Chapter 8

The following new characters appear in this chapter and others:

SSG Hezekiah Niles

Staff Sergeant, Communication Supervisor and repairman, 5’-10’’ tall 165 lb, 39 years old, brown hair, blue eyes

Sgt Walker

Sergeant, mechanic, 5’-10’’ tall, 155 lb, 26 years old, short blond hair, blue eyes

SFC Elliott

Sergeant First Class, S-2 NCO, 5’-11’’, 190 lb, 38 years old, black hair, blue eyes

Sp 4 Warren

Specialist 4, clerk in S-2, 5’-10’’ tall, 155 lb, 22 years old, brown hair, blue eyes

SFC Platner

Sergeant First Class, S-3 NCO, 6’-0’’ tall, 200 lb, 39 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Sp 4 Scammell

Specialist 4, clerk in S-3, 5’-9’’ tall, 158 lb, 23 years old, blond hair, blue eyes

1Lt Hue

Senior Lieutenant, S-1 (Personnel), 5’-10’’ tall, 170 lb, 27 years old, black hair, brown eyes

Sp 5 Grill

Specialist 5, Finance clerk, 5’-11’’ tall, 180 lb, 29 years old, black hair, blue eyes

SSG Patrick Bell

Staff Sergeant, Power unit Repair Technician, 5’-9’’ tall, 155 pounds, 29 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

The influx of people over the last two weeks had quickly filled the majority of the slots in our organization. Fortunately, they were all good at the jobs they were assigned to. Sergeant Preetorius was as good a chef as any I had seen in the many restaurants where I had eaten on a number of planets. Sergeant Two Bears was a wonder of a supply sergeant, able to produce things needed in a short time. Sergeant Rivers, her assistant, was very capable also. I suspected that Two Bears always went armed, and that Mississippi had a floating crap game going somewhere. Still, they were very good at their jobs.

The others were also very competent at their jobs. However, they all suffered from one problem. They had little or no field experience. The Colonel and I were working on changing that.

Captain Mellifont had also been quite successful in obtaining permission for us to use an area some 25 miles outside the Headquarters area, where our Partners could exercise. Initially, we took only one Team’s Partners at a time out to this area to exercise, and for the other Team members to cross-train with them. This kept both Teams busy and accomplished the needed cross-training of both Teams. After ten days of that, we started taking all of both Teams out to exercise and train together. The first day was a bit tense, but they had become accustomed to each other. The competition between the Partners of both Teams was remarkable to see, as they each tried to outdo the other in games of hide and seek.

The Cougars could track nearly as well as the Tigers. The feathered Partners also could detect where any of the ground Partners could go. Team A-23’s Partners were more lively and interested in proving how good they were now that they were well fed and taken care of.

Shortly after this, we started working other members of the unit into the field exercises. We started with the radio operators and soon added the NCOs from the S-2 and S-3. The cooks would bring chow out to us when we spent the entire day in the field. We hadn’t done any night training yet, but I was preparing to get it on the training schedule shortly.

We had been operational for less than four weeks, when we received orders for an exercise that would involve the entire unit. We were somewhat shocked to receive these orders so soon after becoming operational, and they presented several problems.

“How are we supposed to get all of our people and their equipment into the field for this exercise which starts in ten days?” the Colonel asked on reading the orders, which had been delivered to her in her office by a courier.

“An excellent question, sir. I have no idea, but perhaps Sergeant Two Bears can shed some light on the situation. She seems to be very capable of coming up with what is needed,” I told her. The Colonel summoned the S-4 to her office following that.

“Luna, could I see you in my office? We seem to have a problem,” was how she phrased the call. Two Bears soon arrived.

“We have received orders to move the entire unit to the field in just under ten days for a one week period to be part of an exercise. Have you any idea of how we can accomplish that?” the Colonel asked her. Two Bears only smiled.

“Yes, sir. First, we’ll need to draw the field gear from storage and go over it after moving it here. Second, we need to put in a request to Transportation for sufficient vehicles to move the gear, supplies, and our personnel to the field and to return it and them after the exercise,” she told us.

“Field gear? What field gear? There wasn’t any listed in the TO&E,” the Colonel told her.

“That’s because they only sent you the part of TO&E that deals with on post activities. That’s because they never, or almost never, go to the field, so they don’t consider it important,” she told us with a smile.

“Obviously, you did though,” the Colonel said with a return smile.

“Yes, sir. The word ‘Mobile’ in the unit’s title was a dead giveaway,” she responded.

“It doesn’t appear that it was obvious to those at our headquarters,” the Colonel remarked in disgust.

“I’ll go over to the storage facility and check that everything is there, and then calculate how many vehicles will be required to move it, our personnel and supplies. How long do you expect to be in the field? I’ll need to order food and other items for it,” she concluded.

“The orders say the exercise is for one week, but I would figure being there one day before and another day following the exercise,” the Colonel told her.

“All right, I’ll order supplies for ten days in case there are any problems,” Two Bears told us.

“Do you have the field gear portion of the TO&E on your computer, and could you send it to me?” I asked her.

“Certainly, sir,” she assured me before leaving to get things moving.

On returning to S-3, I had a question for Sergeant Platner, the S-3 Operations Sergeant.

“Are you familiar with requesting vehicles from Transportation?” I asked.

“Yes sir. Where are they going and how many will be moved?” he asked. I brought out the orders for the exercise and handed them to him.

“Oh dear!” he said on reading them.

“That was our reaction also on reading them,” I told him. “Fortunately, the S-4 knew about the field gear that is assigned to us. She is checking on it now, and will advise us on how many vehicles will be required to transport it and us to the exercise area. She will be moving it here shortly, so we can go over it and make sure it is complete and in working order.

“The S-2 will need to prepare maps of the route and do a reconnaissance of the route and the assigned area to check for problems,” I told him and Luther, who had heard us talking and came over to see what was going on.

“We’ll need to print out maps of the route and the assigned area,” he told us and turned to address Sergeant Elliott, who would be the one to download the maps.

About that time, the printer in S-3 started printing out the field gear portion of our TO&E. There were twelve pages, all with a lot of lines of equipment on them.

“Scammell, make eight copies of these orders. Keep one copy for us and another for the S-2. I’ll distribute the others shortly,” I told the S-3 clerk.

“Luther, let’s look at this field gear list and see just how much of it we will need to take with us,” I told him, as Scammell made the copies of the orders.

Two Bears and Mississippi returned several hours later. She didn’t look happy when she reported to the Colonel.

“How bad is it?” the Colonel asked on seeing her face, before she could say anything. Two Bears exhaled heavily before speaking.

“All of that gear has been in storage for a long time,” she started. “I’m particularly worried about the power units and how effective they may be. We will need to move all of it to our warehouse and go over it. Most of it is in sealed boxes or containers, but everything is covered in dust,” she finished.

“Good lord! How old is it?” the Colonel asked.

“The dates on some of the containers are from thirty years ago, and those were the most recent ones,” she told us. The Colonel was not happy on hearing this.

Over the remainder of that day and the next, we managed to transfer everything from the storage location to our warehouse. All of the dust and other debris had been blown off of the boxes and containers before we moved them. On Wednesday, we began inspecting the contents of the boxes, crates, and containers to see what we actually had compared to what the TO&E said we should have. Sergeant Two Bears had warned us not to destroy any of the containers, as we would need them to return everything to storage, or to take it with us on a deployment.

We found a lot of field type office furniture; desks, chairs, and tables. Most of it was in good condition, as it was made from carbon fiber and aluminum tubing, which made it light individually, but collectively, it was quite heavy. It soon became apparent that we would need to take our existing computers, printers and communication gear with us to operate, as none of that was included in the stored material.

There was an entire mess section with stoves, ovens, pots, pans and dishes included. There were water heaters for washing everything. The water heaters would also supply hot water for the shower units included with the other equipment. There were also the modern equivalent of tents included. These were inflatable buildings which were erected with compressed air. Additionally, there were camouflage units to hide the buildings and vehicles that we had. Lastly, there were the power units. There were four of them. Two for the headquarters, one for the mess section, and the last for the quarters area. There were also light weight cots and air mattresses.

All of this material was present in quantities much larger than we presently required. We needed to separate what we needed for the exercise from what was available. All of that would still require a number of trucks to move it. Two Bears estimated that it would require nine additional trucks to move the equipment, our personnel and the necessary supplies for a week in the field. Additionally, she told us that we would need a separate refrigeration unit and its power supply to keep the food for our Partners in, as we wouldn’t be taking the portable cages with us.

With two Teams, this could present problems. While our feathered Partners could perch in the trees in the area, our four-legged Partners, the cats, would need to be kept separate while not on duty. We would need to determine how to do that. It had required three days to get everything checked out and to be sure that it was in good condition and serviceable. Even the mess personnel had been out in the warehouse to check out their equipment.

As Sergeant Two Bears had feared, the power units had problems and would need to be inspected and certified by competent maintenance personnel. One of them didn’t arrive until Monday of the second week. He didn’t look happy on inspecting the units. Patrick Bell, the power unit repair technician, was short for an enhanced member of Special Operations, being only about 5’-9’’ tall and maybe 155 pounds. He certainly knew his job very well, however.

“I’m going to have to replace all four of these power units, sir,” he told the Colonel after inspecting them. “They are way past the required maintenance dates and could be dangerous to operate.”

“How soon will we receive the replacements?” the Colonel asked.

“It will take at least two days to obtain them, sir, and possibly more,” he told her.

“That’s cutting things very close to our deployment for the exercise,” the Colonel observed.

“Are you participating in the upcoming exercise?” he asked in a surprised voice. “You weren’t on the list that we received,” he added.

“Yes, and we’ll need to leave shortly to get set up,” she confirmed.

“That’s different. There are a number of units that have been set aside for those participating in the exercise. With a little help, I can have four units here this afternoon,” he told us with a grin.

“What kind of help do you need?” I asked him.

“Just some help loading the units on my truck, and then unloading the new units when I return. Do you have someone to monitor the units while in the field?” he asked.

“Do we need someone?” the Colonel asked.

“It would be best to have someone familiar with them to check on how they are performing, since they have just been returned to service,” he told us.

“I don’t believe any of our people are trained for that,” the Colonel admitted.

“I’ll be glad to volunteer to accompany you and monitor the units while in the field,” he told us.

“That would be very nice of you, Sergeant,” the Colonel told him with a smile.

“Sir, I have been trying to figure out a way to go on this exercise since learning about it. Any of us would do anything to get out of the shop and the same old routine for a while, and actually do something besides work on power units all of the time,” he told us with a big smile.