Nice Operation, Mike."said Commander Marshal while sitting behind his desk. "But that was only one head of the hydra. You know,weapon smuggling is a rising hazard in this part of the world."
"I know Sir, But we beated them this time, and we will beat them next time. The Hammersley needs a few repairs, and the crew needs a rest. But in one week we can go out again."
"Great. I will sent you on patrol again. We have a lack of patrol boats out there. Oh, one last thing. You can expect rising numbers of land-based operations, so I decided to sent a specialist for counter-insurgency and land warfare to your crew. The Special Air Service offered us someone. He will report for duty when you leave for the next patrol. You can leave now, good luck."LTC Mike Flynn saluted and left NAVCOM.
8 Days later RAN Base Cairns, aboard HMAS Hammersley
Some Seamen loaded supplies from a truck aboard, and a soldier in a green camouflage pattern uniform came over the pier, with a rucksack on his shoulders. He short looked who's the highest ranked officer on the scene,as he spotted Nav, he saluted and said to her with a smile:"Sergeant Jasper Nicols, SAS. I am ordered to report for duty aboard HMAS Hammersley."Nav smiled,saluted back, than he offered him her hand."Welcome aboard Sergeant. I am LT Nikki Caetano, everyone calls me Nav. I hope we will work well together."
"Thank you. Usually I am only called Jesper. Can you tell me where I find the Captain?"
"Sure, propably on the bridge. I hope we see us later?"Nav said."I hope that too" Jasper answered and smiled again towards her, then he walked over the gangway aboard the grey Armidale-Class patrol boat with the white painted-on hull number 82.
Nav followed him with her eyes, Bomber, who stood next to her, registered it, but decided to maintain silence for the moment and only smiled for herself.
On the bridge SGT Nicols reported for duty by Mike Flynn, who shooked his hand and said:"Welcome Sergeant. It's good to have you here, we will need you in the next time. I am Mike Flynn, the CO, this is the XO, LT Kate MacGregor. We are a small ship, so we maintain a relaxed atmosphere here, I think you will integrate here very well-"He was interrupted by the sattelite telephone, grabbed it and accepted the incoming call:"HMAS Hammersley, LTC Flynn"
"Mike, here is Commander Marshal. The Feds reported me that your two prisoners telled them that one of their contacts is the owner of an import-export business on the samaru islands. We are still part of the peacekeeping force in this area, and it is maybe a good idea to make a friendship visit on Samaru and have a look around. We will sent you all the informations we have. But Mike, I want reports about every step you make in this case" "Yes Sir; we leave harbour in a few minutes. We report again when we arrive at "Mike answered and hanged the phone back on his place. "Sergeant, it seems like that you will not have much time to get used to the life aboard." "No problem Sir. I ever wanted to do a cruise tour. especially one with a good entertainment program." Jasper said with a grin, and the whole bridge crew started to laugh.
"Okay Jasper. Go down and pack out your things now. XO, when the supplies and every crew member is aboard, drive us out of the harbour and set course to Samaru, 3/4 speed"
A few hours later,dinner time at the mess:
Some crew members sitting together while eating the dinner, in the middle Charge was chatting with Jasper over Afghanistan, als they got interrupted by Buffer:"Okay everyone, time to go back to work. Charge, are you already find someone to annoy with your stories?"
"Very funny. Jasper, we will see us later"Charge said and left the mess, and the others followed him. Before Buffer lefted, he walked over to the kitchen to look after Bomber.
He stood in the door and smiled over to her. She answered his smile and said:"Hi Buffer. You have not to stand there all day, I don't need a guardian angel. And if, be assured I will call you"
"That makes me calm. I hope your injuries are better?" He asked and laid an arm around her."Yes, I am ok. And if you could stop to stand in my way I could clean kitchen and mess"she said and smiled.
"I understand, but I come back" Buff said and turned. Short after he left the mess, Nav came through the door."Hi Bomber. I noticed that Buffer always are the last one who leaves the mess after eating. Does this have a special reason?" "Not more or less than your little flirt with the new Sergeant" Bomber said, and saw that Nav turned her view down. "No need to be ashamed,Nikki."Bomber smiled. "But try to do it a little bit more discreet next time"
At the next evening the Hammersley arrived at the Main port at leading officers sat together at the briefing. CO said: We sent the crew to shore leave for 12 hours.
Swain, Jasper and Buffer, we go to visit this business man. Maybe we can gain a bit Intel. Any questions?No, perfect."
Most cremwen decided to use the free time to get a few drinks and have some fun. Mike, Jasper, Swain and Buffer drived to the industrial harbour district. They walked into the facility of the import-export business, a old, rusty hall in bad condition, and searched for the office.
As they goes through the stacked containers and boxes in the hall they got attacked by 2 guys, one tried to violate the CO from behind. Before he reached Mike, Buffer grabbed him and pressed him against a container while Jasper aimed with his pistol at the other guy, and secured Swain while he fixed him with a ziptie.
Only seconds later a asian-looking guy arrived and tried to calm the situation down: Hi, my name is Kim-Wang-Seon, I am the CEO of this company. Please excuse my security employees, they are a little bit nervous, and we not expected visitors"
"Ok, I am LTC Mike Flynn, RAN. Seems like you lead a nice little business here. This is just a routine visit, we only wanted to ask if you maybe have some informations about any suspective activities in this area?"
"Oh for sure not Commander. You can see this is a 100% legal business. We only make import-export with korean products"
"Yes, of course."said Mike."Buffer, Swain, release yours prisoners. We are finished here. Mister Wang, thanks for your help."
The 4 turned and left the area."You can smell the 'legality' of this guy and his business 4 miles against the wind" said Buffer. Mike answered: "Yes. but we have no evidence. We leave the harbour tomorrow morning, and then we will check the southeast asian ships in this area with course to Samaru."
As they arrived on the Hammersley Mike Flynn set on a Report for NAVCOM and announced his intention to perform controls on suspected vessels around Samaru.
Next morning as the sun rises and the whole crew was back aboard the Hammersley left the harbour.