John Ringo - Islands of Rage and Hope

“Again with the subs,” Faith said.

“One, they’re nukes,” Sophia said. “They’re serious math guys. This is actually too easy for them. Two, they’re bored. Three, they feel like they’re not really contributing. This does help. But you figured out what we needed in terms of information. Which is what officers are for. Okay, other supplies.”

“Seriously, we can probably scavenge for most of it,” Faith said. “We’re going to need ammo and if we’re going to do the liners, probably batteries. Food, water, fuel…there’s boats and stores.”

“Not as much fuel stores as you might think,” Sophia said. “We were having a hard time finding those in the Canaries. The tanks at the marinas were mostly dry ’cause people tanked up and ran.”

“Fuel…we just load up the Grace Tan ? What’s it’s max tankage?”

“Which is pretty much the answer we’re going to have to give,” Sophia said. “Fortunately, we do have fuel here at the base. The tanks are almost topped up. Water? These islands don’t have much.”

“They reconfigured Gitmo as a disaster support base,” Faith said, grinning and diving into the server for another file. “I was talking about it with Smitty. There are diesel powered water filtration systems, big ones, big enough to supply a small town. We’ll take some of those along with us on the Grace . That gives us water. There are…five of them in a warehouse over by Grenadillo.”

“Put in a requisition for them,” Sophia said. “Okay, food, yeah, we can probably scavenge. But we need a base supply. Enough for the unit for, say, thirty days…”

“I need to admit something, sir,” Faith said as Colonel Hamilton perused the operations and logistics report.

“You got help?” Hamilton asked.

“Sophia was working on some of the same stuff, sir,” Faith said. “So we put our heads together on it. And some of the number crunching, I… delegated. I could do it, sir, with a computer at least, but I was trying to figure out what numbers had to be crunched, sir. But I figured out most of it myself, sir. And the rest was mostly Sophia asking questions. But I did get help, yes, sir.”

“That’s a lot of ‘buts,’ Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “Which is understandable. If you’d tried to figure this out yourself from first cause it would have taken you a month, I’m sure. It would have taken any second lieutenant a month. Well, most. I agree on your three initial targets. I’d even say the ‘maybes’ like St. Croix are doable if we’re given enough time. You want to take five-tons?”

“I hadn’t worked with them until we got here, sir,” Faith said. “They really are the thing for land clearance. We can probably do it with scrounged transport. But the five-tons are way better, sir. They’ve got the gun mount and ground clearance. I’ve gotten stuck on bodies more than once in the Canaries, sir. It’s not just that you’re stuck with a wave of infected coming at you. It’s… There’s a lot of really raunchy stuff about this job, sir, but spinning out on bodies is high on the list, sir.”

“Duly noted,” Hamilton said. “I’ll put it in consideration. Did you happen to give consideration to how to transport them, Lieutenant?”

“All of these islands have ferry docks, sir,” Faith said. “Some of them are smaller than others. We’d have to find, survey and man a small ferry. But even a small truck ferry could carry at least two five-tons, sir.”

“I’ll take that up with Commander Chen,” Hamilton said. “It has merit. Your estimate for ammunition consumption is, I think, low. What’s it based on?”

“The Canaries, sir,” Faith said. “We compared the population, pre-Plague, of the towns to our ammo usage and then carried it over to the pre-Plague populations of the local towns. That’s the ground combat rounds. Soph and I both worked on that as well. I took all the ammo and batteries and Soph took the other consumables.”

“The point is, we used six times as much ammo in terms of similar conditions in Iraq,” Colonel Hamilton said, looking up. “Are you saying our current forces, undertrained as they are, are that much better ?”

“Uh…” Faith said, thinking about it. “Zombies don’t duck, sir?”

Colonel Hamilton regarded her evenly for a moment, looked at the spreadsheet, looked back.

“Point again taken, Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “The ROWPUs?”

“We always need more water, sir,” Faith said. “And I think that’s on the Navy side anyway, sir.”

“I am in the unusual position of being a Marine officer in charge of a Naval expedition,” Hamilton said. “So I have a similar report from, as you put, the Navy side. Did Sophia conceive the idea?”

“I…I sort of said we should take them, sir,” Faith said nervously. “I mean, they’re just sitting there, sir. Sophia asked about water ’cause it’s always a problem for the boats. I don’t really think about it since the boats supply it but she had a point.”

“And again I’ll take it under consideration,” Hamilton said. “It’s not a bad report. I’m going to tweak some of the numbers based on gut, red-line it and compile it with the Navy side for requisitioning. As I said, I agree with your assessment of the best objectives. Next: the captain wishes us to be able to arm the residents of the islands against the potential of, well, pirates as well as any remaining infected.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“There are apparently remaining weapons on the Iwo but it’s not worth our time going back to get them,” Hamilton said. “Especially since there’s a source closer to hand, if a bit…unpleasant. So we’re going to scavenge.”

“The weapons of the…fallen on the base, sir?” Faith said.

“Yes,” Hamilton said. “Wellington once said the only thing that could be worse than a battle won must be a battle lost. The truth, I think, is the opposite. The losers don’t see the results whereas we do . I’m not sure it’s the best conditions for you to get to know your new platoon, short as it is. But that is your next mission. Round up your platoon and go scavenge all the weapons and magazines you can find on the base.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“As you’re doing so, see which are still functional, clean them up and when we clear an island issue them to what seem to be trustworthy locals,” Hamilton said. “Any questions?”

“Just one, sir,” Faith said. “It’s…um…fourteen hundred. Should we start today, continue at night or start in the morning, sir?”

“Start this afternoon, at the very least figuring out how,” Hamilton said. “Staff Sergeant Barnard is familiar with the base and it’s always a good idea to listen to input from your NCOs. But I’d like you to at least get started today. Main op tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“Very well, Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “Dismissed.”

He waited until the door had closed to chuckle.

“‘Zombies don’t duck,’” Hamilton said. “Write that on your damn hand, Craig.”

“’Tention on deck!” Smitty boomed as Faith walked into the squad bay. The NCOs were in the bay checking the gear, new and old.

“Whoa, whoa,” Faith said, somewhat nervously, waving both hands. “At ease and all that. Staff Sergeant…Barnard?”