"Morning Jess" Jason said as he saw Jess enter the mess tent with Pepper, the boys were already eating
"Hey" Jess said relieved to see their faces, Pepper relieved to see her team greeted each of them before laying on the ground in between Brock and Clay
"Grabbed you some breakfast" Ray said handing a tray over to her as Jess took the spare seat
"I think I'll pass" Jess said as she gently pushed the tray to one side, she was feeling fairly nauseated and tired this morning and her throat was feeling a little tight
"Jess, you shouldn't have any problem with what's there" Trent said concerned at her sudden refusal to eat, Jess hadn't eaten a lot on deployment, but she was always willing to eat a little bit with the team when they sat down for meals together
"Yeah, but I don't want to risk an upset today, not with the marines in camp, they're already convinced I can't do my job because of this, doubt me throwing up will change that opinion" Jess said softly, she needed everything to go right for her today, a smooth mission, no hiccups, she wanted the marines out of camp
"What, they're joking right, they think you can't do your job because you have a feeding tube" Jason said annoyed about what he was hearing as the rest of the team looked on disgusted
"Even got called a crippled retard" Jess said not showing any emotion over the fact
"What, that's not on" Sonny said as he went to get up from the table, his tone told the others he was ready to go and confront the marines
"Leave it, I'm sure General Blair dealt with Colonel Russell's behaviour last night, let's just focus on the mission so they can get out of here as soon as possible, and we can get back to normal" Jess said pleadingly, any of them causing trouble wasn't going to help the situation at the moment, they needed the marines out of camp, and the only way that would happen would be to get this mission done as smoothly as possible so it was an open and shut mission
"We'll drop it for now, but if they say anything in front of us, we won't be leaving it alone, we won't allow them to insult you like that" Ray said, he understood Jess's thinking and her desire to get the marines out of camp, that way they could get back to normal
"I know" Jess said with a small smile
"You have the yoghurt, and I'll drop the whole eating thing" Trent said taking the tray away, Aubree and Chelsea had both mentioned that there may be times Jess would become overwhelmed by food choices if she was dealing with a lot of emotional stresses and the fact she knows herself she needs to eat, they had advised him that in those cases, Jess would find it more comforting to have the choice taken from her and be told what to eat instead as she was a soldier, and soldiers are used to following orders
"Okay" Jess said accepting the yoghurt and spoon from the medic
"So any thoughts on how to go about this mission, get us the green light" Jason inquisetively asked the EOD
"I have a few ideas" Jess said as she took a mouthful of yogurt
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Later that day the teams were summoned to a briefing in the TOC
"So this is our target, Abdullah Al-Asiri, head of the terrorist organisation Nazam al-haqqiqi leh" Lisa said beginning the briefing
"How come we haven't heard of them" Colonel Russell asked curiously
"We have only had this organisation on our radar for less than 6 months, they have been active for a couple of years though, and are responsible for the death of the American ambassador to Dubai and his son in the recent hospital bombing there" Lisa said
"So where's he hiding" Colonel Russell asked
"His current location is Jarabulus, the area is under control of the Turkish government and flooded with refugees, we have no idea as to why he is in this specific location, or whether the Turkish government is aware of who he is, we also have no guaranteed extradition treaty with Turkey and we need to keep them as our allies, so we need to keep this low vis and we can't rely on them to help us" Jess said, her and Lisa had discussed this side of things last night, see if they could get a idea about Al-Asiri's movements, or at least form a theory
"So how do we do this then" Eric asked
"Night time assault with a sonic boom being used to provide cover, we split our forces into two teams, simultaneous breech infil, round up the occupants in the house and intel, then get out of dodge, sort out who's who back here" Jess said explaining the thinking that had been discussed last night
"Why not just take them out on site, save time" one of the marines asked
"Because we have no idea on who's in the house, or why Al-Asiri is in Jarabulus at this particular house, last thing we need is to be shooting some unarmed innocent civilians, the sonic boom should be enough to cause confusion and distract them into thinking that there's been a bombing in the area, and if we coincide it to occur during final call to prayer, people should be in their houses and not peeking out windows, it is a residential area after all, use the scooby vans for exfil" Jess said confidently
"General Blair" Eric asked looking at him
"What if you need to take someone out, the Turks can't knowwe were there"
"We could carry low vis indig weaponry" Clay suggested
"Good thinking crocodile blondie, think Bookworm is rubbing off on you a bit" Sonny said as General Blair gave a nod indicating he was happy with the plan
"What's your translation skills like, any of you got any Arabic under your belts" Jason asked the marine team leader
"Or Kurdish, Syriac,Turkish, Aramaic, Circassian, Chechen, Armenian, Greek" Jess asked, those languages were all spoken in Syria
"As if anyone has those languages under their belt" the marine team leader scoffed
"I'm fluent in everything but Greek" Jess said leaving the marines looking shocked
"And Clay pigeon here has 3, and Ray and Trent both speak Kurdish" Sonny said rubbing it in
"So what does that matter to us" one of them asked
"Both teams will need a translator, which means we'll need to divide you up" Eric said
"My boys will take Turner, she's got more languages under her belt, and its less disruptive to the teams to transfer 1 person, than dividing both teams and changing their dynamics, will leave both teams at 6 men each" the marine team leader said
"Jess" Eric asked cautiously, he was aware of the behaviour Colonel Russell and Sargent Gonzalez had both displayed towards Jess last night, he wasn't sure if the others had displayed any negative behaviour towards Jess, he didn't want her in a situation where she was isolated from Bravo and was being treated with disrespect
"Fine by me sir, you know I'll work with anyone" Jess said not showing him any emotion or indication that anything else had been said to her, Jess was clearly not letting this bother her
"Okay" Eric said happy to let the marines burrow Jess
"Both teams are a go, wheels up 1600, dismissed" General Blair said