Part 8 – Delayed Departure – Part 1
Being as the Kandra Republic shared a border with the Congolese Confederacy, it was the most logical place for a staging area.
The staging area was made up of mostly inflatable buildings, and shipping containers that had the sides cut out.
Sasuke's team, being in good standing with Jiraiya, they managed to get a decent inflatable room that they set up a few cots in.
It was only temporary as they were only there for a week before they moved out to begin their invasion.
"You think Jiraiya will go with this plan of yours," Naruto asked as the two of them sat on their cots, going over the proposal Sasuke was going to submit to Jiraiya for their incursion into the Kandra Republic.
"If he doesn't then we'll be reduced to bush-burning," Sasuke said, "If no one else has proposed this, then we're sure to be the one that gets the job."
"Ok," Naruto said, "I hope you're right."
Sasuke and Naruto stood up and walked out of their team's quarters toward the Jiraiya's command tent.
The two of them, along with everyone else there were dressed in the military's standard TRU-SPEC ACU waterproof ECWCS pants, Sierra Sole ACU boots, and TRU-SPEC ACU Multicam combat shirts.
As they walked up to the command tent, they saw several members of MARSOC playing basketball in the courtyard they set up just outside the command center, and as they walked up, Captain Neji Hyūga of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 2nd battalion walked out to see them.
"Lieutenant Uchiha," Neji said.
"Captain," Sasuke said as he gave Neji a little salute, and shook his hand, "You just finish your pitch?"
"Yep," Neji said.
"You want to tell us," Sasuke asked.
"No matter how much I want to, you know I can't," Neji said, "But good luck to you."
"Thanks," Sasuke said as he slapped Neji on the shoulder, "Best of luck."
As they walked up to the door, one of the elvish Marines looked over his shoulder at the two of them and spoke up, "Hey red-skin," he said, "I'd hate to burst your bubble, but that's not the mess-tent. That's General White's tent. Special Forces only."
Sasuke punched in the number on the command pad, and as the door unlocked, Naruto turned around and flipped him off.
"Lieutenant," Jiraiya said as he looked up to see Sasuke enter, "Good to see you."
"General," Sasuke said as he and Naruto stood at attention in front of him.
"At ease," Jiraiya said, "So give me your pitch. I've heard a lot of different pitches, your friend, Captain Hyūga just proposed using the town of Tani as a stronghold. Another proposed the idea of taking the town of Ligou. I've heard different plans from different soldiers," Jiraiya gestured toward the map on his desk, "So what do you have in mind?"
Sasuke walked up to the map and pointed at a small symbol on the map between the western town of Tani, and the eastern town of Ligou.
"Mammenda Airbase," Jiraiya asked, "You do know Kandra Republic's 2nd, 3rd, and 5th airborne regiments are stationed there? Not to mention two of their attack helicopter battalions?"
"That's the point," Sasuke said as he pointed toward Tani, "If you send Captain Hyūga to Tani," he then pointed at Ligou, "Or whoever proposed sending troops to Ligou, and they get caught, where's help going to come from? We can take out their ability to send their choppers to attack our other teams."
"You and three others, plus one here," Jiraiya asked, "You do realize that's beyond crazy?"
"Yes, I do," Sasuke said before looking over at Naruto, "But I believe in my men," he then looked back at Jiraiya, "And so do you. But right now that's irrelevant because of the enemy we're facing. We're not dealing with humans, or orcs, we're dealing with goblins. That means two things: strength in numbers, and swift speed. Aside from that, goblins can see in the dark, but so can I. Any attack we commit against these creatures has to be faster than they can react. Anyone who'll tell you that this is just like Vietnam or any other conventional war doesn't know what they're talking about. Right about now over seventy-six thousand are dead because of six goblins. The reason we went to war instead of sending in a covert strike team to simply put a bullet in-between their tiny brains is because we know that it possibly won't work, and they'd retaliate. They knew that attacking us was a risky move, they tried to get us to surrender their former leader, and they failed. If we're going to get these little Oompa-Loompas, then we have to do things that normally sane people wouldn't."
"You know I've heard a different proposal from ten different Spec Ops soldiers," Jiraiya said, "Some of them are above your rank either by one or two levels. Most of them are humans, elves, or dwarves. Some of them have ten years of experience. But right now, Lieutenant Uchiha you're the only one who clearly sees the situation we're in. Right now we're facing a situation we haven't faced in just a few months shy of almost three decades. Our enemies are going to be wearing uniforms. They're going to be carrying weapons they're trained in, and they're going to have armored vehicles. In order for the invasion to succeed, we're going to need a Forward Operating Base. You think Mammenda Airbase is that location?"
"We're going to have to land troops somewhere," Sasuke said, "We can't use a road to land planes, so why not use an airstrip?"
"I'm not going to lie to you Lieutenant," Jiraiya said, "What you're proposing is risky, dangerous, and stupid. Even if you can accomplish this, there are odds of only four of you pulling this off without taking casualties…"
"Those odds are 100% of us coming back, with all due respect, sir," Sasuke said, "Ever since I joined the Knights, I haven't lost a single member of my unit, and I'm not going to lose a single member of this team during this deployment."
"You have confidence," Jiraiya said, "You've convinced me. Get with your team, and get a plan together. You leave tonight. You, Captain Hyūga, and Major Guy."
Sasuke and Naruto walked out to see that Captain Hyūga had made the soldier that made the 'red man' comment to Sasuke do pushups.
"He's back," Captain Hyūga said, "You can stop."
The soldier collapsed on the ground as Neji walked up to Sasuke, "How was it," he asked.
"Very well," Sasuke said as he put his hand on Neji's shoulder, "Congrats, we got it."
"We got it," Neji asked.
"Me, you, and Major Guy," Sasuke said, "Tip of the spear."
"So he approved my attack on Tani," Neji asked.
"And apparently Major Guy's plan to attack Ligou," Sasuke said, "As well as mine to take Mammenda Airbase."
"You want to take Mammenda Airbase," Neji asked.
"My friend, we have no experience doing this kind of fighting," Sasuke said, "Right now, the playbook has to be rewritten. Besides, if Mammenda Airbase is left alone, who's to say they won't call in reinforcements? Where do you think their best bet would be?"
"To call in a means of transport from the nearest airbase," Neji said as Sasuke removed his hand from Neji's shoulder to point at him, "I see what you're doing now."
"Nice," Sasuke said, "By the way," he turned his attention to Naruto, "Have you two talked?"
"About what," Neji asked.
"You couldn't have waited until after the mission," Naruto asked.
"He has to know," Sasuke said, "Better he know sooner rather than later."
"Know what," Neji asked.
Sasuke looked at Naruto who spoke up, "Me and Hinata got married right before we were deployed."
"You married my cousin without me there," Neji asked.
"You know there's nothing me and Hinata would have loved more than for you to have been there to give her away," Naruto said.
Neji sighed, "With everything going on, I can't blame you," he said, "I was given the same notice that you guys were. We're going to be here for at least six months."
"You'll still be able to give her away," Naruto said, "We're going to have a ceremony for all of our family when we get back stateside, and we'd be honored if you'd give Hinata away."
"It would be my honor to give her away," Neji said.
"Now that that's settled, what do you say we get to work," Sasuke asked.
"Let's," Neji said, "Big night tonight."
"Damn straight," Naruto said.
Sasuke and Naruto walked back to their tent to see Shino, Sai, and Rock were using the exercise equipment the soldiers had whipped up using what was lying around.
Shino was doing arm-curls using single rebar that was wrapped around a cinderblock. Sai was using a couple of sandbags as a weight to do pushups with. Rock meanwhile was using a couple of cinderblocks to anchor his feet to the ground while he did sit-ups.
"Hey boss," Shino said as he dropped the cinderblocks.
Sai shrugged off the sandbags, and Rock pulled his feet out of the blocks to look over at their boss.
"Hello boys," Sasuke said, "Seems having Jiraiya here was a blessing in disguise. We're going to be one of the first teams sent in."
The team cheered, "Fuck yeah," Shino said.
"Yea, don't cheer just yet boys," Sasuke said, "We're going to be dropped behind enemy lines late at night, and we're going to be facing an enemy that can spot movement in almost complete darkness. The margin for error here is almost zero."
"What's the objective," Rock asked.
"Mammenda Airbase," Sasuke said, "We're going to fly in tonight, airdrop into the AO, and hopefully secure the entire area."
"If we don't take that base, then the goblins can send in attack helicopters and more troops to fight against Captain Hyūga who is planning to attack the town of Tani," Naruto said, "Or to the town of Ligou which Major Guy is going to be attacking. Not to mention, Mammenda Airbase is just about the biggest military installation in the northern part of the Kandra Republic. We need a Forward Operating Base, and Mammenda Airbase has more than enough resources to supply that."
"Who're we going in with," Sai asked.
"We're it," Sasuke said, "Everyone else is going to be busy with the invasion. It'll be the four of us with Rock providing intel. We all know what tough little buggers goblins are. They grew up in caves for most of their lives, which means that their sight is superior to a human's. We get spotted, they'll shoot at us."
"What about the enemy numbers," Shino asked.
"They have at least seven hundred and fifty professionally-trained goblin soldiers," Sasuke said, "They'll have helicopters, machineguns, mortars, and armored vehicles. We're outnumbered and outgunned."
"Sounds like a target-rich environment," Shino said.
"Easy there Rambo," Sasuke said, "We might be bigger than these goblins, and we might be better equipped, but we can't get trigger happy. Our objective is to secure the airbase, but let's not forget that we can't get overconfident. Goblins don't like to surrender, and if we make one mistake, we can't just shoot out way out. Tonight there'll be no room for unnecessary risks, no room for heroics, and no opportunities to get trigger-happy. The Knights have never been in a situation like this before: we've had no opportunities to prove our worth: any opportunities to show that non-human or non-elven races can do just as well as any others. We do this right, and command might not look down on us so much. This is an opportunity to prove ourselves, let's not waste it."
"We won't," Shino said.
"Good," Sasuke said, "Anything else?"
"Just one more thing," Sai said, "Armaments?"
"The gear's in the tents," Sasuke said.
"Yes," Sai exclaimed.
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