Chapter 8

Cleve has the Narrative Again

The following new character appears in this chapter:

Desjardin, Della

Captain, Finance and contracting officer, 5’-6’’ tall, 140 pounds, 32 years old, Black hair and brown eyes, a very feisty woman

The following character reappears from previous stories:

Patrick Bell

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

MSG Elliott

Master Sergeant, S-2 NCO, 5’-11’’, 190 lb,, 39 years old, black hair, blue eyes

Dohla, Eliasa

Sergeant, radio operator, 5’-10’’ tall, 160 pounds, 26 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, partly enhanced

I had planned to have a field exercise for the entire unit on completion of the field and cross-training for the Partners. Everyone in the unit was aware of the exercise. Transportation had been laid on and supplies had been ordered and had begun arriving. We had even requested that Sergeant Patrick Bell, the Power Unit Repair Technician, be loaned to us for the exercise. He had been with us on Parthas and is a very able and dependable individual. He arrived two days before we were scheduled to begin the exercise.

“It’s a good thing that you requested me early, sir,” he told the Colonel and me on arriving.

“The Headquarters is having another field exercise. However, they never requested the help of any Power Technicians for the field; only that we check their Power Units. We’ve been doing that for the past three weeks. It wasn’t until a few days ago that they remembered or realized the problems they had the last time they were in the field and requested that three Technicians and their vehicles be assigned to the exercise.

“Of course, I was already committed to you, and three more Technicians just about cleaned out the shop leaving only one man to do the repairs or take care of any problems. Even our boss is going to the field at the request of Colonel Royal. I’d heard tales of what a disaster the previous field exercise of the headquarters had been from those who accompanied them. Thanks for keeping me out of this one,” Bell finished with a grin.

We, that is First Mobile Headquarters Team, had not been aware of the new exercise our Headquarters was conducting. We certainly hadn’t been alerted to participate in it. After Sergeant Bell left to get set up in a room while here, I turned to look at the Colonel.

“Have you heard anything about this, sir?” I asked her.

“Not a word. Not even a peep, but I suspect that was on purpose. They, that is the staff, weren’t happy with what we put them through on the first exercise, so it is understandable that they wouldn’t ask us back,” she said with a smile. “Especially since we now have four Teams,” she added.

“I wonder who they got to be the aggressors, or if they are doing without any this time?” I asked, as we hadn’t heard anything at all.

Later that afternoon, we received a couple of unannounced visitors. They came looking specifically for me. I didn’t recognize their names but went to see them in the conference room. They turned out to be a couple of Master Sergeants, Team Leaders, that I had seen around the NCO Club between assignments at various times. It appeared that they had walked here from wherever they and their Teams were billeted. They had been very circumspect when approaching our building and asking for me.

“What can I do for you gentlemen?” I asked on joining them.

“Sir, we understand that you led the aggressor teams on the previous headquarters exercise. Our Teams have been assigned the mission this time. At our briefing, the Major giving it was very critical of how it was handled on the previous exercise and made a point several times that they didn’t want anything like that this time,” the first Team Leader told me.

“Among the Teams, the word is that you and your people and Partners really raised hell with them, and that they never figured out how you did it,” the second Team Leader told me.

“Can you give us any idea of what you did that was so successful?” they both asked. I smiled like a Cheshire Cat.

“If you gentleman have a few minutes, I’d like to call in the other members of Tiger Team, and we’ll go over just what we did and how we did it,” I told them. They had the time, and the four of us related what we had done, and how we had done it, on the previous exercise. While neither Team Leader laughed at what they heard, they grinned the entire time that we spent with them. I won’t say that they snuck away from our headquarters building, but they were very careful not to be seen leaving.

“I believe the headquarters staff won’t be any happier with them than they were with us,” Trish said in her office after they were gone.

“Yes,” I agreed but raised a concern. “Does the headquarters staff have anything planned for us while we are on our exercise?” I continued in a serious voice.

“Who could they get?” Trish asked.

“There are a number of experienced Teams out there. Some of them may be even better than we are. Those in the headquarters would know who they are and where they are,” I reminded her. Trish had a thoughtful expression on her face for several minutes.

“This puts an entirely new light on our exercise,” she said shortly. “Instead of creating things for the Teams to do, we will need to have the Teams conducting security sweeps of the area around our camp. Cleve, round up the S-2 and the S-3 sections plus Kanisha, and anyone else you think we need to bring in to discuss this. We need to set this up before we leave for the field, and we don’t have a lot of time,” she told me.

I collected all of the section leaders plus the XO and senior NCOs from S-2 and S-3. I also brought in the Team Leaders from the other Teams. We met in the conference room about 40 minutes later.

During the meeting, the Colonel and I outlined the meeting we had with the visiting Team Leaders and then our suspicions of the possible actions that those on the headquarters staff could have taken. Nothing was known at the time, but it was better to be prepared than to be caught flat footed and to be embarrassed.

Luther and MSG Elliott, the S-2 NCO, said that they would quickly check on which Teams were presently on planet and what they were doing. MSG Platner, the S-3 NCO and I would work up new Team assignments and have them ready by tomorrow afternoon. The Team Leaders were warned to expect these changes and to alert their people and their Partners.

“We don’t have a lot of time to get this set up, so everyone alert your people and recheck all of your gear. We’ll want all of the Magic users at the meeting tomorrow,” the Colonel told us before closing the meeting. The entire unit was up late that night making preparations. They were up late enough that we canceled PT in the morning so everyone could get enough sleep.

The conference room was full the next afternoon for the staff meeting. Each staff member reported on their readiness and what extra precautions they had set up in case of trouble. Luther then went over what he and MSG Elliott had learned, which wasn’t a lot. It seemed that the usual sources were very quiet presently. This added to our suspicion that something was afoot. Sergeant Platner and I went over the changes in the patrol schedule for the Teams and their Partners. Miranda went over what the Magic users would be doing to secure the camp site. She included all of Tiger Team in with the Magic users, as we all have powerful Talents and Magic. The Colonel thanked everyone for their prompt action in view of this possible new threat.

Following the staff meeting, everyone went to check that all of their people, Partners, and material were ready to move out tomorrow. Lights out was early that night, but there was a Team on watch all night. Each Team had an assigned time to be awake and on guard. There were now sufficient Partners that they each only needed to be on duty for an hour or so. The Magic users had also cast wards around the building and the parking lot. The Eagles and the Falcons had made reconnaissance flights before sundown around our area. We were definitely on edge.

In the morning, we were up early, had breakfast, and were prepared to load up as soon as the trucks arrived. The night had been very quiet, and the Partners hadn’t detected anyone or anything out of the ordinary. We crossed the IP (Initial Point) right at 1000 hrs. but were prepared for any type of ambush along the way to our camp site. The Magic users were spread out through the convoy as a precaution.

It required two and a half hours to reach our camp site, as it was a different one than we had used previously. Nothing occurred on the trip out, and the area was clear when the Partners checked it on arriving. We moved into the area and set up operations fairly quickly. The Magic users set up wards around the area soon after we had moved into it. The Partners started patrols soon after that, and the Eagles and Falcons made surveillance flights also. Again, nothing was found out of the ordinary.

“Maybe, we are reading more into this than there actually is,” the Colonel said when I reported the results of the patrols and the flights to her later that afternoon.

“Maybe or maybe not. It won’t hurt to be careful, and this will be a more realistic exercise than the one that we had planned originally,” I told her to a smile from her.

Over the next couple of days, things remained quiet in our area. The Partners made regular patrols around our camp site and for a mile or more beyond it. The Eagles and Falcons made surveillance flights on an irregular schedule in case anyone was watching us and timing the flights. Nothing out of the ordinary was observed, but we were able to get in more realistic cross training for everyone on the teams. Our other personnel were able to train on different jobs also.

On the morning of our third day in the field, Special Operations Headquarters started their field exercise. While we had no idea when they were to begin their exercise, we had our commo section listen on the frequencies that they had used previously for any traffic. There wasn’t much to hear until noon time.

“We think they are finally moving out, sir,” Specialist Franks informed us just before noon. “At least, there is chatter on the frequencies they used before,” he added before leaving.

“Joel, let’s see what we can get from the satellites. Maybe we can see where they are going,” I told him, as we still had no idea where they would be setting up their camp, since we had heard nothing from them. The satellite views of the headquarters and its surrounding area showed a number of convoys in the process of forming up, but only a small number of vehicles actually moving out at this time.

“Are they just getting started?” Joel asked, somewhat surprised.

“It certainly appears that way,” I remarked. Since we didn’t know their actual start time, there was no way to know if they were on time or late starting.

An hour later, Sergeant Dohla advised us that part of their convoy had been ambushed and piped the sound to us in the S-3. All we could make out was confusion and the sound of weapons firing. A check of the satellite pictures showed a small convoy stopped, but that was all that we could see.

Later that day, we were able to get pictures of where they had set up the headquarters in the field. It appeared to be similar to what they had done on the previous exercise.

“Where are they?” I asked, and Joel downloaded the GPS coordinates. They were some 25 miles from us according to the maps. It was after sundown before all of the headquarters elements had arrived at their camp site. Many were still setting up as darkness fell. We were still continuing the routine that we had set up as far as patrols and surveillance flights went.

On the afternoon of our fifth day in the field things began to pick up. Thyne Midthunnder alerted us to something that Chet the Eagle had discovered. Joel and I quickly went to join her.

“What do you have?” Joel whispered to her as she was busy with Chet. It took her a few seconds to answer.

“Chet found something about a mile or so south of our perimeter. I’ve moved him away from it for now, but he can return shortly to look at it again. It appears to be a vehicle under some camouflage material. He sent that it doesn’t look natural to him, but I couldn’t see a lot on normal video,” she told us.