“After clearance fire, have the division by the boat launch, whichever is chosen, move over to support landing here on the tip of the peninsula. We can sweep the town and the military base on foot, then link up with the Grace to offload the five-tons, if we choose to do so. This town doesn’t have a medical school, there’s no really big hospital and the only reason we’re really clearing it is it’s on the way to the other objectives. Up to command if you want to do a thorough clear. Those are my recommendations, sir.”
“Why the peninsula?” Hamilton asked. “Rather than the cargo pier?”
“If we don’t get a really good clearance, the infected are going to have a hard time figuring out how to get over to the peninsula, sir,” Faith said. “Sort of narrows their approach, sir. We can pull out any time pretty easy. And it’s close to the military base, which seems to have some survivors, sir. From the looks of the pier we may be able to offload from the Grace there. It may be tight, though, but it’s possibly doable. Worse comes to worst, we pull the survivors at the police station and shift by boat to the cargo pier.”
“Concur,” Hamilton said. “Lieutenant Commander Chen, Navy side.”
“Ensign?” Chen replied.
“The main issue with the approach is reefs and shoals, sir,” Sophia said. “Also wrecks. We’ve dealt with those before but this place is a whole nother order of crazy. The approach to the harbor has several small islands in the way and their reefs and shoals are very extensive. Then on the satellite it appears there’s a large vessel, possibly an island support ship or a megayacht, overturned in the harbor entrance. It’s hard to tell on the satellite but it looks as if the harbor is littered with sunk boats. We’ll need to be very careful with navigation on the approach and we should make that very clear, and why, to all captains. The other firing points are actually clearer than the harbor approach. Stay away from the capes and you’re good.”
“Gunnery Sergeant Sands,” Hamilton said. “Status of the Marine landing party?”
“They’re still not up to the standards I’d prefer, sir,” Sands said. “But they should be able to handle a simple vehicle level sweep, especially from open five-tons. I’m mostly uncomfortable with the lieutenant’s choice to go ground mount and sweep for the initial landing. They’re getting less skittish about infected, but it’s still a toss-up if they will maintain fire discipline. I will be accompanying the landing, sir.”
“Are you recommending against the peninsula landing?” Hamilton asked.
“No, sir,” Gunny Sands said. “I’m going to be all over them the whole time we’re on the ground, sir. We won’t have a repeat of the incident at the medical school, sir.”
“Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “I want you and the gunny to coordinate closely on how far you’re going to do the ground sweep. Recover the survivors from the police base, then determine if you’re going to sweep to the pier or shift. But I want you to discuss it. Issues?”
“No, sir,” Faith barked.
“I want the full operations order on my desk by thirteen hundred,” Hamilton said. “Good brief.”
“Mission…blow the fuck out of a bunch of infected and rescue survivors…No, won’t fly…” Faith said, biting her lip as she slowly typed with two fingers. “E… Expectations? No, Environment? C-O-M-E…? No, shit, it’s…P-O-M-E? Why the fuck does the U.S. Marine Corps use Aussie slang…?”
“Pretty,” Sophia said as they approached the island.
Saint Barthelemy was a volcanic island with lush vegetation. The main town, Gustavia, and the surrounding hills were packed with houses of all sizes, most sporting red-tile roofs. Once a destination for the “rich and famous” of Europe, it had obviously suffered from the secondary effects of the Plague. Many of the houses were burned out and the numerous cliffs and reefs that surrounded it were littered with boats of every size. And it wasn’t just the shore. There were sunk boats all over the place. The “rich and famous” had had a lot of boats.
Sophia had the Bella anchored with the rest of the force well off-shore to the west of Les Gros Islets. She was making her way in in a Zodiac piloted by Olga and carefully checking the soundings.
“Nope,” she said, looking back over the side into the clear water. There was a wooden sailboat, about sixty feet, sunk and turned on its side in the channel. Partially unfurled sails were flapping in the light tide. There was a school of medium sized fish using the boat for cover. “I’m not sure we can get the Grace in here without doing actual salvage and raising some of this.”
“So what are we going to do?” Olga asked.
“Change the plan, I guess,” Sophia said. “We’ve got to find a way to get the gunboats in at least. And we’ll have to check each of the approaches. This is going to take time.”
“Now is when we could use a helicopter, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Chen said. “Much of this wasn’t apparent on the satellite due to cloud cover.”
“What’s your plan, Commander?” Hamilton asked.
“Getting the Grace in is out of the question,” Chen said, looking up at the police station. There were survivors. They were up on the roof waving a French flag at the moment. He wasn’t sure if that was an order to stay away or what. Usually people had the sense to wave the American flag when they turned up. The odd part was that they all seemed to be women. “We’ll find channels to get the gunboats in and just continue the plan, if that meets with your approval, sir.”
“Any thoughts on the sweep?” Hamilton asked.
“We’ve swept towns this size in the Canaries just using locally acquired vehicles, sir,” Chen said, shrugging. “This has more people, which may mean more infected. But we should be able to clear it without the five-tons, sir. The other issue is the gunship placement. Governor’s Cove looks like a nonstarter. There isn’t easy enough egress to attract many infected.”
“Recommendations?” Hamilton said.
“We need to look at Baie de Saint Jean,” Chen said. “We’d ignored it since it was on the windward side. And it’s rocky. And even in the satellite you can see submerged wrecks. And their guns will be pointed at, well, us. And there’s almost no channel. But it looks to be the only viable alternative.”
“We need someone competent and responsible with that division,” Hamilton said.
“I’ll attach Chief Schmidt, sir,” Chen said. “He’ll make sure they’re in their fire zones. And there are hills in the way. And I’ll send Div Five. Bowman’s a pretty good boat driver, sir.”
“We’re going to have to take another day,” Hamilton said, looking up at the buildings on the peninsula. “I’m not going to pull up and then sail away. But we need to figure out these channels and pick our way in. That’s a daylight operation. We’ll pick our way in tomorrow, then do the usual zombie pre-wake. Without the party, of course.”
“Of course, sir,” Chen said.
“Get that spread and have Div Five move out as soon as the chief can get aboard,” Hamilton said, watching an infected moving along the wharfs.