Post by Capt. Mackenzie Wagner, RN on Jul 19, 2017 0:40:15 GMT -5
Aboard HMS Liverpool
As she rested on her rack in the captain's quarters of HMS Liverpool, her head resting Commander Wagner looked over towards the porthole; out in the distance she could see the waves gently crashing as the destroyer thrust its way through the ocean waters that made their way between the Hawaiian Islands...also known at one time as the Sandwich Islands, Wagner humorously mused as she remembered the little historical tidbit. Unfortunately, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, it also reminded her that she was hungry- several hours on Condition One alert will do that, she thought as she got back up from the bed.
Switching out No.4 working uniforms - and after taking a moment to bag up all her laundry for the past two weeks - Wagner stopped a moment to fix her uniform; as she did, she thought about Lindsay for several moments and closed her eyes, wishing Lindsay were there with her instead of ashore. Opening her eyes after a few moments more of thoughts about her and Lindsay - some of a military nature, others, not so much - Commander Wagner picked her laundry bag up, slung it over her shoulder and stepped outside, making sure to let both the bridge and CIC know where she was headed - namely, first to the laundry and then to the galley to eat a quick lunch before heading back up to the bridge....
West of Landing Site Bravo, Molokai Island
Walking along one side of the road as the combined Anglo-Russian force made its' way west, Major Gerrard kept his eyes on a swivel, his SA80 at the ready; along both sides of the dirt/gravel road (and that was being generous) soldiers from both 8 Rifles and their Spetznaz counterparts were equally on guard; having gone through three small villages and having found no sign of survivors, undead, bandits...nothing, he was almost tempted to turn them around when Captain Chernova asked, "Major, have either you or your commanding officer considered the possibility of a hostile presence on these islands, or even just the one we're on? Strength in numbers works for hunting the dead, otherwise, we're a very large and vulnerable target. Perhaps before we move in any capacity, we should find out what we're dealing with."
It was a solid question, he thought; whispering back to her as they continued along, he said, "The original plan was to first secure four positions on the island - one at the beach, one at the road junction and one at both Mauna Loa and at Mauna Loa airport." (Unbeknownst to either of them, the situation at the airport was beginning to go south) The reason: most of the population on Molokai live in the eastern 3/4th's of the island and both Commander Wagner and Corporal Blackthorn wanted the western end of Molokai Island secured first.
"Ultimately, though, the reason for the show of force here is just that: a show of force; for that, you need as large a force as possible--" Before he could finish, the sounds of mortar rounds could be heard; without waiting, Gerrard yelled, "Get down! Get down!" as everyone got flat to the ground, the rounds exploding nearby but otherwise not doing anything more than kicking up small mushroom clouds of dust and dirt. "Okay, scratch the first part of what I said, Captain," Gerrard said with an almost joking gallows-humor manner of speaking. Getting to a kneeling position, he got hold of Landing Site Bravo to see if they could spot where the rounds were coming from. "5-8, this is Bravo," came the reply, "there's two man-portable 60mm mortars firing at your position, about 600 meters due west."
That's right on top of us, Gerrard noted; it wasn't an infantryman's hyperbole either as most 60mm mortars had a range of 3800-4000 meters; 600 meters pretty much meant two things....one, that the rounds are arcing in an almost-straight up arc to them and two, they were likely firing blind, which meant there was a spotter nearby. After a quick back-and-forth between Gerrard and both Bravo and HMS Liverpool, he set the radio handset down and thought, Looks like we're doing this the hard way. ....
Motioning his fireteam leaders over, Gerrard quickly went over his plan for dealing with the threat in front of them. "We're going to play anvil and hammer; here's the plan. The mortar - or mortars - are about 600 meters west of us; given the range, they're likely firing from a defilade position but with the way those rounds are creeping nearer to us, they've got a spotter somewhere close by, so what we're going to do is split up.
"My Rifles will proceed towards the northwest, hopefully drawing the mortars fire towards us; at the same time, I want Captain Chernova's section to get in behind them. My guess is that, if this works, they'll be too busy dealing with us to notice the Grim Reaper behind them and by the time they do notice, they won't be to do anything. In the meantime, we should have helicopter support in the next ten minutes, but I'm not waiting; I want the threat dealt with so that we can finish patrolling this end of the island and rejoin the others to the east. Any questions...any thoughts?" After looking around, he added, "Alright, let's move out," and headed out to the northwest, his Rifles right behind him...
As she rested on her rack in the captain's quarters of HMS Liverpool, her head resting Commander Wagner looked over towards the porthole; out in the distance she could see the waves gently crashing as the destroyer thrust its way through the ocean waters that made their way between the Hawaiian Islands...also known at one time as the Sandwich Islands, Wagner humorously mused as she remembered the little historical tidbit. Unfortunately, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, it also reminded her that she was hungry- several hours on Condition One alert will do that, she thought as she got back up from the bed.
Switching out No.4 working uniforms - and after taking a moment to bag up all her laundry for the past two weeks - Wagner stopped a moment to fix her uniform; as she did, she thought about Lindsay for several moments and closed her eyes, wishing Lindsay were there with her instead of ashore. Opening her eyes after a few moments more of thoughts about her and Lindsay - some of a military nature, others, not so much - Commander Wagner picked her laundry bag up, slung it over her shoulder and stepped outside, making sure to let both the bridge and CIC know where she was headed - namely, first to the laundry and then to the galley to eat a quick lunch before heading back up to the bridge....
West of Landing Site Bravo, Molokai Island
Walking along one side of the road as the combined Anglo-Russian force made its' way west, Major Gerrard kept his eyes on a swivel, his SA80 at the ready; along both sides of the dirt/gravel road (and that was being generous) soldiers from both 8 Rifles and their Spetznaz counterparts were equally on guard; having gone through three small villages and having found no sign of survivors, undead, bandits...nothing, he was almost tempted to turn them around when Captain Chernova asked, "Major, have either you or your commanding officer considered the possibility of a hostile presence on these islands, or even just the one we're on? Strength in numbers works for hunting the dead, otherwise, we're a very large and vulnerable target. Perhaps before we move in any capacity, we should find out what we're dealing with."
It was a solid question, he thought; whispering back to her as they continued along, he said, "The original plan was to first secure four positions on the island - one at the beach, one at the road junction and one at both Mauna Loa and at Mauna Loa airport." (Unbeknownst to either of them, the situation at the airport was beginning to go south) The reason: most of the population on Molokai live in the eastern 3/4th's of the island and both Commander Wagner and Corporal Blackthorn wanted the western end of Molokai Island secured first.
"Ultimately, though, the reason for the show of force here is just that: a show of force; for that, you need as large a force as possible--" Before he could finish, the sounds of mortar rounds could be heard; without waiting, Gerrard yelled, "Get down! Get down!" as everyone got flat to the ground, the rounds exploding nearby but otherwise not doing anything more than kicking up small mushroom clouds of dust and dirt. "Okay, scratch the first part of what I said, Captain," Gerrard said with an almost joking gallows-humor manner of speaking. Getting to a kneeling position, he got hold of Landing Site Bravo to see if they could spot where the rounds were coming from. "5-8, this is Bravo," came the reply, "there's two man-portable 60mm mortars firing at your position, about 600 meters due west."
That's right on top of us, Gerrard noted; it wasn't an infantryman's hyperbole either as most 60mm mortars had a range of 3800-4000 meters; 600 meters pretty much meant two things....one, that the rounds are arcing in an almost-straight up arc to them and two, they were likely firing blind, which meant there was a spotter nearby. After a quick back-and-forth between Gerrard and both Bravo and HMS Liverpool, he set the radio handset down and thought, Looks like we're doing this the hard way. ....
Motioning his fireteam leaders over, Gerrard quickly went over his plan for dealing with the threat in front of them. "We're going to play anvil and hammer; here's the plan. The mortar - or mortars - are about 600 meters west of us; given the range, they're likely firing from a defilade position but with the way those rounds are creeping nearer to us, they've got a spotter somewhere close by, so what we're going to do is split up.
"My Rifles will proceed towards the northwest, hopefully drawing the mortars fire towards us; at the same time, I want Captain Chernova's section to get in behind them. My guess is that, if this works, they'll be too busy dealing with us to notice the Grim Reaper behind them and by the time they do notice, they won't be to do anything. In the meantime, we should have helicopter support in the next ten minutes, but I'm not waiting; I want the threat dealt with so that we can finish patrolling this end of the island and rejoin the others to the east. Any questions...any thoughts?" After looking around, he added, "Alright, let's move out," and headed out to the northwest, his Rifles right behind him...