2320. The Marines at War. Book 3: Limbo and Holly (eBook)

Chapter 2 – Silent In – Silent Out

March 15th, 2320 0653 hours on Garland

Garland arrived an AU out from the enemy location marked between Gulf Mike Sectors 9 and 10 and commenced searching using passive sensors. She began her sweep in a circular motion which would take her toward Gulf Mike 9 before the circle aimed her in the direction of Gulf Mike 10. She was running at about normal speed for a reconnaissance mission, attempting to discover if the MAD component of her sensors would pick up anything. And she let Dalton sleep.

March 15th, 2320 0800 hours on Garland

The smell of food arrived at Dalton’s nose and he woke up. “Garland, what time is it?”

“It is 0800 hours by my clock. You might want to dip your coffee while the water is hot. We arrived near the location indicated by Walkabout and O’Hara slightly over one hour ago. I began a circular search one AU out from the indicated site. We’ll be closest to Gulf Mike 9 in about ninety minutes and closest to Gulf Mike 10 in about twelve and a half hours. I haven’t identified anything with my passive sensors at current speed.”

“Understood. Garland, thank you for breakfast.”

“My pleasure.”

“Please open a window for me. We’ll watch together.”

March 15th, 2320 0900 hours on Kerr

“Kerr, a coffee please.”

The team continued its search from the fourth AU out moving in toward Tarawa. Kerr recorded everything that her active sensors found. They were identifying the reconnaissance remotes by radio signal as part of their assignment. No emissions were being identified. No albedos. No minor electrical hit on Kerr’s systems. No obvious ships in the vicinity.

March 15th, 2320 0936 hours on Hepburn

Hepburn said, “Andy, Pete, Tarawa is still under Marine control. We’ll be down in about twenty minutes.”

March 15th, 2320 1002 hours on Hepburn      

Hepburn settled into her cradle and opened a door for her Marines. Andy gestured to his crew chief who stepped out first and then Andy followed, carrying his weapons. They both stepped aside as the Intelligence team came to download the data collected by Hepburn.

“Pete, I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. When the Intelligence people are done, I’ll clean Hepburn up and send in a requisition. So far as I can tell, we’ll replenish water, coffee, and whatever food we consumed.”

Andy nodded his head, turned to toward the Armory and began walking.

March 15th, 2320 1027 hours on Holly

Holly said, “Gents, there is some physical damage here at Tarawa. It does not appear to be anything critical, but some things have exploded or crashed while we were out.” She then taxied, settled into her cradle and made a door. Bill Hayes stepped out and saw an Intelligence team arrive with a download unit. He looked back in Holly and said, “Limbo, I’ll stick around for a bit. When the Intelligence download is complete, I’ll clean our lady up and order a restock.”

“Good. I’ll see you.” Then Limbo stepped out of Holly and turned toward the Armory.

Over the next hour Watson, Monroe, Loren and Reed returned with their Marines. The first two were met by Intelligence download teams. The last two ladies had to wait for the Intelligence download while the information from the first three ladies was downloaded from the Intelligence equipment. All the ladies were cleaned and reloaded before Intelligence was able to complete the intelligence downloads.

March 15th, 2320 1401 hours on the hangar floor

Flynn and Johnston joined the other crew chiefs. Three-M said, “First, congratulations! You two made crew chief. Mr. Biggs said it was coming and now it is here. And I heard that your recon teams destroyed forty enemy ships.”

Flynn replied, “Yes. They had been taught to work together in reconnaissance ship training. They talked to each other, the targets were divided so they’d each have nuke remotes left over, and they ended up saving Tarawa. Whatever Limbo and Andy had done with the teams they worked with on a previous combat tour was written up, made it to the school, and was taught to the new guys.”

Three-M said, “I wonder what other surprises are coming up?”

March 17th, 2320 1000 hours in a conference room near Major Tradzuski’s office

Present are all the reconnaissance Marines except Dalton, all the crew chiefs and the two remaining technicians on Mr. Biggs’ staff as well as the ladies, except for Garland. The major walked in the door, followed by an unknown captain, Lieutenant Suzuki, and Mr. Biggs.

Limbo called out, “Attention on deck” and all the enlisted Marines came to attention.

The major stood behind the chair he would occupy and said, “At ease. Please be seated.”

The enlisted Marines relaxed and sat down. The major remained standing and said, “We have a lot of items to cover so, I’d appreciate it if you’d hold questions until I call for them.

First, I’d like to introduce Captain Aren Anderson, whose callsign is ‘Eagle.’ And, yes, Eagle is a nickname and a callsign. Your incoming CO is an experienced reconnaissance ship Marine. Captain Anderson will be replacing me in slightly over two weeks.

I have been bumped up to take Colonel Conway’s slot as the CO of Fourth Squadron, Ship. What you might not know is that Fourth Squadron includes the training command for reconnaissance ship training. I’ll have that billet as part of my new command. More about that shortly.

Before I go, I have some privileges to attend to. While most of you were out performing reconnaissance for the Navy, Walkabout Truman and O’Hara, his new ship, came by and dropped off a lot of intelligence. During an attack on Earth, Walkabout and O’Hara had attached themselves to an enemy warship and rode that ship to an enemy site unrelated to any planetary system. It was out in some of the empty space between Gulf Mike Sectors 9 and 10. Walkabout came here first because his lady had identified Tarawa as the closest Earth Alliance base to the enemy location. He had the impression, and upon examination we agreed with him, that an attack on this base was likely.

The general put us on an alert basis, and we went forward from there. One of Mr. Biggs’ ideas was used and proved quite workable, setting up remotes for observation.

Of note to you, of the few thousand civilians and dependents that were here, only a few hundred remain. The rest were shipped off to Earth or other major EA planets where it was thought that they might be safer. The base is still on an alert status. We believe another attack will be occurring. If the enemy does not take Tarawa, this base will represent an EA foothold in this sector which the enemy cannot ignore.

While you were working with the Navy, R3 gained two reconnaissance Marines and their ships. Present is Lance Corporal Wilkins,” and pointing to Wilkins to stand, “whose ship is Kerr, and whose designation is Reconnaissance 28.” Signaled to do so, Wilkins sat. “Absent is Corporal Dalton, whose lady is Garland, and whose designation is Reconnaissance 27. Recon 27 is performing a silent in silent out on the location identified by Walkabout. They will be out for at least two more weeks, and they have permission to ride an enemy ship once their reconnaissance is complete, should that possibility become available. They will send a remote with their information if they are engaged in a continuing reconnoiter.

Importantly both teams had been here for less than a day when they found the enemy flotilla approaching Tarawa. They gave themselves an assignment to perform a defensive reconnoiter on the enemy. Tarawa had a battle and Colonel Sebastian’s ground-to-orbit anti-ship artillery had taken a large bite out of the enemy ships, destroyed several enemy missiles and some items hurled at Tarawa by mass drivers. That is when Reconnaissance 27 and 28 arrived. Operating singly, and then collaboratively, they destroyed forty enemy ships. Between the colonel’s anti-ship artillery and Reconnaissance 27 and 28, nothing was left to report back to the Alpha command.

A review after the fact revealed that the material provided to me by Limbo and Andy is now being presented in reconnaissance ship training. The instructors had no personal experience in multi-ship reconnaissance operations, but they were able to train their charges in using the ideas that Limbo and Andy presented.

In about two weeks, Gunnery Sergeant Limbaugh and Staff Sergeant Amos will be transferred. Limbo will be assigned to a joint EA-Sadler operation at a Sadler training location, working with Sadler reconnaissance...