“Think you have enough weapons, Lieutenant?” Hamilton asked, looking at Faith’s rig-out.
Faith was rigged up the way she’d been since the Voyage Under Stars, now with more ammo. She had three pistols, twenty magazines for those, Saiga, forty magazines stuck absolutely everywhere, grenades in pouches, kukri, trench knife, half a dozen other knives tucked in various places including hanging off of magazines, Halligan tool and machete strapped to her assault ruck, and Trixie staring out of the back of the ruck.
“This is going to take some serious clearance, sir,” Faith said, squirting some CLP into the action of her Saiga and cycling it. Then she tucked Trixie into the ruck all the way and zipped the top. “I’m pretty sure this is going to be all hands. If I bring any of the ammo back you can take it out of my pay, sir.”
“Oorah,” Hamilton said. “The real question is can you handle the fast rope with that much weight?”
“Just watch me, sir,” Faith said, tapping the helmet cam she was wearing. Due to the questions about what, exactly, they were supposed to be looking for and where it might be, all of the Marine “leadership” down to team leaders were wearing helmet cams.
“I shall be,” Hamilton promised. “Let the grunts take the lead, Lieutenant. That is their job.”
“There’s a time to lead from the back and a time to lead from the front, sir,” Faith said. “When I need to lead from the front, sir, I am going to lead from the front, sir. With all due respect, sir.”
“Understood,” Hamilton said. “But you can’t lead from either position if you’re dead.”
“Zombies don’t bother me, sir,” Faith said, dimpling cutely. “They’re insane, hungry, angry animals. They won’t kill me from professional courtesy, sir.”
“Mr. Walker,” Sophia said uncomfortably, as the “civilian” walked out of Grace in full clearance rig. Somewhere, he’d found a complete set of Army combat gear. Instead of bunker gear he was wearing Army camouflage rain gear, Army kevlar helmet and body armor. He had at least as many weapons and as much ammo as Faith. And an H&K 416 instead of M4. “I don’t remember including you on the mission plan.”
“Ensign?” Walker said. “You know that at some level I outrank you, right? And you need the help. Both in looking for the materials and as a shooter. You’re not questioning my abilities as a shooter are you, Ensign?”
“No, I’m not,” Sophia said. “I’m questioning your age… sir.”
“I think I’ve got one last battle in me, Ensign,” Walker said, grinning. “Ever heard the line that ‘a general should die with the last bullet of the last war’?”
“No…sir?” Sophia said.
“Remember it. It is appropriate to the situation.”
“This is a big one!” Faith boomed as the chopper cycled up. “As always, when possible, let the zombies come into your fire zone, don’t sneak into theirs. But do not allow that to stop you moving forward. WE NEED TO SECURE THIS BUILDING. Hit them! Hit them hard! Keep hitting them! MARINES ARE THE FINEST SHOCK TROOPS ON EARTH AND TODAY YOU GET TO PROVE IT! The Marine battle cry ‘Oorah’ dates all the way back to when we took the fortress of the Bey of Tripoli. ‘Urah’ is Turkish for ‘Blood!’ And if you don’t want to drink the blood of the infected, Marines, THEN YOU ARE IN THE WRONG UNIT! IT’S SCRUMMIN’ TIME!”
“OORAH!”
“OOORAH!” Faith shouted, sliding down the fast-rope. There were infected pouring onto the roof but that was what a Saiga was made for.
She dropped off the rope and went to pistol since it was faster, targeting the infected and backing away from the rope to let Sergeant Weisskopf have room to land.
Fire started to pour in from the door gunner on the Seahawk. They’d gotten the helo into operation overnight and Captain Wilkes and Colonel Kuznetsov had split duties with Harry taking the copilot position on the Super Stallion. The combined fire of the landed Marines and the machine gun quickly had the roof cleared.
She dropped the pistol and went Saiga, pumping out shotgun rounds until the last infected was cleared.
“MOVE!” Faith bellowed while reloading, her voice muffled by the gas mask. “DOOR, DOOR, DOOR!”
Speed was paramount. The door was the choke point and taking that was just about the most important portion of the mission. They had to fight their way down to the bottom floor, find all the doors and get them closed so they could clear the massive research facility. But first they had to take the high ground.
“Weapon, ma’am,” Sergeant Weisskopf said, picking up her .45.
“Thanks, Andy,” Faith said as the lead squad piled up on the door. They were pouring fire into the interior but clearly not making much headway.
“CLEAR!” Faith yelled, charging the doorway, kukri in one hand and a grenade in the other. “IT’S SCRUMMIN’ TIME!”
She hit the infected at the top of the stairs at chest height, knocking him over and riding him down the avalanche of bodies following him. With only her own mass it probably wouldn’t have worked. Another hundred plus pounds of ammo and guns did the trick. She took out a throat at the same time as she pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it over the side of the stairs down to the other landing. The fragments from a grenade in such a confined space should have bounced all over the place. Instead, they were caught by the press of bodies below.
Then she got down to some serious scrumming…
“Oh, good Lord,” Hamilton said, holding his head in his hands. “I knew I should have gone along.”
Of course, it was now hard to see out of Faith’s helmet cam since it had immediately splashed red.
“We are missing this!”
Since Faith’s exploits tended to be a bit of a morale boost, if not for the squeamish, the helmet cam videos were available for public view. And the Gurkhas had decided to see who this child was who carried a kukri as if she was due and was going to “instruct” them on clearance.
“I can go to war!” Lance Corporal Ombahadur Ghale shouted. “I can fight! Let us go to war!”
“There will be war aplenty to come,” Sergeant Jitbahadur Rai said. “We must regain our strength to fight these battles. And if this is the way of such war…A great war it shall be! Oooiya Ghorkali! Look at her go!”
“Oooh,” Lieutenant Commander Tuttle, commander of the Louisville, said as Faith swung a Halligan tool into an infected’s crotch. “That had to hurt….”
The video was sent without sound. Only the leadership was on the broadcast which had been upgraded to continuous two way. So Colonel Hamilton, along with any “higher” who wished to listen in, was getting Faith’s usual running commentary. And he was starting to wonder if she really enjoyed being an officer…
“You want some? How’s this for a mission plan! Action plan my fucking ass, you bastards! Sure, here’s an acronym for you! And you! I’ll PowerPoint you, asshole! There, I just transynergized your fucking head! It’s time for BUZZWORD BINGO MOTHERFUCKERS…!”
“Your daughter scares me, Captain,” Under Secretary Galloway said quietly.