SG "Danger" Five

Posted on Sat Sep 11th, 2021 @ 1:08am by Lieutenant Michelle Hanley & 1st Lieutenant James McCoy

Mission: Jumping Right In
Location: SG-5 Squad Bay
1750 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The squad bay was a simple affair, although much smaller than what was expected in most bases. Lockers, desks, chairs. Somewhere for the team to do their day to day stuff, a place to meet up and get work done off the field. It was smaller due more to the base - building in Antarctica was challenging enough and no one wanted to do more than what was needed and introduce unforeseen complications. Maybe one day the base would get bigger but for now, this was good enough.

The lockers had yet to be marked, Michelle noticed, but that was likely due to staffing still being worked out. Given the information she had, that made more sense, but it still wasn't ideal to still be waiting on people that could show up at the last possible second. She made her claim, putting some essentials in the locker and a couple small curios and pictures on her desk. The curios seemed to tell more about her - a small car model of a Shelby GT350R, a couple ships from Star Wars and Star Trek. The pictures, they were of family - either her squad back in DEVGRU or her actual family back in Nevada. No significant other though, it appeared. But none of her awards or any of just herself were there, no "I love me" decorations.

Plugging in and turning on the officially issued laptop, she waited for it to run through the usual updates, taking a drink from her can of energy drink, waiting for others to join her to break up the tedium of "We're Getting Your New Computer Ready For You" flashing across the screen.

James entered slowly checking his gear as he surveyed the room slowly. He wasn't one to 'stow' his equipment, but if they wanted some gear stowed he would. He noticed the blonde whom from the dossiers he had been assigned to read he recognized as Lieutenant Hanley. Most of her jacket was like his. "Morning Froggie." he said with a small smile, as he grabbed a locker, and set about making himself at home.

He checked out the locker space as he took his HK45 off his hip and put it in the locker, and set about organising the small amount of gear that he would keep in the locker, some extra ammo, the spare barrel for his SCAR 17, and his MB2A1.

Michelle glanced up to see who had arrived, and who was addressing her as such. The question suddenly dawned on her if she was supposed to be wearing a sidearm or not. Most folks didn't seem to, but SG-5's profile was a little different. She made a mental note to go ask and then draw a P226 from the armory if the option was there.

"Good morning. Might wanna give the laptop a few if you haven't. Looks like typical DoD fashion, it's got about two hours worth of Windows updates to do." Michelle said, standing up, "Also, I prefer Gambler. But good that you don't mind a little informal in our day to day. Pretty sure the parade grounds will remain closed for snow forever." She concluded with a grin.

McCoy's dossier had enough black lines in it to make reading it more like a brochure than a personnel file. That annoyed her, but it wasn't his fault, someone at The Unit thought this looked cool or maybe didn't realize that there should probably be a version for people who actually wanted something to read. But she'd been around to know he was obviously competent and they had similar backgrounds, Army notwithstanding.

"So, three important questions are on my mind. First, you got a way you'd rather be addressed? Second, what's your primary specialty in the field? And third, what's the last movie you watched?" Michelle asked with an even widening grin.

James checked the laptop for a moment before he opened it, and booted it up. "I swear they give more shit every reassignment." He looked over at the other lieutenant. "Gambler was it, so that makes you Lieutenant Hanley?" He asked with a smile. He reholstered his sidearm.

He watched as the computer ran through the updates once more, and shook his head. "I got called Doc, cause we had a Star Trek fan, but I prefer Jim. My primary speciality was survival, overwatch, and whatever else the job asked for." He stood and stretched. "To be honest I can't remember the last movie I watched. It might have been The Deadpool, but to be honest I was get home 2 weeks leave, back to base and started preparing for this." He paused for a moment. "What about, you what brought you to this giant ice cube?"

"That would indeed. Now, if your background was in medical, I'd call you Bones. That's a true fan." Michelle replied, "But that's fine. Mine's for a couple reasons, being from Las Vegas one of them. But as for why I signed the paperwork? You kidding me? Strange new worlds and showing those aliens that paid us a visit they made a huge mistake. Surely there's folks out there who are waiting for us to put boots to backsides."

"So, when you say The Deadpool, are you referring to the fourth Dirty Harry movie or the more recent superhero movie?" Michelle then asked.

Ivan knocked on the door before entering and raising an eyebrow at the two officers present. The Sergeant made a crisp salute. "Sergeant Yaroslavovich reporting for duty." He said in a thick Russian accent.

Michelle looked over to the new arrival, "At ease, Sergeant. Pick yourself a desk and a locker, pull up a chair and join the conversation. What's your background in? Got any preferences of how you prefer to be addressed? And what's the last movie you watched?" The grin she had was infectious, her mix of casual and playful tone, and overall a general sense that she wanted to get to know those she'd be serving with and give them a chance to learn about her.

The Sergeant literally picked the closest locker to him without even looking and then went to pull a chair and take a seat. "Engineering, MARSOC Marines. Hephaestus. No movies, no time, work double shifts." The man replied rather laconically, clearly not one of many words, his demeanor slightly relaxed down. The graying hair and signs of age having crept in giving him a bit of a sage vibe.

"I'm gonna have to pick something shorter for you, Sarge. That doesn't really roll off the tongue." Michelle commented, before taking a swig from her can of energy drink, "I'm not seeing this team getting much bigger than twice this size and that's iffy. So I guess I'll clear the air based on what I've been briefed on."

"So, we are officially listed as "Recon and Covert Operations" on the paperwork. The unspoken part of that is that all teams are expected to be mission capable for exploration as well. So we'll be called on to be the proverbial scalpel in situations. Granted, right now, the threat board is non existent because we flat out have no idea what to expect. Our playbook is going to have a lot of blank pages as well." Michelle explained, "But I want to lay a few ground rules regardless."

"We're professionals. We might fight dirty with the enemy, but we keep it clean with non-combatants. Hearts and Minds, and no, not to liberate them from the chests and heads they reside in. I won't lie, we all know that playing nice with the locals is how we get burned, but better we let them be the party in the wrong than for us to show up and be seen as conquerors." Michelle explained, "My background actually started with Naval Intelligence, so I'm all about fighting smarter, not harder. We'll study our enemy and ourselves as much as we can. As their tactics change, so will ours."

She then hoisted her can up with a broad smile, "And then, gentlemen, we will be the monster in their closet and under their bed. The good guys will get plenty of sleep, but the bad guys...they're gonna be crying under the blankets with the lights on."

The aged Sergeant stood there, arms crossed across his chest, listening carefully before nodding slowly and speaking out quite a bit more than usual. "No ma'am. Hepshaestus, please. Name used over two decades, only name I respond to. If not, call me Sergeant or Serge, please. As for team mission, am used to covert ops. If needed be can always bring tools along, very good with jury rigging things. If needed be, can even figure out tech we find and make go boom in a pinch. Or go zaaap." He explains slowly, yet confidently, looking at Michelle with kindly. "Like idea of fighting smarter, good mentality. Civilians not do us wrong, is soldiers, erm, Jaffa that did. Also, very keen on giving bad guys nightmares ma'am."

James smiled. "So you want us to be the ones that bump back the things that go bump in the night. I can handle that." he said as he went through a few more screens on the laptop.

"I think we'll get along just fine, gents. Though Sarge here, might need to rearrange your schedule. I'm not afraid of training hard, but we also work hard when we go out there. Need to have some downtime to keep from burning out." Michelle said before taking a swig from her energy drink.

"One more thing - I'm a firm believer in being First In, Last Out. Like Colonel Hal Moore, I believe in sharing the danger with the rest of my team, leading from the front, and taking in active role in our mission. Given our small size, I can't afford to do anything less anyways, but I want to be clear - it's not to pretty up my ribbon rack or my file. It's setting the example and following through, so I'm not going to ask you to do something I wouldn't do myself." Michelle explained, "Whatever the mission is, my first objective is that we go back with the same number we started with and in roughly the same condition."

Hephaestus nodded in agreement. "Will change schedule when team has to go out. Make sure not tired, no worries."

James nodded as well. "Understood Lieutenant."

TAG Team