Chapter 28

He got there to see the other members of the team waiting for him. Felix had placed his patrol pack at the right rear seat where he would be sitting, but Sheppard told him, "You're sitting up front with me for this one, Felix. I need you to show me where we are going to land this for the night in relation to our position."

Felix replied, "Okie-dokie," and then un-slung his beloved Sasha and placed her on the floor of the Jumper, making sure the safety was on.

Sheppard noted that Teyla and Ronon had brought what they thought they would need to be comfortable in the Jumper for the night. He looked at them and asked, "Everyone clear on their tasks?"

Ronon's answer was to roll his eyes and shrug his shoulders and said, "Sitting here, bored, waiting — and you know how much I like waiting around for something to happen."

Teyla shrugged her shoulders as well and replied, "We'll make do, Colonel Sheppard."

Felix then said, "Okay boss, I need to do a preliminary check any noisy stuff you may have forgotten to get rid of. I want you to jump up and down a few times — I need to hear what noises your gear makes."

Sheppard looked at Felix strangely but did as he was bid and jumped up a couple of times. Felix held out his hand and said, "Hold still for a second. Take off your pack and place it on the ground, then undo your vest and place that on the ground as well."

Sheppard was getting a bit perturbed at being treated like an officer cadet or a rookie and asked, "Is this really necessary?"

Felix answered, "I'll put it to you like this — you have certain pre-flight checks you always do before a mission — correct?"

Sheppard replied, "Well yea — of course — we're pilots."

Felix said back to him, "Exactly the same kind of thing — this is just like a pre-flight for a mission. There are certain things that must be done before we taxi for take-off, and making sure that certain items are stowed securely is one of them."

Sheppard was amazed and surprised that Felix knew a bit about pre-flight routines, as he realized what the Sergeant said made a lot of sense. So he allowed the small Canuck to check over his gear in detail.

Felix went through the daypack and removed a few items that Sheppard had left in there from previous missions, and they were placed off to one side. Next he did the vest and went through all pockets, zippers, and satchels and removed a few more items that he deemed non-essential, and placed them in the pile.

After a minute Felix stood up and asked, "Boss, could I get you to empty your pockets of everything you have — including your wallet as well. And I need to see your dog tags as well."

Sheppard emptied out his pockets and turned out his dog tags; Felix reached into his patrol pack and grabbed a roll of green duct tape and told him, "Put a strip of tape around your tags - it reduces the rattle."

Felix went through all of Sheppard's gear and put duct tape on certain items to reduce noise and then put the tape back into his pack. The he asked, "Do you have a field dressing?"

Sheppard answered with, "Already used up."

Felix replied as he reached into a pant pocket and pulled out a field dressing and said, "That would be a 'no' so here you are — that goes in one of your lower pant pockets."

Sheppard asked, "Why do I need this? This is supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission, not a fight."

Felix looked at the officer with a deadpan face and replied, "I have seen the simplest missions go to hell in under a minute. You always had an E&E kit when you were on mission over bad guy country — I know that for a fact. Part of that was a first aid kit — smaller granted but a first aid kit just the same. I don't question your ways of doing things when it comes to flying. Where we are going tonight is where I am good — you are entering MY world here. I'm doing what I can to improve any chances we have of staying alive and also making it back alive. If it means you carry certain pieces of equipment, and you don't like it — that's fine by me — direct your dislike towards me. I'm used to it. Okay — I think we are done — I'll help you reload your gear, and then we can sortie on the mission."

Sheppard and Felix sat in their front seats while Teyla and Ronon sat in the rear ones and waited to go. Sheppard powered up the Jumper, raised the ramp and said to Felix, "Why don't you call in for clearance?"

Felix at Sheppard with one eyebrow raised and asked, "Seriously?"

Sheppard replied, "Why not? You have to learn sometime."

Felix said, "Oh — okay then. Control, this is Jumper One requesting clearance for mission OP, over" Felix had said the words so fast that the technician in the control centre barely caught the words that were crisp and clear but rapid-fire.

Up in the control room Dr. Weir smiled and waved off the technician's comments and replied, "Jumper One, you have a mission go — Sergeant. And good luck."

Felix answered, "Jumper One, Roger, don't need the luck but we'll take it anyways, out." Again he had said the words rapidly so that the technician was almost confused at the speed combined with the clarity.

Dr. Weir looked at the technician named Chuck and said, "I guess we'll have to get used to that speed of speech — that was Sergeant Grey on the radio."

The technician nodded his understanding as he was Canadian as well and was used to working with Newfies in the past.

The gate was active and Jumper One went through the gate, which then shut down once they rematerialized on the other end.

As soon as the Jumper was rematerialized on the planet, Sheppard cloaked it immediately and headed towards the woods near the town. He made a point of avoiding the town so they would reduce the chances of being heard, and then with Felix's guidance landed the Jumper at the edge of a wooded area and then backed it in so they were hidden a bit more.

Sheppard powered down the craft but left life support and communications powered, as Teyla and Ronon would need those. He was about to lower the ramp when Felix stopped him and said, "How about we go over a couple of things before we just wander off camping?"

Sheppard looked at Felix and asked, "What do you mean?"

He replied, "Oh, let me see — a couple of things we haven't even touched on yet, like radio discipline for tonight, movement by you and I, you know — minor little things like that."

Sheppard looked on as he said, "Continue."

Felix then explained, "First off I would prefer radio communications kept to a bare minimum at best, so as an example how often were you going to check in with either the Jumper or Atlantis?"

Sheppard answered, "I don't know — every couple of hours or so."

Felix replied, "May I suggest every 4 hours? That way any transmissions from us to the Jumper are kept to a bare minimum, and Teyla with Ronon here can have as much rack time as they can get so if they need to extract us in a hurry or come help us that they aren't bagged from staying up all night."

Sheppard agreed, "Okay, we can do that."

Felix continued; "Any voice between us is done at a very low voice, not a whisper. Whispers carry quite a distance at night. Also movement from here to the OP will be slow, obviously with me in the lead, and do pay attention to the hand signals you may see from me."

Sheppard replied, "All right."

Felix went on; "Next — just short of the actual OP we will be setting up a back area. This is where we will do any eating, drinking, nature calls, sorting of equipment, that sort of thing. Any movement will be slow and deliberate — slow keeps you alive in this instance. Plus, when we are walking to the OP, make sure you step in my footprints."

Sheppard asked, "Is that all?"

Felix looked down at the floor in thought for a moment and then replied, "Do you want to place the mini-cams, or do you want me to?"

Sheppard replied, "It would make sense for you to place them, seeing as how you know roughly where you want them to cover. I can get the computer set up while you are placing them."

Felix nodded and replied, "Okay, that works for me."

Sheppard looked around at his team and asked, "Any other points or questions from anyone? Okay then — lets do this."

Felix had one last thought, gross as it was but he felt it necessary to pass it on anyways; "If you two are going to have a nature call, I would recommend doing it before nightfall, due to the lights inside the Jumper. Have a good night and we'll see you in the morning." He un-slung his large rifle, took it off safe, and then nodded at Sheppard.

With that, Sheppard lowered the ramp and Felix stepped out first, checked around, and then motioned for his boss to follow behind to the OP. After Sheppard went down the ramp, Teyla raised it and locked, and then sat down to begin a long night.

Sheppard took note of how Felix held his weapon at the alert, always looking where his weapon was pointed, moving very slowly but surely. Sheppard had to look down continually to make sure his boots were stepping in his Sergeant's footprints as had been told for him to do.

It took them almost 15 minutes of walking slowly towards the proposed OP, Sheppard watching intently as Felix moved stealthily through the woods. Bushes and branches were moved carefully aside, lest they snap and make noise; feet were placed down on the ground carefully so as not to step on dried branches, twigs or leaves — as they would also make lots of unnecessary noise.

Finally after a sweat drenched almost nervous 15 minutes Felix signalled a short halt; Sheppard went to one knee and covered the area that he could see. Felix went ahead and slowly went down onto his belly, cradling his rifle carefully, and before Sheppard knew — Felix had basically vanished to the naked eye. About 6 minutes later Felix came back at a fast crawl and moved right up to Sheppard, and got to his knees. He put his mouth right up to Sheppard ear and said, "We'll make this area our hide for the night. You put your stuff there for now," he pointed to a large fir tree, "I'll show you the actual OP for tonight right now."

Sheppard placed his day pack at the base of the tree and then followed Felix down onto his knees up a small slope, and then onto his belly when Felix did right up to the OP. It was perfectly under a big spruce tree so they had some good overhead blending, and at night they would be invisible to the naked eye.