~ * ~ * ~ * ~
I woke up to the sound of thunder echoing across the Caribbean Sea. The drumming of the heavy rain was loud on the roof over my head. It sounded like a monsoon had hit us. After showering I walked out to the covered porch to observe the downpour. Half of our team was already there watching. Lightning flashed across the sky in a jagged line, bright in the early morning light.
“Good morning LT, it looks like it’d be a good day to sleep in,” the senior chief observed as he looked across the bay in the direction of Montego.
“How long is it supposed to last? We have Red Dog coming in this morning and hopefully our arms shipment will get here too,” I said.
“The weatherman said it should be all over with by mid morning,” the chief informed me.
Karen handed me a cup of steaming coffee and kissed me. “Good morning honey,” Karen said.
“Good morning babe,” I returned. “It feels like a good morning for bacon and eggs. Let’s head on over to the mess hall for breakfast and we’ll have our morning meeting there,” I said as I looked at the gloomy early morning sky.
The sidewalk from the housing unit to the mess hall was covered for days like this. We tried to cover every contingency when we designed and built our infrastructure.
I stuck my head in the doorway of the galley and told the cooks to make bacon and eggs for everyone. The group sat and small talked until breakfast arrived. It didn’t pay to try to conduct a meeting before the team was fed. Once breakfast was over and everyone had refilled their coffee cups we were ready to begin.
“Sam, how is the helicopter work coming along? Has the joy stick been replaced?” I asked.
“The joy stick is in the helicopter. Brady has to take it for a flight check to make sure it’s as responsive as he wants it to be. There are some adjustments that can be made to it. The FLIR (forward looking infra red camera) and the Gatling gun are attached to the forward underside of the helicopter. I’ve patched the fiberglass around the two I beams and just need to air brush the new fiberglass so it blends in with the helicopters color scheme.”
“Good, thanks Sam you did a great job as always,” I complimented our resident machinist/gun smith. “Can you work with Chief York now? He wants enclosures built to go around the Gatling guns on the Sea Eagle to protect them from salt spray.”
“Sure no problem,” Sam said looking over to where Chief York was sitting. “I just need to pick-up some things I left in the helicopter and put them away and then I’ll be ready to help you out Bob.”
“Brian is all of the electronics wired in on the helicopter?” I asked our computer tech.
“All I have left to do is test the systems out. If everything works the way it’s supposed to on the first try I should be done in only a few hours.”
“When you’re done with that I have a big job for you to do. I need you to help Chief York’s weapons tech wire everything up for the Gatling guns and the missile system. That’s going to be a big job and will probably take you a couple of weeks to get done.”
“We’ll need to have the equipment bolted down in the new CIC so it can’t move around. If we place it where we need it maybe we can get the guys doing construction onboard to take care of that for us. It’ll save us some time and allow us to concentrate on the wiring.”
“Good thinking, I’ll talk to the engineers on the Sea Eagle about that,” I replied.
“Bill is the communications center up and running? I asked.
“Everything has been installed and checked out. Brian’s computer lab part of the center is up and operational too. The satellite dishes and antennas arrays have all been calibrated and test messages have been sent and received.”
“Good job, you still have the message center onboard the Sea Eagle to calibrate but before you do that I have another job that needs to be done first.”
“What have you got for me?” Bill asked.
“I want you to man Brian’s computer and research our mission. I want to know everything possible about El Diablo and his fortress. I want to know as much as you can find out about the daily activities in and around the fortress. When you’re done I need to know its defenses, the number of defender we can expect and its armament.”
“I’ll do what I can LT. I know my way around computers but I’m not as good at it as Brian is,” Bill admitted.
“You’ll do fine,” I said confidently. “Karen, your report is next.”
“Doc and I went over the supplies we had and the ones we were still waiting on. Doc found some things we needed in order to treat wounds in the field I didn’t know about, powders that are dowsed over the wounds to prevent infections from forming and battle dressings to name just a couple. Oh and I did find an ego sized band aid and have it on order,” Karen said laughing.
The entire group was laughing good naturedly at Doc. “It’ll never stick,” Doc threw in.
“We ordered a lot of stuff from Rusty yesterday. Sonar for the Sea Eagle, and more small arms, M60 machine guns grenades and launchers body armor to name just a part of the list. Brady your rocket pod should be in that shipment too. We should have it tomorrow or the next day at the latest. Red Dog should be here this morning too and I expect his security force to start arriving right behind him.”
“Danny are the workmen done below decks?” I asked.
“They were just picking up their mess at the end of the day yesterday. The painters need to get into the compartments now and paint everything.”
“Good, things are getting done. Our houses should be done in the next couple of weeks. The painters are in them now painting them the colors we asked for. After that the furniture and appliances will be arriving.”
“Brady, why don’t you and Patch try out the new joy stick? Make sure you take it easy just in case you have a malfunction.”
“We’re on it LT,” Brady answered.
“Scott and Dave, as soon as the arms shipment comes in I want you to clean and sight in all of the new weapons. Use the second hill for a back drop. Make sure you clean and test fire the M60 machine guns too.”
“We’ll take care of it LT,” Dave assured me.
“If there is nothing else the meeting is over, let’s get to work people,” I said pushing back my chair.