Ch 3 The river flows to the ocean

[Dome]

Richardson sits back and listens to the conversation. With the end of the threat he was able to calm down alot. He didn't look sick, just anxious and nervous. He wanted out of the sub, let him get out and do his job. He pays attention to what is going on though. He from time to time looks over to the doctor to see how she is doing. She has been almost as quiet as he has this whole time.

[Tori]

"Well, if they can make electric motors big enough to power a Cheapwell suit or a Big Boss ATV..." Tori' s voice trailed off during the inspection. Her tail began to twitch from side to side with interest. This Charlie Foxtrot looked better and better. She sniffed at the tab and writing, but did not pull it or otherwise touch it.

"Alright, like most things in this cat's military, the situation is less than ideal," she said as she stood, tail still swishing, but not violently so. "The good news is we have a good inflatable with a nice, quiet electric motor. It's got plenty of horsepower to make a run up on the beach against even some nasty rips. Quiet, fast and straight. This thing was made for operators.

"The Zodiac is in good shape otherwise and has all we need, except one thing. This may be the bad news. There ain't no inflation tank that I can see. It's got some kinda tab, and some words. Maybe Capt'n Sam, or Shep, or Doc, or maybe ev'n Richardson can tell me what it says. I hope it's a power inflater or maybe some kinda chemical pouch that's like noodles, and just add water to inflate. If it ain't, then we better ask the skipper if he has a compressor line on deck, cuz we're gonna be here for a while and blue in the face tryin' to blow the damn thing up."

Some aviation survival rafts had chemicals that filled a small raft with gas as soon as it hit the water. Some inflatables she trained on had a small, but powerful motor. The compressor line would work, but having to pump manually would mean foolishly long deck time, in very nasty seas. The only chance was a chemical or power inflater, or a compressor line from the subs ballast tank compressors or environmental system. Both had compressors, but might not have a line available on deck.

"You're lookin' five by five, Richardson. Bravo Zulu, and hang in. We'll be feet-in-the-mud in two shakes of a Jaglion's tail." She shot Janxi a wink.

"As for special abilities, Janxi and I have kind of a danger sense. If something's comin' at us with bad intentions, we're gonna know, rain or shine. Our other skill is our ears. With howling wind, that's gonna suffer. We ain't like Soc, but can do a little sniffin'. Wind's gonna chase a lot of smells away, and rain tends to wet smells down, and wash 'em away. Our best senses are gonna be that cat sense, and what we can see. I'd recommend thermal, cause even in rain, a hot body is still hot. Visible is gonna be blocked by sideways rain, as is nightvision, IR and cateyes. We ain't gonna be able to see much, but neither will the bad guys. If Soc has special sense, that may be out best bet."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Any smells will have been carried from too far away." Socrates says. "Nothing worthwhile. Plus, given the posisblity of massive rain, storm surg or capsizing, you'll forgive me if I keep my helmet closed." Taking another veggie bite, he adds, "I will keep the psychic senses open."

[dakota]

"Any words of wisdom, bosslady?" Shep turned to Sam " Before we pack our trash for a wet and wild ride?" He looked at the tab, then to Tori, " It says do not pull indoors. Mean anything?"

[Tori]

"Yeah, I got an idea, alright. It's an auto-inflation tab. Get it out on deck, pull and bam, instant foxing boat. This ain't less than perfect. It's perfect! What's the ETA? And now that we made it this far, maybe you should tell us about our extraction. We ain't floating our objectives out on this raft or takin' them in this sub. We keep 'em til the storm blows over and call in some helos?"

[Renekin Skywalker]

"We can worry about getting out later." Socrates says, putting the dirty dish in the appropriate place. "I'll be on the ground first, and off the beach towards the forest. Unless Shep wants to. I can help with the raft, otherwise, and the old man may not have the back for that."

[Tori]

"Socrates, I am highly confident we will make our landing. I feel damn good about meeting our objectives, but if something were to happen to our two leaders, and I am gonna do my damndest to make sure it don't. But if it did, shouldn't the rest of the team know how to call for extraction and what to expect? Shouldn't we know our way to the LZ? If we needed to call for some air, or for a company of SAMs to come in and clean house, it would make me feel better to know what to expect."

Tori's tail swished a bit, feeling like she was just told she was both too stupid and expendable to know the full plan. "Imma point specialist, and would prefer to be out front, but I don't have Soc's tracking abilities, such as it is in this here storm. Once the inflatable is ashore, it's expendable, and has no real value to the mission. We get to the beach, get out and leave it behind. If there is a river to our AO, the zodiac might get us in close, but rivers are open and a clear fire zone, and currents are gonna be even worse than rips on the coast. The motor might can handle it. I dunno, Shep. Can we take a boat up close, or do we gotta go overland? Cross country means a lot of cover and a chance to assault from any direction."

No naval seaman would call an inflatable a "raft" which is what one floated on in a pool. It had a motor, a defined, hydrodynamic hull. A coxwain would count it a small craft, a boat or an inflatable, and take pride in her vessel, which Tori did. She knew she could get the boat to shore, and deliver her team to land. That was objective one.

"Soc, honestly? I'd worry more about all them green things you chowed on while wearing armor." Tori shot Soc a wink, her tail slowing. She was in a better mood, but wanted to be included on the plans.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Socrates grinned. "If there is something that can kill Shep, what hope will we have?"

[dakota]

"Don't you start, Socrates." Shep chuckled, pointing at the dogboy. He looked at Sam, "We have to make a short hop once we make landfall. Can't go straight in because the Cape is apparently a nightmare to navigate."

[Tori]

Tori looked to Jan and shook her head. Surprise endings were great for movies, but sucked for ops. Oh well, she could only take comfort there was a plan, and hoped she could keep Sam and Shep alive long enough for them to use it.

"That's just what I'm talking about, Socrates, but not if there is, but if something does. We would be on our own. How long a hop we thinkin' 'bout, Shep?"

[Renekin Skywalker]

Socrates grinned. "No, I mean, if there is a thing that can kill Shep, we may as well just hand over our weapons since we wouldn't stand a chance against it ourselves. Shep has more lives than all the BattleCats in the CS."

[Tori]

Tori was half tempted to test that theory Socrates proffered, and wondered what Janxi could do to a human, even one from Special Forces. She had confidence in their training and their man-given abilities to triumph over htheir creators. It was neither the time or the place for that kind of thought. She needed to get the boat squared away.

"Alright, listen up. When we surface, and the Skipper gets us out on deck, we'll lash the inflatable to the deck and inflate it. We have to balance the boat to be a little front heavy so we don't tip in heavy waves. Janxi, I want you in the bow. Your mass and rifle are what I need up front. Next, on the first bench, Shep and Socrates. Midships, Capt'n Sam and Doc. In the rear is me and Richardson. Richardson's heavy weapon will balance some of Janxi's mass up front, and me, I'm fairly light. We have the most ballast and bouyancy in the stern so the inflatable will plane. We gotta make sure the bow doesn't tip and the sides have a good balance. If you have thermo, use it. Watch your sector close, report any contact. Skipper, how close are we to our endpoint?"

By distributing the team's weight as evenly as possible, with more mass forward, the boat would be very stable. It might sacrifice some speed, but would punch through waves, rather than tipping up, and potentially over, then back down. The weights would also be balanced along the sides, hopefully meaning less of a chance of rolling laterally. Richardson would balance some of Janxi up front, but with herself and the outboard, the inflatable would still ride low in the water. Janxi meant a trained sniper up front, with a sniping weapon, plus the ability to lay down some heavy fire. She could see and react quickly, and observe the coast for a good beaching point. Tori wished she could be spotting, but had to pilot. The layout worked well.

[Mierin]

Sam shakes her head at Shep, not really having anything inspriing to say at the moment. She can't help but smirk at Socrates comments about Shep, thinking he had a point as they start planning how they will disembark the sub and make their way to shore.

[Janxi]

"Yeah, roger, T." She had little to say but busied herself in a weapons check. With no chance to dive, she left the torpedo gun on her bench. The sniping rifle would not be too heavy for her, but got a little cumbersome with another rifle while trudging through a swamp. She took her juicer rifle, stripped it down, cleaned it, and had it back together in minutes, then repeated the process with her pistol. She finished by checking her FWS, cleaning the P-beam, then cleaning her vibro-claws.

[dakota]

" Look Soc, just because I'm too stubborn to stay down doesn't mean it can't happen." He avoided looking at Sam in case she brought up his previous near miss. " That's why we all have to be on our toes, right?" he looked at the others for agreement. "Cap, call your formation when we hit the beach. We'll need to move to cover quick, so we need to know point and back door before we get there."