Into Africa
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own no Castles. Or Becketts. Rating: K+ for language. Time: The present day, but in an alternate universe.
Later that day, Sergeant Xochomillo was doing his own work when one of the Rangers spoke. "Sarge, the lady archeologist is coming."
Sure enough, Dr. Beckett was headed straight for him. She didn't look happy, but, he reflected, she didn't look mad.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded.
"Ma'am, I'm making a machine gun range card and the four of them are building a sangar."
"What are those?"
Xochomillo held up the range card. "This is like a small map of the area in front of my gun. I mark places that I may need to shoot, both deflection and range, then I…"
"What's a sangar?" She asked.
"A small fort built of rocks. We build them when the ground is too hard to dig in. Like here. We're putting most of the sangars here on the east side of this rock. There's two places on the next rock where they can shoot at us. That spire looking thing some 600 meters away and the ridge, 800 meters away."
"Captain Rodgers told me I could have my people monitor any…building here. Did he tell you anything about that?"
"No, ma'am. The captain didn't send me here. Sergeant Hobbes did."
"Can you call Captain Rodgers and tell him I want one of my people here?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Xochomillo got on the radio and quickly got permission for one of Dr. Beckett's people to look for any archeological treasures.
"I'll have someone over here in five minutes. Is this sangar all you're building?" Beckett asked.
"We're going to fill some sandbags to use to steady the gun, ma'am."
"I'll have that checked as well." Beckett said and walked off towards the dig only a few hundred meters away.
"Great ass." One Ranger said softly.
"Yeah, "Xochomillo said. "And don't even think about saying that where she or any of them others can hear you. Take five until we get someone here."
In less than two minutes a young woman was headed for them. She was rather tall, but slim, with nice legs, shown off by a pair of cutoffs, with short blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Hi, I'm Chris Sullivan. I'm here to watch you guys. "She giggled. "That sounds awful, like I'm just here to watch while you do all the work. Oh, can I see that rock please?" Without waiting, she picked up a medium size stone. "Look! This one has what looks like chisel marks on it. I'll put it over here."
Xochomillo put his team back to work. One of them, Specialist Billy Hebert, was sure that the blonde was the girl he'd given a brat to. She's damned nice looking, but if I so much as smile at her, Xochomillo will be all over my ass and all the other NCOs above him will get their turn. Fuck a bunch of non-fraternization.
The sergeant worked on his range card and the four Rangers stacked the rocks up into a chest high barricade. Only one other rock had interested Chris Sullivan and Hebert was angry that another guy had found it and given it to her.
"We're gonna fill some sandbags now, Miss. Did you want to run them through some kind of a screen?"
"Oh, damn. I forgot to bring the screen. Can you wait just a second?"
Xochomillo nodded. "Hebert, go with her and carry her stuff for her."
When they were a ways away from the sangar, Hebert spoke. "I gave you a bratwurst at the barbecue, didn't I?"
"That was you? Thanks. Everyone has been bitching about Dr. Bradley's food selection. It's all very healthy, or so he says, but it's mostly tasteless. Could you get me some more brats?"
Hebert shook his head. "We're all out. Living on MREs and whatever care packages we get. A guy in my squad got a whole box of cookies from his mom. They were all busted up by the time we got them, but they were good. Not home cooking, though."
"Where is home? I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."
"I'm Specialist Billy Hebert, from Meaux, Louisiana."
Chris giggled. "From that accent, I didn't think you were from South Boston."
They had reached the site of the dig. "This is the screen I need. It isn't very big. I could have carried it myself." She looked at Billy. "Tell you what. I'll grab us some cold bottled waters, enough for everyone. Okay?" Without waiting for a reply, Chis ducked off between two tents. She was back in a minute with a backpack full of bottled water.
"Do you suppose some of us could come over sometime and try these MREs? I don't know what they are, but they'd have to at least be different from what we get now."
Regretfully, Billy shook his head. "We're not supposed to fraternize with you people. I don't think the captain and Dr. Beckett and Dr. Bradley get along. The captain said it'll cause less friction if we keep apart."
"That sucks." Chris said. "But I know that Dr. Bradley tells us all the time that you guys are just a bunch of animals. He doesn't like you guys at all. I don't know about Dr. Beckett. I did overhear her say your captain was hot."
"Dr. Beckett is hot, but so are you."
Chris blushed. "So, what are MREs? I mean I've heard the term, but that's all."
Billy pulled a brown plastic bag from his pocket. "They're meals ready to eat, or meals rejected by everyone. I got this for breakfast this morning. Hash browns with bacon, granola, apple turnover and peanuts. Plus some kind of fake orange juice and coffee. I ate all of that, but I still have the cheese spread and crackers. Before we came downrange, we bought some real coffee and the squad has a portable coffee maker. It's better than the MRE shit."
"But we can't get together because it would cause friction?"
"I can only talk to you now on account I'm on duty carrying your screen for you."
"So, if I should just happen to walk over by the west edge of the mesa tonight about 10:00, and you just happened to be there, and I needed to know about MRE's, you'd have to tell me, right?"
Billy was sure that was wrong, but be nodded anyway.
Chris smiled. "We need to get back."
Meanwhile, on the western side of the rock…
"Did my brother send you over here?"
Sergeant McAllen stood up to see a short, stocky but muscular woman peering over the edge of his sangar.
"No, ma'am. The US Army sent me here."
That got a glare. "My brother, Hugh Glass, is some sort of …something with you people. Did he send you over to build this….What the hell is this thing anyway."
"It's a kind of an above ground mortar pit for my weapon, and Lieutenant Glass is out platoon leader."
"Well that thing is pointing right at us. If it went off it'd hit us."
"Actually, ma'am, it's pointed upwards. If it was fired, the shell would land on the next rock to the east."
"Did someone from the dig approve of this?" She demanded.
"We had some fellow named Max from your people watch us and make sure we didn't use anything you people needed."
"You can see right into our tents from here. I demand you demolish this at once."
"I can't do that, ma'am."
"Well, I can." She grabbed a big rock, but overbalanced and fell backwards, dropping the rock on her foot.
McAllen and his mortar team vaulted over the sangar. "I think you're hurt. I'd better call the medics."
Glass shot to her feet. "I refuse to be touched by any of you." She headed back to the dig's camp, limping badly.
Sergeant Rios watched her go. "Maybe we'd better think again about a protective detail for the LT, if that's his sister."
McAllen shook his head. He had grown up the only boy in his family with five older sisters. He had joined the Army because he found it more peaceful, and quiet than his home life. "If they're family, they'll kick and scratch and yell at each other, but nothing more."
"Hope so." Someone muttered.
When it was well after sunset, Billy Hebert grabbed his flak vest, helmet, night vision goggles and M-4 carbine and headed for the west edge of the rock. Tucked into his flak vest was an MRE pouch, lemon pepper tuna.
Pulling on his NVGs, he walked towards where Chris said she'd be waiting. In a few minutes, he saw her kneeling between several very large rocks. He walked very quietly up to her and when he was just on the other side of one rock, he called out. "Hi, Chris."
She jumped. "Billy, is that you?"
"Who were you expecting?"
"How did you find me? I can hardly see you and you're right on top of me."
"Ranger magic. I've got night vision goggles on." He took them off and held them to her face. "Take a look."
"That is so cool. It's just like on the TV news."
"I got you a meal, lemon pepper tuna. Remember, we have to be very quiet. Sounds carry in the desert at night. I picked this because you don't have to cook it."
"You're not eating with me?"
He shook his head, then remembered she couldn't see him. "I ate already. But we also have some pound cake, cheese spread, tortillas, lemon-lime powder and M&Ms. The Mexican guys say the tortillas aren't anything like mama makes, but they're okay, I guess."
Chris dug into the MRE and Billy snacked on M&Ms.
"This is a lot better than what Dr. Bradley got for us. Tonight, we had some kind of stew. It was gluten free, vegetarian, free range, fair trade and responsibly farmed. It tasted like cardboard in soapy water."
Chris ate until everything was gone. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Have you ever been, you know, in combat?"
"No. About a quarter of the guys in the platoon have been, but most of us haven't. But we're all trained for it."
"What kind of training do you do?"
"I started off in the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, then Airborne School, where I learned to jump out of airplanes and then Ranger School, which is about two months long. Then I went to the Ranger Regiment. And now, here I am."
"What exactly do you do?"
"I'm a rifleman."
"Aren't everyone riflemen?"
"No. The smallest maneuver unit is the fireteam, four people. There's the team leader, he's got an M-4 carbine like I do, but he's in charge of the other three guys. Next is the SAW gunner. That's a squad automatic weapon, sometimes called a light machine gun. He has the most firepower. Then there's the grenadier. He's also got an M-4, but he has a 40mm grenade launcher under the barrel of his M-4. Two fireteams, plus a squad leader, make a squad. A platoon is three squads and a machine gun squad. Now, our platoon has the LT, that is Lt. Glass, a platoon sergeant, a radio operator and a medic. Since we're out here by ourselves, we have more machine guns, a sniper team, a mortar squad, recoiless rifle team and more medics. Plus we have a Special Forces A detachment. Or, they have us, I guess."
Chris moved herself onto Billy's lap. "You know, Billy, you talk too much." She leaned in and kissed him.
Billy agreed with her and began kissing her back. He had just unhooked her bra when she pushed herself away from him. "We need to be careful, babe. I'm afraid I get a little loud when I have sex with a guy."
Billy sighed. "Yeah. The last thing I need is for someone to catch us. I'd end up filling sandbags all day and pulling guard duty all night. That would suck."
Chris giggled. "Suck? You know, I couldn't make much noise if my mouth was full." She started undoing his pants. "How about you, babe? Can you stay quiet?"
"You can't believe how quiet I can be."
Neither one of them made a sound.