of Lieutenant Dodge.”
Stephen agreed with the forward air controller, but he had to maintain an aire of neutrality to keep everyone in line. “The Colonel had his reasons, Yamura.” Seeing that did little to mollify the young Corporal, DeWald gave him an assignment that would hopefully placate him and at the same time practice coordination between the Navy and Marine assets. “In the meantime, why don’t you do a radio check with the carrier battle group?”
Yamura nodded and dug out his penlight and codebook. Stephen turned to Corporal Roca.
“Get Lieutenant Dye on the horn; I want to be able to pummel any opposition those drones find out there….”
“Aye sir,” replied Roca as he began to contact the LAV mortar unit.
-To be continued this evening....
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