CHAPTER 38


   It was his turn. There had been a day when this was considered a perk for staff officers but, Hogan really had to wonder how much of a privilege it was now. The simple fact was that Seau-Neaut airbase was not what it used to be. When brigade used to send couriers over here they always managed to find the officers club or the rec center before attending to the business that brought here in the first place. These days, when you got here, you got your business done and got the hell out as fast as you could. That was why Hogan stood next to the bomb shelter and watched as a C–130 came down on the runway and never stopped moving as it dropped pallet after pallet of supplies out of its open ramp. When the aircraft was obviously empty, the pilot gunned his engines and the ramp began to close. The aircraft was not on the ground for a minute before it was already lifting back into the air and then turning south for its return flight. The enemy artillery that fell on the base, not long after this little exercise, told Hogan why the pilot had no desire to stay on the ground.
The artillery was still falling as the Air Force personnel descended on the pallets like an army of ants. They had all of the material inside of a bombproof hanger in record time and Hogan could not blame them. Say what you might about the Air Force, Hogan was not about to question their bravery now. This little exercise in logistics had cost them two wounded and he listened to the screaming as medics drove those men away. He had that fresh on his mind when he entered the hanger full of supplies and noted what was in the the back.
Hogan was not particularly happy when he pointed to the rows of body bags and demanded of an Air Force sergeant, "what in the hell are those still doing here."
The sergeant could only shrug and he obviously was not affected by Hogan's gruff barking when he replied, "we got no way to get them out sir. You might've noticed that the planes are not stopping here anymore."
What could Hogan say to that? He huffed, he felt angry, he also just got on with his work. He took a satchel from a classified courier and a clipboard from one of the ground crew. Hogan was a bit disappointed when he noticed how much of the resupply was going to first brigade. He had to wonder what all of this other stuff was for? It was another Air Force sergeant that noted, "we got to defend our perimeter too, sir. Then you got the two eleventh and the elves and you got...”
Hogan stopped the man from telling him what he already knew and got to the next disaster. He sounded even angrier as he said, "what the hell? All we got here is bullets? We're going to need a few more items than just this. Where the hell are the beans?”When the Air Force sergeant became confused, Hogan snapped, "you know Sergeant? Things like food, clothing, and medicine?”
The sergeant did not seem to take offense and he only shrugged at the Army colonel as he walked off and stated, "don't look at me sir, I didn't send it."
The guy was only a target of opportunity anyway. Hogan forgot about them and walked over to the resupply as he noted another problem. These were not the kinds of crates that he was used to seeing. He had no idea where they may have come from. He had one of the Air Force guys open a crate up so he could see what was inside. The contents were just as alien to him as what they were packed in. They were small arms round as the manifest said but, they did not look like standard army issue for the battle rifle. The same proved to be true for the other types of ammunition that they were issued. When Hogan demanded, "what in the hell is this shit?" Hogan was informed that all of it came from the elves. Apparently, someone had informed them to expect elf manufactured goods on the next run. Hogan picked up a round and examined it. He was not impressed with the quality. He just hoped it did not blow up in the chamber of a battle rifle when the time came.
First brigade's portion of the supply took up three large helicopters. The artillery fire delayed their loading but, it finally got done. As Hogan loaded his Blackhawk, he looked at the three IAF Chinooks, loaded with their resupply, and realized that there needed to be at least ten of them. There was nothing he could do about it, so, Hogan decided to be in a glass half full frame of mind. After all, he was the one who was going to have to sell the lack of supplies to his battalion's line units. They may not have anything else but, at least, it appeared that they now had a source of renewable ammunition. That was some good news, wasn't it?
Unfortunately, there were no ground approaches to the airbase. The orc were still in between first brigade and their point of resupply, Seau-Neaut. That was why the helicopters headed out to sea before turning south and then their ultimate destination, the Losmun estate. It was while they were over water that the chopper's crew chief yelled out over the intercom, "hey whoa! A few miles out to the east, we got us another UFO."
While Hogan may have ignored such a comment, in the past, he had to constantly remind himself of where he was and it only took one look at the sky to do that. Seeing an alien flying saucer would only just figure in a place like this. That was why he actually looked and, sure enough, there was actually something there. He had to admit that it looked very much like a saucer and it was rapidly climbing into the alien looking sky. He grabbed his binoculars and got the best view of it that he that he could. At this distance he could not make out very many details but he did note that it appeared to be trailing a stream of something behind it before it rapidly vanished from sight.
The crew chief was grinning from ear to ear when he looked over to the colonel and said over the intercom, "that's the third one I've seen. You don't reckon the elves have some little green guys for their neighbors do you?"
As Hogan was putting away his binoculars he filed the little incident under it does not matter. He gruffly told the crew chief, "these days, nothing would surprise me."
Hogan spent a little time at brigade with some housekeeping errands and was finished by the time that the 506th had its portion of supplies loaded into a few trucks. When Hogan checked the manifest against the supplies he noted that there was more here than he had brought back from Seau-Neaut. That meant brigade had been hoarding and was now sending its reserves forward. Hogan could guess why. He was not a happy camper as he walked into battalion and handed off the official mail to his commanding officer, Colonel Momoa. As the battalion commander began looking through the mail he commented to his executive officer, "by the look on your face I am guessing that you have already figured it out."
Hogan sat his helmet on a table and asked if the coffee thermos was fresh. When he got a nod he found himself thankful that at least they still had some caffeine. He then replied to his CO, "Landry is planning another push, or am I wrong?"
Momoa kept scanning the mail as he replied, "you would not be.”
Hogan looked up at the map board, then over to the situation board, and only a glance told him what he already knew. First brigade was pushing further and further north of the river and had created a sizable pocket that was requiring more and more people to defend. While they might still be getting bullets the one thing they were not expecting was more people. Landry was putting them in a situation where that is exactly what they needed. Hogan grumbled, "Hell, the way things are going, the orc aren't going to have to surround us. Were going to do it to ourselves."
While his executive officer sounded a bit peeved, which was actually quite normal for the man, Momoa always sounded as if everything did not matter. He replied to Hogan's comment, which was more or less accurate, and said, "Losmun is putting pressure on General Landry. He's got Hammond on his ass, telling him that we need to take the city back. Losmun is screaming about the civilians who are trapped over there behind enemy lines..."
Hogan noticed that Momoa's voice trailed off with that last sentence and noted this with, "there sounds like a but there somewhere, sir."
Finally, Momoa actually stopped reading the mail and thought about what he was going to say. He then looked to Hogan and told him, "if our Intel is even close to right, the orcs are pretty much ignoring civilians over there. I don't know what to make of it but, that's what I keep hearing."
If Momoa did not know what to make of it, Hogan sure as hell did not. He simply filed that away under don't look a gift horse in the mouth and reminded himself that the orc had been routinely surprising everybody as of late. It was the small stack of letters that Momoa dumped on Hogan that was a real surprise. Hogan scanned through them and was not sure if he wanted to laugh or cry when he saw one particular order in the pile. Still, he did not complain, he even sounded amused as he asked his colonel, "I guess this is Hammond's idea of morale building?"
Momoa only shrugged as he read the next letter in the pile and in a slightly upbeat tone told the executive officer, "well if that isn't then this sure is. Looks like we are getting some replacements after all."
That did peak Hogan's interest. He could hope as he asked, "don't tell me they actually got the Dell open again, did they?"
"I wish," replied Momoa, “no, things seem to be going better in the south. Second brigade is rounding up volunteers to come up here and help us out. I've been hearing that they actually got themselves some armor down there.”
Hogan actually laughed at that and as he put his helmet back on he told Momoa, "I heard those same rumors but, nobody has convinced me that they're true. Where in the hell would they get armor from?" Then Hogan thought about it for a minute as he walked to the bunker door and he looked back at his CO and added, "if it's true though, and would that be nice, why the hell can't they get some of it up here."
Momoa was more interested in, "you just got back. Where you going?"
Hogan gestured to the mail in his hand and said, "I haven't walked the line in a while. I would say days but, I don't even know what day it is. I figure this is a good enough excuse. Not like any of these kids are going to get a ceremony, so, guess I need to make the best of it."
That caused Momoa to laugh heartily as he told his executive officer, "oh I'm sure they'll think that's special.”
With a great deal of sarcasm Hogan replied, "abso-fuking-lutely. Sides that, some of them even deserve it."
The trip across the river was not something that Hogan wanted to make routine. The engineers had put together a series of rope bridges which were exactly what they sounded like. He walked on a rope and kept from falling by holding on to a couple more. Falling in the water looked to be less than pleasant because it was choked with the carcass of dinosaurs, muck, layered over with filth, and had every variety of debris that you could imagine. Falling would also be quite easy because the orcs were constantly throwing mortar shells at the bridges. Fortunately, they could not currently see them so their aim was not the best in the world.
Hogan made his rounds of the company's and his last stop was Delta. He was never in a hurry to see their company commander and that was why. What could he say? Vega got on his nerves. Even so, he had to give the girl her due. She had proven herself to be more than a competent field commander even if she was a serious fuck up, otherwise. Hogan still acted official when he handed her the letter and let her read it.
Her acting first sergeant, Hallowell, looked over her shoulder and smiled before saying, "congratulations Captain Vega.” The sergeant then looked to the colonel and had to ask, "I don't suppose you got one of those for me in that little stack do you, sir?"
Hogan simply handed the rest of the mail over and told her, "your first duty as captain, will be to promote your people in that there stack."
Vega scanned the names on the envelopes and only shrugged as she told Hallowell, "sorry Josh. Don't look like you made this round." She then handed him three of the ten letters and said, "need to do something with them. Their promotions got here a little too late to do them any good."
Josh noted the names, on the, envelopes and knew exactly what she was talking about. Those three had been killed in the last couple of days. Josh stuffed the envelopes in his equipment vest and became a bit more solemn as he did. He then asked the Battalion exec, “not wanting to sound ungrateful, sir, did these promotions come with any resupply?"
Hogan sounded gruff as he explained the supply situation but, his act was no longer having the effect that it used too. Vega seemed to completely ignore it as she became a tad angry and complained, "what the fuck? You can't tell me that the damn elves can't find us some hand grenades. Did anybody read the requests I sent up to Battalion? We are completely out."
Hallowell jumped in with, "Captain don't forget about the uniforms." Josh then looked to Hogan and explained, "Sir, this terrain is hell on our clothes. Most of our people look like patchwork quilts now. We need more uniforms."
It was kind of surprising to Vega when Hogan did not explode like a volcano. He almost sounded apologetic, almost, "I can't give you what I don't have. What I can give you is the good news." He sounded very sarcastic when he said it. He then told them in a more resolute tone, "we're going on the offensive again, so, get your people ready Captain Vega. From the looks of it, it won't be long."
"Are they fucking kidding us?” Vega ranted on, "before I took this unit it was at a hundred and twenty-five percent strength. I'm down to less than half now. If we keep trying to take useless buildings I got to figure that number is gonna drop to zero pretty fast."
Hogan simply turned to leave and replied, "I don't make the orders Captain."
When the colonel was gone, Josh sighed in despair. He looked to Lolita and told her with a great deal of concern in his voice, "you know what bothers me the most Captain? He didn't even bother to argue with you about it."