Blue Plague: Sacrifice, page 21
When they opened the boxes, each one found a set of dog tags on a gold chain, one with Bruce’s name and one with the Ranger emblem and motto. Bruce gave each a hug and kiss then went to take a shower.
Debbie looked at Stephanie and Angela, “When a solder gives you his tags to wear, it’s like he is giving you his heart. I quit wearing Bruce’s tags when he got out of the Army, but they’re still in my jewelry box. It’s one of my most prized possessions,” Debbie informed them.
Angela and Stephanie put on their gifts, skipping around the bed. Debbie put hers on as well, and they climbed into bed. As Debbie drifted asleep she felt better than she had in a long time.
Saturday morning, Bruce woke up before everyone. After he dressed, he grabbed his gear and shin guards then headed to the armory with his new SCAR. Putting on his reflex sight, ACOG, grenade launcher and a forward grip, Bruce then headed to the range on a buggy and sighted everything in.
When Bruce finished, he went to the storage area that held the paintball equipment, the one Paul was having a stroke over. Bruce grabbed ten paintball masks then went to the next storage area where they had stored equipment from Polk. Looking around, he found what he was looking for, tactical helmets and tactical goggles. Bruce grabbed ten of each and threw them on the buggy.
Bruce took the equipment to the shop and laid it out on a table. With the start of pacification patrols Bruce was worried about contamination when they cleared buildings. Everyone who left the farm had to have on glasses and gloves but the fighting, Bruce felt, was fixing to get up close and personal on a regular basis. The goggles were similar to ski goggles but were more durable. Each goggle came with multiple lenses that could be put over the main clear one.
Grabbing a mask, Bruce took off the paintball goggles and replaced them with the tactical ones. Bruce went to the trailer that held the tactical gear, and took out nine more shin guard sets, and carried them back to the shop. Laying out the equipment, Bruce heard the door open and turned around to find Debbie, Stephanie, and Angela carrying food.
“Picnic?” Bruce questioned.
“No, baby. You didn’t make it to breakfast. You don’t take care of yourself, so it falls to us,” Debbie informed him as they set the food down on the table.
Laughing, Bruce replied jokingly, “Yes, I would’ve died long ago if I didn’t have someone babysitting me.”
“Yes, you would’ve,” Debbie stated, not joking.
“What are you doing Bruce?” Stephanie asked, looking at the equipment.
Motioning over at the equipment, Bruce replied, “Getting my patrols new gear ready. With us going into buildings to hunt the blues down, I want as much protection as I can think of.”
Debbie looked at the shin guards, “Those will not fit me, Angela, or Buffy,” she stated.
“I’m giving Buffy Danny’s shin guards that she used playing softball. You three will not need any for now,” Bruce informed them.
“May I ask why?” Debbie asked.
“Y’all distract me. I arrange the patrol to protect you and the objective. Now before any of you say anything, I don’t mean to. When I watched my helmet cam’s video, I noticed it,” Bruce answered.
Debbie smiled, “I did notice that but didn’t say anything. With the battle going on, you were barking out orders, and I knew it was purely reaction.”
“Later, I will take one of you at a time,” Bruce announced.
“We can go out on other patrols,” Debbie advised.
“Absolutely not!” Bruce commanded.
“That could be viewed as favoritism,” Debbie pointed out.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass! My girls go out with me and me alone!” Bruce bellowed. Just the thought of them going out without him pissed Bruce off.
“Okay Bruce, calm down. The only reason I’m agreeing to this is because it puts you and the rest of the team in danger, but don’t think we can’t handle ourselves,” Debbie said smiling.
Bruce cocked his head to the side. “I know that baby. You are a bad ass, and Angela and Stephanie are coming along well in their training. Will you please have a talk with Stephanie about reciting what the book says when I’m trying to teach her and the others?” he pleaded.
“I’m right here,” Stephanie said, putting her hands on her hips.
Debbie ignored her as she replied, “Bruce, she does the same thing to me and Danny when we teach her hand to hand. If I remember correctly, you were the one who told her to read the books.”
“Hey guys, I can hear you,” Stephanie responded.
Ignoring Stephanie, Bruce said, “Debbie, will you please tell her the books are only guide-lines and what we are teaching is application.”
Stephanie stepped between them, putting her hands on each of their chests, “Hello guys, it’s me.”
“We know you’re here, Stephanie. Will you please stop reciting verbatim what the book says? Both Debbie and I have read them but we’re teaching you how it really works for us. As you progress you’ll find out what works for you,” Bruce said looking at her.
“All you had to do was ask me to stop,” Stephanie said.
“I did,” Bruce and Debbie said at the same time.
Stephanie just looked from Debbie to Bruce. Debbie smiled, “Stephanie, you take what comes out of books as gospel. Just listen and question us later,” Debbie told her.
“I can question each of you later, right?” Stephanie asked, causing Angela to laugh and snort.
“Yes. Not during,” Bruce replied as Stephanie nodded her head in agreement.
Bruce hugged her then keyed his radio, “Attention this is Big Daddy One. The following people need to report to the shop: Ted, Carl, David, Buffy, Danny, Jake, Conner and Steve. If you have one of those names that I called, you know if I mean you or not.”
“Subtle, but effective, Bruce,” Angela replied.
“With this many people, I know there are others with the same names. That just cuts through the chase,” Bruce replied. Looking at the three, Bruce continued, “I want to start committees up in the clan. One for moral, like what can we do to make it better. One to monitor the barracks. For that one, I want each barrack to choose its person in charge. They are to report to a person on the command group. Also, we are fixing to train. If you want to join, get your gear.”
Each of them nodded and left to get their gear as the first of the group started showing up. Within ten minutes, the entire group was there. Bruce looked at Ted and Carl and asked, “Do either of you know another good soldier? We’re one short.”
Ted nodded and replied, “Kenny Myers, he’s airborne and is pretty good.”
“Do you know where he is?” Bruce asked.
“In the west field, guarding the workers putting in the fuel tanks,” Carl replied.
Bruce keyed his radio, “This is Big Daddy One, I need a replacement guard in the west field for Kenny Myers now, and I need him in the shop in five minutes.”
Four minutes later a stocky man in his mid-twenties came bursting through the door, breathing hard. Bruce stared at Kenny as he joined the group and stated, “Okay everyone. From now on this is Omega team. We’re going to start hunting the blues down and will be the primary strike team for the clan. We will be the tip of the spear. With that being said, does anyone not want to be on this team? There will be no repercussions if you don’t want to be on it.” Bruce looked at everyone, seeing if anyone wanted to leave. When no one left, Bruce continued.
“On this table is gear you’ll wear. I’m replacing the glasses with goggles which will be worn unless I say otherwise. From now on, I want ballistic plates in all tactical vests,” he told them, getting a lot of groans. “Danny, go get the black shin guards you used to wear playing softball. Everyone else get your gear off the table. Until I make a second team, you are to have your gear next to you at all times, at least in a pack. We are going to work on room clearance and reaction drills today. Tuesday we go to war and get some,” Bruce announced as Danny hit the door in a dead run.
As the team was putting on its equipment, Bruce went to get Kenny a tactical vest and gloves. Walking back inside, Bruce saw Danny putting her old shin guards on Buffy. Bruce handed Kenny his equipment and moved back to the front of the group.
“Now as far as weapons, everyone except Buffy, David, and Steve will have a grenade launcher. Buffy, when you can handle the extra weight you’ll carry one. Steve and David you’ll carry SAWs. Everyone will carry a sub machine gun, except Jake, who will carry a sniper rifle. Danny, you have to trade in your Galil for an M-4 or a SCAR, your choice. Everyone will carry a pistol, and it will be a .45 or 9mm. Everything will be suppressed, no exceptions. From now on, the Strykers will have drivers and gunners, so we just have to go and kill stuff. Look at my vest set up, I’m ammo heavy just as you should be. I have twenty four magazines on my vest for primary, four for my pistol, four for my P-90, four hand grenades, one flash bang and eight rounds for my grenade launcher. Now, those that need weapons follow me. Those that need extra pouches for you vest follow Danny. We meet at the range in one hour,” Bruce said, grabbing his helmet and leaving.
Jake moved forward, “Dad, the tactical vests we wear are bullet resistant to level three. Why the plates?” he asked.
“Sooner or later, we are going to fight others that shoot back with high powered weapons. Level three only stops pistol,” Bruce said, heading for the door.
Everyone followed Bruce to the armory, including Danny. Bruce told Danny to go upstairs and get Little SCAR out of his room. The rest of the team chose M-4A1’s with M-203’s and MP-7’s. Side arms are where everyone took something different but all were either 45 or 9mm and could take a suppressor. Joe and Harry had made suppressors for M-4s like they made for Bruce’s SCAR. It slid over the barrel almost to the hand guard before you screwed it on, only adding two inches to the overall length to the barrel.
As they grabbed their weapons, they ran off to join Danny in the equipment supply room in storage area four. At 1000, the team was on the range, sighting in weapons as the trio showed up to join. After they were finished, Bruce formed up a patrol line, making Max stay beside him. Then they assaulted the barn, scaring the shit out of the pilots and the class they were teaching. Next they stormed the hall, then the house. By then word had spread so they were not giving people heart attacks.
Bruce led the team back to the hall for lunch, stopping them out front. “That was fair,” Bruce lied. The team had done awesome. “I want micro cams on everyone after lunch. From now on, they are to stay on you. Jake, take care of it. Weapons cleaned and we start up after we eat,” Bruce said, walking into the hall.
Since his weapons were already cleaned, Bruce sat down and waited on lunch. Mike came in and walked over to Bruce. “Hey! Y’all almost gave us a heart attack, storming the room like that while I was in the simulator. You made me crash!” Mike shouted.
“Sorry dude, we were working on entry techniques,” Bruce replied as the trio: Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie, came over and sat down.
“Brother, you have a radio. Let others know,” Mike commanded as he turned around and headed to his seat.
“Be glad they didn’t use a flash bang because several people wanted to,” Angela stated, looking at Stephanie.
“It says to flash bang before entry in the books Bruce gave to me,” Stephanie replied defending her request to use a flash bang.
“If you would’ve flash banged us, I would have shit a purple Twinkie and died on the spot,” Mike declared, looking at Stephanie.
“Along with Max,” Bruce added.
“Well, you would’ve been distracted,” Stephanie pointed out as Mike put his hands over his face and shook his head.
Bruce laughed, asking Mike, “How are your lessons coming?”
“Pretty good. My first flight is scheduled January 12,” Mike replied with a smirk.
“Mine is scheduled for the 6th,” Bruce informed Mike, who lost his smirk.
“I’ll find something that I can beat you at,” Mike replied with determination.
“Call of duty tonight?” Bruce challenged.
“You’re so dead,” Mike predicted.
Bruce laughed, but he had a strange feeling he was going to get his ass kicked tonight. “Mike, I want you to build a ten man team for a second strike team. Name it whatever you want except Omega. That’s my team,” Bruce instructed.
“Why didn’t you name it alpha?” Mike inquired.
“I refuse to have my team referred to as the ‘A-team’,” Bruce replied and Mike nodded in understanding.
“Okay, my team will be Gamma,” Mike announced proudly.
Bruce laughed as lunch was served. After lunch he told Mike to let the command group know there’s a meeting at 1600. Omega team, with the trio, worked until 1600 on tactics then Bruce let them go and headed into the house.
Walking into the game room, Bruce saw most of the command group was already there. He started taking off his equipment and dropped down in his chair. Looking over as Debbie, Angela and Stephanie collapsed on the couch, Bruce grinned. “Well, what do you guys think of the team?” Bruce asked them.
Debbie looked at Bruce, “Well I have to say your new friends are good, but I wish they would lose some of that insanity streak. One psycho ranger running around here is enough,” she stated, putting her feet up on the table.
Bruce grinned even bigger while the rest of the command group came in. Once everyone was seated, Bruce stood up. “Everyone, I wanted to go over some things real quick because we cut the last meeting short for Christmas. Are all the new supply bunkers full?” Bruce asked.
“No, only one through eleven, and eleven is only half full. The rest are empty,” Stephanie replied.
“Leave them empty. We are going to east Texas to the military supply depot. They store large amounts of ammo there. No weapons, but a shit load of ammo,” Bruce informed the group.
“Bruce, it was sixty degrees outside today. We can’t risk heading there now. We go by too many large cities,” Mike said from his chair.
“We aren’t going now but when we have another cold spell. Omega team is going hunting starting Tuesday, and I don’t want to disappoint the team,” Bruce replied with a cocky attitude. This caused Mike to start rubbing his temples in an attempt to stop the impending headache.
“Bruce, please don’t start going crazy,” Mike pleaded.
“I’m not. We’re going to wipe out every blue in a fifty mile radius of the farm. Jake and Matt, show them what I’m talking about,” Bruce replied pointing at the two.
Matt stood up, walking over to the map hanging over the fireplace. “We have found several packs around us. The closest is ten miles to the southeast, holding up in a barn. Then in several small villages we have found more packs holding up. Since the weather has warmed up, they are moving around again,” Matt stated, pointing at the map.
“What are the average sizes of the packs?” Willie asked.
“Twenty to thirty, in most cases. Some are larger. Only a few are smaller,” Jake replied, standing up and walking over to the map.
“How many packs have you found so far?” Stephanie inquired.
“Sixty-two so far but we are finding more every day,” Jake replied.
Paul looked at Bruce in disbelief, “So with your ten man team, you’re going out to hunt down thousands of blues?” Paul asked.
“No. We’re going to wipe them out,” Bruce corrected as everyone just stared at him. Bruce returned the stare as he explained, “We can’t risk them forming up in a mob to hit us, so we are going to hunt them down while the other patrols bring in the survivors that have been located.”
“Bruce, we will need to have another stand by team ready to back you up. One stand by team can’t cover both an assault team and rescue team,” Willie pointed out.
“No, an assault team would never reach us in time, and it would be a waste of man power,” Bruce replied, making everyone nervous.
Willie stood up and looked at Bruce, “You yourself have said there are 400,000 in Shreveport. Are you going after them as well?” he demanded.
“No, we don’t have the ammo, which is why we are going to east Texas when it turns cold again. Then I have to account for the fact that we don’t have the trained man power for that undertaking. Next winter, though, will be a different story,” Bruce answered with conviction.
“So what difference will killing the few thousand around here make now?” Willie asked.
“Okay, here is my battle plan. I want to create a fifty mile radius around us that is cleared out of blues. As we have been watching them, they are getting smarter still. Jake has video footage where a lone blue found a field of cows, then went back to gather his pack. That pack merged with another pack and in a combined force, they attacked the cows. I really don’t want one to see us and go and tattle to any other blues,” Bruce answered as Willie sat back down.
“Bruce, we have UAV’s up at all times, the big ones and the little ones. We see any that come close and kill all that come within three miles of the farm,” Mike replied, still rubbing his temples.
“It only takes one,” Bruce replied looking at Mike. “This year we are going to work on the fifty mile safety zone. Next winter we will push that out to a hundred. With a hundred mile zone around us we can live without the constant fear of being overrun.”
“Then what? Go out fifty miles every year?” Mike asked, getting a little worried.
“No, that will be our border. Anything that comes into it that is not a friend will be slaughtered,” Bruce responded as Mike started rubbing his temples again.
“Bruce-,” Mike started, but Bruce cut him off.
“Mike, with that much area around us, we will be able to engage threats in a location of our choosing. If it is a gang of marauders, we can fight them without having to worry about blues showing up to a party they weren’t invited to,” Bruce pointed out.
