YELLOW BRICK

CHAPTER 15

If these people, and that was using the term loosely, ever put together a genuine weather channel then Nate was pretty sure it would go out of business really quick. He had thought the weather was pretty erratic down at RAF Merlin but, it had nothing on the weather up here at Way Out. Someone had mentioned that it had a lot to do with the fact that the city of Uea-Au was closer to the sea than Merlin. Nate had seen some maps of this place and, if he was reading them right, this entire country was just one long strip than ran beside the sea. Could the difference of a few miles really be that important? The on again, off again, bursts of rain said that it was.

That was why they were all gathered in a hangar at Seau-Neaut Imperial Air Force Base. The large hangar had been mostly cleared out and put at the disposal of the task force that included the American Rangers and their newly arrived support units. As Nate would come to learn, the US Army was not the only ones contributing to this new operation. The Task Force also included a few Brit’s, mostly RAF, and more than a few humans that were not from Earth. The list was also not limited to humans either.

The Night Stalkers, the special ops guys who drove the Blackhawks and Littlebirds, were present but, there were simply not enough of them to handle everything. That was why a unit of the Imperial Air Force had been assigned and, as Nate curiously discovered, the pilots of that unit were all those little dragon guys that were quite often so moody. They flew older British choppers, mostly of the Westland Lynx variety. Nate did find it interesting that they had a few old American helicopters as well, mostly of the kind that had once, also, been in British service. The most recognizable one that Nate saw was the familiar looking double rotary outline of an old Chinook.

All of those choppers might have been older models but, in contrast to the fixed winged planes, flown exclusively by elves, they looked space age. It seemed as if the Feyland Imperial Air Force primarily used Spitfire’s, of world war two vintage, as their air superiority and ground attack aircraft. Of course, Nate had no idea why they needed fighters because, to date, no one had bothered to tell him that these Orc things had any air assets. He seriously hoped that no one had just forgotten to mention that fact. That was particularly true now that he, and the rest of his stick, had their gear at the ready line.

Nate was officially the company commander of Delta. Today he was doing something different and not entirely comfortable with it either. The SOCOM guys had hand picked people that excelled at the training being given down at Merlin. Apparently, these commando guys were not very impressed with the ITTC, the school the army had set up in Kansas, to train it’s people to function in Feyland. These operators had put together their own course, had subjected to the Rangers too it, and then selected people they thought were the best. Apparently, the officers and NCO’s of the battalion were, at best, consulted on who got picked. Also, apparently, there were one or two other Ranger officers who were not so happy about Nate being one of the drafted.

That was not what bothered Nate the most. He knew that he would never win any popularity contests. What bothered him was that the people who were all sitting around on this concrete floor, waiting to be briefed, may have done well at the individual level but, they had not been afforded much time to work together as a unit. That was in contrast to Delta Company, that Nate had spent a long time trying to forge into a single entity when it came to military operations. Today, everything logical seemed to be flying out the window.

The arrival of the special ops guy, along with Major Conner, and that elf woman that Nate had been seeing around, did not make things any better. Conner stepped up in front of the board, where all the maps were pasted, and got the groups attention. Conner then told them, “I’m going to turn you over to Colonel Avery. As some of you already know, he has operational command of this hop. Now you all know it.” Phil looked to the operator and nodded to him before stepping out of the way.

Avery had talked with all of these people before. He interviewed every single one and they should have all known his background. He reminded them once again, “as you know I’m an Aussie. I was an operator with the Special Air Services, and I’ve been in country, here, longer than I care to remember. None of which means jack shit right now. All that matters is that I’ve spent a good deal of time where we’re all going.” He pointed to the map, “this is sometimes called the northern highlands. The elves, the gnomes, everybody has their own name for it but, you all started calling it the Hurt Again. That’s as good a name as any, and it rings true.”

Avery paused and looked carefully over the Americans sitting in front of him before saying, “which are all lessons that we’re going to take to heart today, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve done our best to drill this into your heads. This is not the kind of war you have been trained to fight. We’ve formed an ad hoc platoon here. We’ve put the people in charge that we think are best. When we get out there forget all that rank crap, you’re all operators for this one.”

The Australian Colonel began to pace as he said, “I know that’s contrary to your training but, don’t worry, you’ll see it, my way, soon enough.” He then stopped and looked over to the one civilian on this mission. Avery pointed at her, “Miss Walsh, you’re not carrying a weapon.”

Patty did not exactly know how to reply to that. She had never thought she might be singled out and, in particular, not about that. The State Department guys and her Army handlers had all told her the same thing. Carrying a weapon in a war zone was a big no-no for her. They had threatened to pull her credentials if they even thought she was carrying one. Apparently, that did not count with these commando guys. They had insisted she do the same training as everyone else. While you could have never convinced Patty, she had been told that she impressed them.

Still, Patty had to tell this guy, “I’m a non combatant. I was told I couldn’t.”

Avery shook his head as if that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. His tone also seemed to spell that out but, as Patty soon discovered, Avery’s contempt was not for her, “you were told that by those same jack asses that are sitting in a nice safe room down in Cheau-Gan?”

Patty shrugged, “I guess?”

“New orders,” Avery said, “fuck them. The Orc’s don’t know what a non combatant is. They’ve never herd of the Geneva Convention. Everybody that gets on those choppers today, are shooters and that includes you Miss Walsh.” Avery nodded to the elf woman in the tan uniform. She quickly grabbed the reporter and took her away.

When the distraction was over with, Avery continued, “I know the Orc’s look like some kind of grossed out, bipedal, pig with a severe head cold. I know they look and even act stupid. That’s just the how the ones that live here in Feyland act. Don’t let that fool you. These are the Polmarij. They are smart, they are hard to kill, and they are brave to the point of being reckless. They are cunning warriors and they have weapons that can blow a hole through trees, dirt, and then armor before it slices you in half. Then it’ll do the same thing to the three guys behind you.”

Nate noticed that no one in this patch work quilt of a unit was exactly impressed by what the colonel had to say. They had all heard this speech, many times before now, and there was nothing new here. They had even seen some of these weapons demonstrated. The Orc staff was impressive when fired and it would do exactly what Avery claimed. It had a weakness, though, and everyone noticed it. The shell that loaded in, to it’s butt plate, looked to be about the size of a twenty five millimeter round. It had to be manually reloaded every single time. That gave it a horrid rate of fire and it required a lot of packing space to carry ammo for it. Nate could not understand how it was a practical field weapon nor did it seem possible that it could stand up to the firepower that the US Army carried.

Strangely enough, their commando advisors and trainers, were equally unimpressed with the gear that the Rangers had brought with them. For years the US Army had been making a shift from putting out massive volumes of fire to pin point accurate shooting. They had made a good deal of progress but, these commando guys thought it was all crap. That was why no one on the advanced team had a weapon, in their hand, that had a bore diameter of less than seven point six two. The commando’s had managed to secure enough weapons to fit out this platoon. They had also never bothered to mention where all these weapons came from.

Nate was holding an older Chinese variant of the Russian AK-47. He felt like he had a museum relic in his hand and both it, and the ammunition for it, felt like he was carrying an entire work out gym as opposed to just one bench press when he suited up with his old gear. That was not even the worst of it. Nate had known from day one, that GPS and their battlefield computer network were useless here. What he had not counted on, and in retrospect he should have figured, was that his back up was also just as worthless. When he stood for the first inspection, one of the commando guys tossed his pocket compass without batting an eye. Apparently, they didn’t work in Feyland ether.

This was a horrifying prospect too Nate. While the weapons training, in military life, might get most of the glory it was a subtle fact that Army officers spent more time learning navigation. They were taught a variety of techniques but, after having been in the field as long as Nate, you just kind of forgot a lot of the other lessons because GPS worked so well. Now, not only was his primary mechanism gone but, so was the back up. When you added that to the fact that the maps of this Hurt Again region looked like something a kid with a crayon would produce, it made Nate wonder how in the hell anybody on this world ever knew how to get anywhere!

That thought was running through Nate’s mind, first and foremost, as he stood in formation with the rest of his stick, being inspected by the commando’s one last time. He was an officer, he was a Captain no less, and he had no idea how to navigate in the place he was about to go. That prospect frightened him more than going into combat with an empty weapon and, in reality, it was pretty much the same.

For the special ops people it was also, apparently, not enough. Nate would have figured this inspection, the last one before boarding the choppers, would have been nothing more than a formality. As Avery walked down the line and checked the Ranger’s gear, he was still finding and tossing stuff to the ground. Nate had to wonder if this Aussie guy had seen some of that crap before and, left it so he could toss it now, a tool for dramatic effect. It was most definitely a question that he pondered because Nate knew that one day, he’d be the guy doing that inspection.

Those thoughts were still running through Nate’s mind as they assembled, by file, on the ready line. As the choppers, in front of them, began to power up, Nate could see up and down the open tarmac. He could see the other units with other missions, assembling in the same manner. He not only saw other humans but, down the way, there were large groups of elves assembling as well. Even further down were those big Chinook’s that were ready to sling everything from bulldozers to artillery pieces. Nate had known this “small” operation was supposed to be anything but, Only now, kneeling on the ready line, looking at all of the assets in place, did Nate really get a sense of how large this op was.

Nate also noticed how many people it took to coordinate it. If this had been back home there would have hardly been anyone doing that. Nate had never considered exactly how many people the radio had put out of a job. Their radios did work here sometimes but, when your life depended on something you did not play those kinds of odds. That relegated wireless communications here to a back up, at best. It made Nate wonder how he had missed that concept. He wondered how many operations that he thought so simple were suddenly going to require a lot more labor. That would effect everything that they did in the field. It scared him because the one thing that Nate did realize was, the learning curve on a battlefield was usually measured in lives and his was one of them.

A glowing and sparkling flare flew into the sky, fired off from somewhere across the field. Avery had been standing in front of the choppers and watching for just that. He then checked his wrist watch, something that Nate had noticed was universally worn by the special ops guys here, and then Avery put a whistle to his lips. When he blew into the whistle, so did every other controller down the line. The mass of soldiers, from three different species, began boarding their rides. The next stop was the Forest of Hurt.