March 5 Keflavik Airport
What was known, as Keflavik International Airport was now a hive of hectic but focused activity. Aircraft ranging from the venerable C-130 Hercules to newly fielded A380 landed on the airfield every couple of minutes, disgorging massive quantities of troops, vehicles and equipment that was vital to the 8th Army's thrust to Chulak.
At the edge of the airport, combat engineers using bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment were busily working to expand the airfield to increase its aircraft capacity.
Over 2000 heavily armed, rough looking MPs armed to the teeth with Benelli M4 Super 90 shotguns, Heckler and Koch MP-7 Personal Defense Weapons and riot control gear guarded the base form any would be malcontents who wished to disrupt the operations going on.
Inside one of Keflavik's hastily erected hangar bays, Sanders supervised his company's efforts as they along with the help of Army Air Corps personnel began to unload their M-2 Bradleys from the recently arrived C-17 transport aircraft.
"Captain Sanders?" a uniformed soldier wearing the single stripe and rocker of a PFC approached and saluted.
"At ease Private," Sanders replied returning the salute.
"Lieutenant Colonel Jenkins wants to see you sir."
"I'll be there immediately." Sanders thanked the soldier and turned to one of his Lieutenants and yelled, "Meyer! You're in charge until I get back!" and immediately ran to meet his battalion commander and another person in civilian garb he didn't know who had just exited a Humvee parked outside the hangar.
"Captain Sanders reporting as ordered sir," Sanders said as he snapped at salute to the Colonel.
"As you were, Mike," the Colonel saluted back. "I'd like you to meet Chelsea Somerville from the Guardian Unlimited," Jenkins introduced the civilian standing next to him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Captain," the reporter spoke with a British accent as she greeted Sanders.
Fuck! Sanders thought. He had been in Iraq and knew what was going to happen next. He didn't have anything against reporters but didn't like being put on any baby-sitting detail.
"Ma'am can you please excuse us for a moment?" Sanders asked the young reporter.
"Certainly," she replied and walked out of hearing range. Although she was fresh out of Cambridge and new to journalism, she knew that at the moment the tension was thick in the air.
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Under proper military etiquette, one was to be respectful to his or her superior officers at all times. However if a superior gave their consent for subordinate to speak freely, they were free to speak their mind, without fear of reprisal.
"Granted."
"With all due respect, running a mechanized infantry company with a hundred and sixty trained personnel is hard enough. I need to baby-sit this reporter in a combat zone as much as I need a fucking hole in the head!"
"Calm down son, you're preaching to the choir. The REMFs (1) in Geneva have decided to embed reporters in our units just like the Iraq War."
"Why my company, sir? Can't Smith, O'Malley, Lee or Kruger take her?" Sanders asked mentioning the other company commanders in the battalion.
"You're my most experienced company commander by a long shot. The commanders of Alpha, Charlie, Delta and Echo are completely new to the job. None of them have been in charge of their company for more than 6 months."
"Sir, we're going to into combat and the likelihood of her getting into combat is pretty high. Can't we stick her in one of the supply units in the rear? I doubt that the brass will like one of the reporters getting killed."
"Sorry Mike. I've already tried."
"Does she at least know what the hell she's getting into?" Sanders asked hoping that his new charge had some sort of common sense.
"Beats me, I've only known her for ten minutes more than you have."
"Sir do you have two pairs of ACUs, (2) a K-Pot, Interceptor Body Armor, and a pair of boots that can have?"
"Just like I was thinking," Jenkins replied bringing out the said materials out of the Humvee and giving them to Sanders. "It's the least I can do."
"Thank you, sir."
"Good luck Sanders. I'll see you at Chulak," Jenkins said as he got back into his Humvee and drove off.
Sanders paused for a moment, watching the Humvee drove away from him. Turning his mind back to the operations at hand, he saw the reporter standing in the hangar, silently watching his men.
Eager to get on to business, Sanders jogged to the reporter.
"Ms. Somerville welcome to Bravo Company," Sanders greeted the reporter, offering her his hand.
"As I said before, nice to meet you Captain," she replied taking it.
"Ms. Somerville, forgive me for being blunt but I am a very busy man right now, so please my rudeness. I have no time for pleasantries at the moment. Since you are new to this, let me inform you about some immediate changes that are going to have to take place," he told the reporter.
"First of all, the clothes have to go," Sanders said, pointing at what she was wearing; a white shirt with a khaki vest on top of it and pants of the same color.
"Excuse me?" Somerville asked the Captain, her face full of indignation and was ready to slap him.
Shit! Sanders thought. He'd forgotten that he was speaking to someone of the opposite sex. "The clothes that you are currently wearing are completely inappropriate for the local environment. You'll stick out like a sore thumb and will be a prime target for any Ori soldier wielding a staff weapon," he explained.
"Captain, the Geneva Conventions states the journalists are non-combatants and thus must be treated as such. Surely the Ori…"
"Ma'am the Articles of the Geneva Conventions was ratified by the now defunct nations of Earth. The Ori are from another galaxy. I seriously doubt that the Ori have ever head of that agreement. And if they did they did, they probably wouldn't follow it."
"Fine," she replied, not liking it one bit, knowing that she had to play by the Captain's rules.
Grabbing one of the fatigues that the Colonel had given him, identical to the ones that he was currently wearing. He picked one up off the ground and showed them to the journalist. "Ma'am, this is an Army Combat Uniform, the standard issue battledress in the Terran Federal Army. The camouflage pattern on the uniform allows the wearer to effectively blend into any environment, thus increasing the probability of the wearer's survivability."
"Secondly, your need to change your footwear. I'm glad that you brought hiking shoes instead of sandals or any other types of frail footwear, but compared to the standard issue Army Footwear they will wear out quickly," he said pointing at her newly bought hiking apparel and giving her the pair of boots that he had gotten from the Colonel.
"Get changed and report back to be when you are finished. There's a latrine 300 meters behind me," he told her, pointing at the back of the hangar.
Five minutes later, she came back from the latrines wearing her newly issued ACU and boots.
"This is the Interceptor II Body Armor System, the standard issue protective clothing issued by the Army. This is going to be you main form of protection from any small arms fire from the enemy. The Trinium protective plates inserted at the front and back of the vest, cover your chest and back. It can be equipped for additional protection with optional neck, shoulder, side, and groin attachments. Combat testing has proven that the plates are able to withstand up to 2 blasts from a Jaffa Staff weapon at a distance of 50 meters," he said, holding an armored vest that corresponded to the camouflage pattern on their fatigues and then proceeded to fasten the vest over the reporter's newly issued clothing.
"Since your status as a journalist classifies you as a non-combatant, you are not allowed to carry arms or other military equipment. It would be beneficial for you to carry additional protective clothing to further protect yourself from enemy fire," he told her, attaching the shoulder, neck and groin attachments to her vest.
"Off," she exclaimed, her body struggling to adapt to the newly added weight on her upper torso.
"You should be thankful that your vest and its attachments only weigh 9 kilos. The one that I wore in Iraq weighed almost twice as much," told her somberly, no sympathy evident in his battle-hardened eyes.
That boy, I mean man, was in Iraq? She asked herself amazed. He looked awfully young to be a veteran of the second Iraqi conflict. While he and his comrades were fighting in the deserts of the Middle East, she was safe at home in Kent, enjoying her gap year (3) after graduating from secondary school."I suppose that there isn't a ladies version?" she asked weakly, trying to lighten up the situation. The bloody vest was crushing her chest.
"I'm afraid not ma'am," Sanders replied stoically and without emotion. The higher-ups had deemed that women were allowed to serve alongside men in the combat arms. However, they were still a rare sight to see since most of them were still in basic training.
"The final piece of equipment that you are to wear is your helmet," he said, showing a helmet that vaguely resembled the ones used by German Army during the Second Word War. "This is your most important piece of equipment for it protects your body's central nervous system. No amount of body armor can save you if you are hit in the head without a helmet."
Sanders paused for a moment to let the information sink into her mind. "The MICH TC-2007 Advanced Combat Helmet comes with an integrated adjustable liner and 7 attachable pads inside the helmet to allow a comfortable ergonomic fit and proper wear of the helmet," showing her the inside contents of the helmet and then proceeded to fasten the helmet on her head, completing the her new attire.
"As you can see due to its weight and restriction of mobility most personnel choose not to wear body armor in non-hostile environments," Sanders stated.
She looked around and saw that she was the only person with in the vicinity wearing body armor. All other personnel in the area including the Captain, with the exception of military police were solely wearing their ACUs and had either Army-issued patrol caps like the Captain, or boonie hats on their heads.
"Since you are not used to the added weight on your body, I would recommend that you keep only the vest on, without any attachments on for now to acquaint yourself with the additional weight. At the very least you should break in your boots to maximum comfort and range of motion," he told her and proceeded to take off her cumbersome vest and its attachments and showed her how to put it back on if she wished.
"Now that we have your clothing straightened out, we are now going to take a look at your luggage," he said pointing to the three bags at her feet. "What do you have in your bags?"
"Toiletries and extra changes of clothes," she told him.
"We're going to cut down your luggage. Put everything that you need for the trip to Chulak, in this bag." He pointed to her smallest bag, the size of a small rucksack, similar to the one that she had used in secondary school.
"Surely your armored vehicles can accommodate my gear?" she asked incredulously. The large vehicles that the Captain and his men were using had to be big enough to let her store her things on board.
"Ma'am, the M2A4 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle barely has the ability to carry its complement of a single squad of six mechanized infantrymen with the addition of 3 soldiers to crew the vehicle. The interior of the vehicle is already extremely cramped with personnel and equipment and the addition of a tenth person and their equipment inside the vehicle does nothing to help matters."
"Ms. Somerville, how often do you think that you're going to clean yourself once we get to Chulak?" he asked her.
"Probably once every couple of days?" she guessed, never giving it a single thought until he asked.
"Forget about your toiletries. Ma'am, we'll be lucky if we get to wash once every two weeks. We'll be stationed on the forward edge of the battle area, directly in front of the advancing Ori forces, not in the rear. The last shower that you take here at Keflavik may be the last shower that you'll ever take," he told her, reminding her of the dangerous situation she would be in.
"Same goes with your extra changes of civilian clothes. You won't need them. Once we get to Chulak, we're going to be in the forward edge of the battle area until the brass says otherwise and will be attired appropriately. I won't interfere with your job. However if you put my men's lives in jeopardy in the process, reporter or not you'll wish that you'll never been born."
She nodded taken aback by the Captain's threat.
"Now if you will excuse me Ms. Somerville, I've got a company to manage," he said as he turned his full attention away from the reporter.
"…" 23 year-old Chelsea Somerville could only stare in silence as she silently digested the young Captain's words.
March 8
CNN News Report
As the military's buildup in Keflavik continues, Pentagon officials are tight lipped about the recent developments.
The camera cut away to show a flight of 4 Antonov An-225 transport aircraft landing one after another and quickly proceeding to unload tanks and troops out of its cargo bays.
Speculation is rampant as to where or even what these troops are doing or going. Some say that these troops are on their way to relieve the Atlantis Expedition in the Pegasus galaxy, while others suspect that Dakara, the capital of the Free Jaffa Nation, one of our allies is the destination…
"Chevron Seven … locked! The gate is now active. Give'm hell for us! Over." radioed the crew operating the Stargate located on Earth.
"Rodger wilco," replied Colonel Jenkins from his command vehicle. "Alright ladies, you heard the man. Lets move out," he ordered his battalion.
"HUA!!!" the battalion exclaimed as one as they started up their engines on their vehicles and began to drive one by one through the Stargate.
Inside one of the battalion's M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 9 soldiers and one civilian journalist sat inside the vehicles cramped interior. The atmosphere was grim and silent as they made last minute preparations before going into combat.
Chelsea sat watching the proceedings with a mixture of curiosity and dread. Every soldier was in full combat gear and each had a stoic mask on as if this was an everyday occurrence to him.
"Bravo Six, you're clear to go," one of the personnel operating the 'gate radioed the IFV.
"Rodger that."
In order to decrease the potential for possible vehicle accidents, the vehicles entered the Stargate thirty seconds apart from one another. This enabled the drivers of the vehicles to have some leeway in order for them to get out of the way of the next incoming vehicle from the Stargate.
"Listen up, I want safeties on for all of your weapons. I don't want any Snafus as we go through the 'gate." Sanders told his men, not wanting anyone accidentally discharging their weapons inside the Bradley.
The resounding chorus of clicks rang through the interior as the soldiers activated the safeties on their weapons.
"Brace yourselves!" Sanders called out, knowing that the trip through the Stargate was as turbulent as it was brief.
Everyone, including the vehicle's sole civilian occupant grabbed on to whatever parts of the hull that they could find.
As the vehicle entered the Stargate, the occupants began to become slightly nauseated and unsettled due to the fact that this was their first time going through the 'gate. However since they were inside an enclosed vehicle, did not permit them to view the wormhole as they passed through.
The nauseating effects of traveling through the Stargate stopped, signaling that the Bradley had emerged from the event horizon and was now on Chulak. The driver of the Bradley paused for a couple of seconds to regain his balance and state of equilibrium before continuing to drive forward fifty meters as directed by personnel in charge of traffic control.
Eager to get out of the Bradley's cramped interior, Sanders and his men along with their embedded reporter quickly exited the vehicle.
As he took a look at his surroundings, Sanders blinked. Instead of the lush and coniferous forests of Chulak, he and his men were in some sort of subterranean complex, big enough to hold an entire armored brigade.
A Lieutenant wearing the triple turreted castle of the Army's engineers on his collar approached Sanders and saluted.
Sanders returned the salute. "Where the hell are we Lieutenant…" he looked at the Lieutenant's name tag. "… Kwon?"
"Welcome to Chulak sir. You're inside a hollowed out mountain similar to our installation in Cheyenne Mountain."
Suddenly it made perfect sense to Sanders. The 'gate had to be in some sort of hardened and protected area due to the fact that the enemy effectively controlled the skies and space. Any Stargate transit made out in the open would make a perfect target for enemy air and spacecraft.
"What's the Tactical situation?"
"I don't know much, but the last units of the XVIII Airborne Corps arrived a day before you guys did," the Lieutenant replied.
"What about air support?" he asked, very concerned about the fact that the enemy dominated the air.
"I've seen Apaches, Blackhawks and Chinooks go through the puke 'chute," the engineer replied using the name given by the personnel on Chulak.
"No planes at all?"
"Not at all."
"Fuck." Sanders wasn't an airdale (4) but he knew that helicopters were no match for whatever aircraft the enemy tried to field.
The whoosh sound of the Stargate closing indicated that the last of the M113 Armored Personnel Carriers carrying the combat engineers of Echo Company had finished their transit.
"Excuse me Captain, I have to get back to work on the 'gate," the Lieutenant told him, leaving Sanders alone to his thoughts, wondering about the tactical strength of the enemy he was going to face.
March 10 8th Army Headquarters, Chulak
"I Corps has completed transit," reported Krebs.
"Excellent." Wilson now had two-thirds of his Army on Chulak, with only his smallest and most heavily armored Corps still on Earth. "What about our supply trains?" he asked concerned about his logistics. As Napoleon said, an Army marches on its stomach. One might have the best-trained Army with the best equipment in the galaxy, however without food to feed them and ammunition for them to use, they were as useful as a rubber crutch.
"We have one supply convoy coming from Earth for 3 transits made by our line units. We have enough ammunition for 5 sustained battles," reported Major General Sven de Vries, his G-4 logistics officer.
"What about the Stingers I requested?" Knowing that enemy controlled the heavens and the skies, Wilson had ordered his logistics officer to shanghai every single surface to air missile and launcher that he could get his hands on. The members of the Army's Air Defense Artillery Branch were going to have their hands full. Wilson wanted to make sure that they were adequately prepared for the enemy and then some.
"We currently have 2500 FIM-92 Stinger surface to air missiles with the addition of 1000 AIM-92 Stinger missiles specially made to be able to be fired from our Apache helicopters. In addition, we have an extra 40 M1097 Avenger and M6 Linebacker Air Defense Systems added to those that we already have."
"Great. General Michalski, when do you think you'll have your airfields ready?"
"The first of my airfields should be operational in 1 week and will be able to implement combat operations with in 2," replied the Army Air Corps Major General in charge of all aircraft on Chulak. His English was slightly slurred due to the fact that the ability to read, speak and understand the English language was recently implanted into his brain by Asgard technology. His vocal chords were still not used to the new and unfamiliar sounds required to speak the language, which was vastly different than his native Polish.
"Great. Prime (5) Terak, what's the status of your warriors?" Wilson asked carefully using the word 'warrior' as opposed to the Terran terms of 'warfighter' or 'soldier" to indicate respect for the Jaffa.
"My warriors number slightly over 25,000. A little more than a division as you Tau'ri say."
"How are your new weapons treating you?" asked Wilson. When the 8th Army first arrived a Chulak, Wilson immediately requested additional weapons to arm the Jaffa. This was due to two reasons, the first being that the Jaffa had used up most of their weapons in the last few weeks and the second being the inferiority of their weapons to their Terran counterparts in comparison.
In comparison to Terran assault rifles, staff weapons were vastly inferior. This was due to many reasons. First of all, the staff weapons were very large with the length of around 2 meters long and heavy, which made it very difficult to carry. Second, the ergonomics of the staff weapon was poor and could not be held in a comfortable and effective firing position. Third, the rate of fire was extremely slow and could only fire around once every five seconds, which was very slow compared to Terran standards. Fourth, the average Jaffa could not hit the broad side of a barn within a range of 50 meters, a range where every Terran soldier was qualified to hit targets with deadly accuracy.
The only factor that the staff weapon had over the Terran assault rifle was its stopping power, since in most cases it only took one hit to take the enemy down. However this advantage was largely negated by the widespread distribution of hollow point, armor piercing and high explosive ammunition to its soldiers.
"They are excellent weapons, worthy of the warriors who wield them. Many of my warriors are pleased with these weapons. However some of the older warriors do not particularly care for them. However they are both old and stubborn, so do not heed their words, for they are mere grumblings of fools unwilling to change," the Jaffa replied.
"I'm glad to hear that. How are your women and children in the shelters doing? We'll be ready to evacuate them back to Earth within a couple of days."
"That is most welcome. Battle is reserved for warriors and warriors only. Innocents should not be forced to fight."
Turning to his operations officer he asked, "General Krebs, what's the status on the XVIII Airborne?"
"As per your orders, the XVIII Airborne has deployed to the Forward Edge of the Battle Area and has engaged the enemy," the General reported.
"Casualties?"
"200 wounded in action. Luckily most of the wounds are not severe. 0 Missing in action so far. However 18 have been killed in action."
Wilson nodded, already the first of his boys were coming home in body bags, or as the Pentagon now called them, human remains pouches. He now had some letters to write.
March 14 2008 Presidential Residence Press Room
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the Terran Federal Republic and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," the announcer stated as President Hayes and General O'Neill walked onto the center stage and took their places at the podium.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Terran Federal Republic, I am here to announce that the Terran Military under my orders has commenced offensive operations to support our allies in the Milky Way Galaxy."
Immediately the press got to their feet and began clamoring for the President and the Chairman to answer their questions.
"Mr. President, will the deployment of military forces away from Earth and the Solar System affect the ability of the military to defend Earth from another Ori attack?" asked a reporter.
"Due to the fact that I'm not the most knowledgeable of military matters, I'm going to have General O'Neill answer this one."
"The Terran Republic's ability to defend itself against any foe will not be compromised by the deployment of forces across the Milky Way."
"Can you tell us how many troops that have been deployed?"
Not knowing whether to answer or not, O'Neill looked to his Commander-in-Chief. The President nodded to Hayes, giving him the okay.
"Somewhere in the ballpark of 200,000 to 300,000 personnel."
"Won't that severely affect the military's pool of personnel?"
"Currently, the military has over 75 million men and women under arms. The deployment of one percent of the military will not severely affect the military's ability to defend the Solar System."
"Mr. President, can the economy endure such a massive deployment of troops?"
"It isn't a matter of if the economy can but if the will. To win this war, we are going to have to take the fight to the enemy. At this point in Terran History, the global economy of Earth has not been higher and more prosperous. 7 our of every 8 adults are employed, many of whom are working in our factories both on Earth and in space. I am confident that the economy will be able to withstand an extra-Solar deployment of troops," the President stated. (6)
"What have our allies doing to assist us at the moment?"
"Our allies have proven to be very helpful to us. The Asgard and Tok'ra have assisted us in the improvement of our technological base and the development of new weapons for our Armed Forces. Our human allies from Langara and Pangara have pledged to send a considerable amount of troops to assist our efforts."
"Have there been any casualties as of now?"
"There have. However I will not give out the specifics until their families are notified."
"Thank you, that will be all ladies and gentlemen," the Press Secretary announced as the President and the Chairman left the stage.
Author's Notes
(1)- Rear Echelon Mother Fucker. A term used by frontline troops to describe their superiors in the rear in a very negative matter. It is not a term of endearment.
(2)- ACU or Army Combat Uniform, the successor to the Army's Battledress Uniform, able to blend into multiple environments. It is currently in use by the US Army.
(3)- Gap Year. British students often take off a year between secondary and college education. The term is used exclusively in Britain.
(4)- Airdale, a derogatory term used by US and UK soldiers to describe Air Force personnel.
(5)- Jaffa equivalent for a General or an Admiral. Teal'c was the First Prime of Apophis, and thus was the chief warrior for him. This is just a guess. The Jaffa people are a society of warriors, so they don't have very many ranks, like soldiers so I made up my own.
(6)- Remember WWII helped the US economy get out of the Great Depression. I'm guessing that this war would do the same thing except for on the global scale.
Sanders is not a chauvinist or sexist pig. He's a veteran company commander who doesn't like unnecessary complications in his job. It is hard enough to tell a company of 100 plus trained soldiers what to and keep track of them at the same time without a civilian reporter running around to complicate things.
Terran 8th Army Table of Organization and Equipment
CO: General James Wilson
Subordinate Units (Not Counting Support Units)
I Corps
2nd Infantry Division "Indian Head"
24th Infantry Division "Victory"
25th Infantry Division (Light) "Tropic Lighting"
107th Infantry Division (Mechanized) "Dragon"
108th Infantry Division (Mechanized) "Guan Yu"
18th Armored Division "Boudica"
III Corps
4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) "Iron Horse"
7th Infantry Division (Light) "Bayonet"
1st Calvary Division "First Team"
17th Armored Division "Erwin Rommel"
13th Armored Calvary Regiment "Judas Maccabee"
1st Marine Division "The Old Breed"
XVIII Airborne Corps
3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) "Rock of the Marne"
109th Infantry Division (Light) "Ned Kelly"
10th Mountain Division "Mountaineer"
82nd Airborne Division "All American"
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) "Screaming Eagles"
Total Amount of Troops 320,000 Troops