Chapter 11

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Heine Tokugawa

Two star Admiral, Commander of Task-force Churchill, 5’-4’’ tall, 118 pounds, 42 years old, short black hair, brown eyes, she has a temper as short as she is

Captain Chesapeake

Marine CO, 6’-3’’ tall, 235 pounds, 39 years old, very short black hair, gray eyes, a deep voice

Finding and obtaining the lease on an appropriate facility to house our unit and the Marine Company required ten days. Our Landing Party had returned to the Caribbean for a part of that time to rearrange the order in which our supplies and equipment would be unloaded because of the problems created by the unavailability of an adequate facility when we arrived.

During that time, we were shown videos of several prospective facilities, but none of them were adequate to accommodate both our unit and the Marines. Finally, after a week, we were shown a video of a facility that appeared to meet our requirements. We returned to the planet to check out the facility in person. Mr. Henshaw was again our guide. He had a woman with him whom he introduced as their real-estate agent, a Miss Woo. She was a short oriental female about 5’-2’’ tall but a bit thin at 105 pounds or so. She had brown eyes and short black hair. She appeared to be about 35 years old.

“This facility was difficult to obtain. The owner was not willing to lease it, but the government persuaded him to lease it while you are here,” she told us, but said little more while accompanying us.

The facility that we visited was located quite a ways out in the country and well away from the capital city. There was a village a few miles from the site. Other than that, it was surrounded by paddy fields that were separated by small patches of jungle or forest.

The facility itself appeared to have been a storage site with possibly other functions. There was a large warehouse, which Captain Rodeo assured us would be more than adequate for our needs as well as the Marines’. There was also what appeared to be a vehicle maintenance building along with a fueling station. Finally, there were two of what I can only describe as large multi-story barracks buildings. Greg Roanoke smiled on seeing them.

“Looks almost like home,” he said.

“Military barracks, you mean?” the Colonel asked.

“Very close to say the least, but I would want to see the insides,” he told her. These buildings were three stories tall. The bottom floor of one was open on all sides and was just a concrete slab. The two upper stories were the actual barracks where the troops would be setting up their bunks and foot lockers.

We got to inspect them immediately after that. The one building was just a barracks, but the other building held offices, plus a conference room on the lowest floor, and what could only be described as quarters for senior personnel as well as more barracks space and a large mess facility.

All of this was surrounded by a tall double chain-link fence that included a parking area sufficient for many vehicles. Outside of the fenced area there was a reasonably well paved runway a hundred yards away. Greg assured us that it was adequate for the Marines’ assault shuttles to land on but only one at a time. There were no maintenance facilities for shuttles.

“This facility appears to be adequate for our requirements. It’s also far enough from the city that an attack here won’t cause problems for those in the city. What about the village?” the Colonel asked.

“Those in the village work the fields here. They won’t bother you,” Miss Woo told us.

Later on the way back to the city, the Colonel had more to say. Again, we had separate transportation from Mr. Henshaw and Miss Woo.

“That place would appear to have been someone’s private army headquarters. It doesn’t appear to have been abandoned for long either,” the Colonel remarked. Greg and I agreed with her.

“I wonder where they are hiding them?” Greg asked.

“There is no way to tell, but we will need to keep an eye out for them,” the Colonel replied before adding, “We’ll need to sweep it thoroughly for listening devices.” The others on the Landing Team had said little during our inspection, and we hadn’t brought our Partners.

Three days later, we received word that we could take occupancy of the site and began downloading our equipment, supplies and personnel. Tiger Team was on the first shuttle that landed. We had brought most of the Magic users assigned to the unit with us.

On landing, we found there were several tractor trailers there waiting to move our cargo to the warehouse as well as forklifts at both the runway and the warehouse to help move everything. There was even a lowbed trailer to move our Partners’ mobile homes. It only required five days to unload our unit as there were plenty of shuttles available between those belonging to the Caribbean and civilian cargo shuttles.

The Captain of the Caribbean had been unhappy at the delay in unloading, as he had a schedule to keep, but he couldn’t depart until we were unloaded.

Also during the time we had been waiting, the Navy Task-force had arrived. Task-force Churchill consisted of the heavy Cruiser Churchill, two light cruisers, six destroyers, a hospital ship, and several supply ships. They had a reinforced Space Marine Company of six platoons. Four of the platoons would be assigned to us. The remaining two platoons would be on standby on the ships and would also be ready to intercept any unknown or questionable ships that arrived in the system.

The Task-force was commanded by a two star Admiral named Heine Tokugawa. She was a short feisty oriental woman. We were told that she had a temper as short as she was. She had apparently informed all of the Unity government people here plus those of the planetary government just how unhappy she was to learn on arriving that our unit wasn’t active yet. Trish and I were sure that she had been instrumental in the quick acquisition of our present facility. We definitely didn’t want to run afoul of her.

With the Navy Task-force already in orbit, we needed to get the unit up and, at least, minimally operational quickly. To do this, we had prioritized the unloading of the staff sections and the mess facilities first at the expense of our other equipment and some of the supplies. It was also necessary to get the Partners on the ground quickly along with their mobile homes and Human Partners. The remaining personnel plus the equipment and supplies would be brought down following that.

The plan was for the staff sections to have their equipment, electronics, and part of their personnel along with the mess section and a week’s worth of food to be brought in first. When the Marines arrived, they would need to bring their own food, as we didn’t have food for an extra 225 people.

The Teams, each with their mobile homes, would follow as quickly as possible. The ground Partners would be on security patrol inside the fence area, and the flying Partners would run security sweeps of the surrounding area. The first thing that we had done on arriving had been to have all of the Magic users with us cast wards around the compound in the area between the fences. The entry gate was open for moving our personnel, equipment and supplies during the day, or when shuttles were expected, but it was warded at night or when no shuttles were expected for a time. The buildings were also swept for listening devices by all of the Magic users.

Those of us on the ground first had field rations for our first few meals here. On seeing the kitchen here, Hershel was greatly disappointed, but we had brought all of our mess equipment with us, and he and the other cooks soon had it set up and were producing meals for all of us and even some for our Partners.

Thanks to the extra personnel that we now had to support the Teams that would be working away from our headquarters, we soon had things setup and were operational. The remainder of our equipment and supplies were unloaded at a less hectic pace.

Patrick Bell had also been among the first unloaded along with our power units. We didn’t want to depend on only the local power for our operations. He soon had our power units set up and ready to operate. He had even brought an extra power unit to help the away Teams if they needed power. It came in very handy in this large compound.

Not more than an hour had elapsed since the last of our supplies had arrived before we received a message from the Task-force now circling the planet.

“First Mobile Headquarters Team commo, this is Task-force Churchill commo. Are you prepared to receive messages? Over,” the people in our commo section heard.

“Task-force Churchill commo, this is First Mobile Headquarters Team commo. Send your message. Over,” they sent.

“First Mobile Headquarters Team commo, Task-force Churchill commo. Admiral Tokugawa sends: ‘When will you be ready to receive the Marine Company assigned to you for this operation?’ End of massage. Over.”

“Task-force Churchill commo, First Mobile Headquarters Team commo. Have good copy here. Will forward to our Commander for an answer. Out.”

Less than a minute later, Sergeant Dohla arrived in the S-3 where I was working.

“Sir, I have a message from Task-force Churchill. From the Admiral herself,” he told me before handing me the printed copy of the message.

“I’ll take this to the Colonel,” I told him after reading the message. “It may require some time before there is an answer, so stand by,” I told him. The Colonel actually had an office just down the hall from the combined S-2 / S-3. I knocked on her door.

“Come,” I heard and entered.

“We have a message from Admiral Tokugawa,” I told her and handed her the message.

“Get Roanoke while I read this,” she told me. Greg was just across the hall in a smaller office.

“We have a message from the Admiral,” I told him, and he followed me into the Colonel’s office. The Colonel handed him the message.

“She doesn’t wait long, does she?” he stated on reading it.

“Lord, we have just barely gotten everything down from the ship. What does she expect? Also, what will those Marines be bringing with them? We don’t have beds or other things for 225 extra people,” she told him.

“Admiral Tokugawa is known as a ‘hard charger’, and she expects others to be as ready as she is. I’ll try to get in touch with the Marines’ CO. With an entire company, they will have a supply section, and I should be able to find out what they have with them.

“That barracks certainly doesn’t have anything in it. When I checked it, it was bare. No bunks, no lockers, not even any trash. There is a spot behind both buildings where there had been a fire. It appears that they burned the trash and whatever they weren’t taking with them. It’s a wonder that they left the lights, faucets, and the toilets. That’s about all they did leave. Oh yes, there are a number of pegs in the walls between the windows. They may have been for hanging things on,” Greg finished.

“See what you can learn. I’ll get a hold of Captain Rodeo and see how much extra we have in the way of bedding and furniture,” the Colonel told him.

Greg was back in just over an hour or so. He had a small smile on his face.

“I talked to Captain Chesapeake, the Marine CO. He told me that they were in the middle of a change of station from the planet where they had been stationed for a number of years, when they were diverted for this mission. They have a number of shipping containers with all of their station equipment including beds, footlockers, a little furniture, weapon storage cabinets, and ammunition lockers. They also have a small operations section and a supply section. They brought their own cooks and their equipment also,” told us. The Colonel sighed in relief.