Lliam made supper the first night. Fried fish, cat-head biscuits made in the pan, and ramps.
He had promised his mother that he would eat vegetables every day and the ramps grew rankly on the north-facing slopes of the Soddy Creek valley.
His mother had hugged him fiercely just before he got into Sally’s truck. And Peggy gave him a ferocious kiss on the lips and said “Make sure you come back, ya hear?”
Lliam was blushing as he ducked into the cab of the truck.
His camping companion, Eddie, was notable for his tact and ability to not see what he wasn’t supposed to see but had laser-like vision for seeing what actually needed to be seen. In other words, he knew how to keep his mouth shut and not needle his buddies.
The plan was to always have at least one set of eyeballs on the drive into the property and to make radio contact with home-base once a day. Since Copperhead Cove was beyond radio range for the cheap, commodity walkie-talkies, the plan was to have somebody drive down Hendon Road at a designated time. Either Lliam or Eddie was to read off the comings-and-goings (time, direction of travel, make/model of vehicle) they had recorded...and then to burn the 3-by-5 card the information had been written on.
That was it! One of them could be roaming about, foot-loose and fancy-free while the other kept his eyes on the drive.
They had been briefed on the location and fields-of-view of the various electronic security devices. A half-wit could have figured out a route to the pond east of Miss Shannon’s house that avoided all of those obstacles. It suited the adventurous spirit of the boys to skinny-dip in that very pond the first night.
It was rumored that there were monster bass in the pond and Lliam had every intention of doing some night fishing to ascertain that fact. Country etiquette demanded that only low-value fish be “poached” from the ponds of strangers, but Miss Shannon was almost family and they WERE helping her to get her property back.
It never occurred to Lliam or Eddie to report the flickering blue light of a TV they saw in the house's windows while working jitterbugs on the surface of the pond. They had been told to report traffic.
***
Gregor was getting about four hours of sleep a night between the frenetic work at the Cove and meeting the various demands of his new girlfriend. It was enough sleep...just barely. But he was not as sharp as he might have been but he was deliriously, giddily happy.
Rosa Canina brought Gregor back in the early morning along with some early catfish. Catfish don’t bite all that well before the water warms up but that does not stop fanatical fisherman from trying to catch them.
She ambled along beside him as he walked out to where the new cabins were rapidly being assembled. After a long kiss she was heading back to her vehicle when she noticed some activity off to the side. Not needing to be anywhere anytime soon (and being a cop by nature and training) she altered her path and stopped to watch the activities.
It was clear to Canina within seconds what the mock-up represented. Half of the dwellings in her county were single-story houses with similar floor-plans.
The men going through the drills were very focused. They knew she was there but they didn’t let the fact that a young, attractive, lithely-athletic woman was watching them distract them from their task.
As that team of two was leaving to tag-out the next team at the construction site, Canina ambled over to Samson and said “May I have permission to comment?”
That seemed like a very strange request. Samson had enough time to place Canina. She was Gregor’s new girl-friend...the one who kept bringing fish to the Cove.
“Sure. What’s on your mind?” he asked.
“I don’t see any closets marked out. First thing a crack-head is gonna do is grab his stash and the second thing he is gonna do is try to flush it down the toilet. You gotta set up “traps” to watch between the closets and the toilets if you don’t wanna find them behind you” Canina critiqued.
Samson gave her an appraising stare. “My name is Samson. I was in the Sandbox for a couple of deployment but I was a long-range specialist. Close-quarters really isn’t in the middle of my wheel-house. And you are???”
“Formerly Deputy Rosa Canina. Small department. We got to do it all. We had a goblin pop out of a closet in a room we THOUGHT we had cleared and started banging away” Canina downplayed her credentials.
“What do you advise” Samson asked, not quite sure what to make of this very serious young woman. None of the houses in the Sandbox had “closets”. Only North Americans and Europeans were wealthy enough and had enough clothes to justify having “rooms” dedicated to storing clothing.
“Use poles to mark out the closets large enough for somebody to hide in. Maybe use some paint to mark the path to the closest toilet and then figure out where you are going to put somebody tasked with stomping on any movement between the two” Canina said.
Samson weighed his words carefully. “I can use help training my men. Is that something you would consider doing?”
“Only if I am allowed to be on the mission. If I am going to train my men, then I need to be there to support them” Canina said.
“Can you run-and-shoot?” Samson asked. The last thing he needed was a millstone around his neck. Or a pretty girl causing conflict amongst the married men.
“Not brag but last week I ran a mile in eight minutes and then hit a paper plate at 100 meters eight-times-in-ten shooting off-hand” Canina replied. Canina didn’t mention the wind gusting to 15 miles-per-hour from her left.
“I am not in a position to make any promises” Samson responded. “Things like this...well, they have a chemistry. Sometimes everything looks great but the chemistry is bad. I would love to have you help me train and we can see if the chemistry will work” Samson replied.
Miss Shannon's house has grid electricity and TV works?
ReplyDeleteCuriouser and Curiouser cried Alice.
Sporadic
DeleteYour 'advisors' in this installment were very on-point about how drug users site their resources to their best advantage. That was very good. When you are the builder, you get to choose how its layed out.
ReplyDeleteOkay - cat FACE bisquits ? I've heard of cat HEAD bisquits before but not former.
My bad. I will fix it.
DeleteWondering about the status of the country at large, given the bridge attacks, governmental responses.
ReplyDeleteSending out the kids to watch traffic when the President sent out that
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
It Begins (Cumberland Saga)
One gallon of gasoline per week and federalizing all police for deployments.
A slow roll disaster? I'd have expected after a few weeks the EBT crowds would be pretty restless without their Gimmies and such.
Patriotism that we is being attacked among generational welfare rats?
A cheap, cordless drill and a drill-bit will harvest most of the gas out of any vehicles in the garage. Gas is not a problem for raiders because they don't care if the vehicle is disabled.
DeletePatchwork quilt issue. The top 9 ports handle 50% of the tonnage shipped in-and-out. Some stretches of road carry vastly more traffic than others. Some pipelines move higher volumes and have less redundancy and are more vulnerable than others. Ditto for electrical power transmission lines.
Most of the country between Pittsburgh and Atlanta doesn't have a lot of strategic targets for whoever is attacking US infrastructure.
There are a scad of infrastructure targets in the east. The Colonial Pipeline of recent news, various nuclear plants (2 within easy reach of me) and high tension powerlines that feed large metro areas (there is a set right behind my house). Add in the Norfolk naval bases, Ft. Bragg and Seymour Johnson AFB, Paris Island, SC, Cherry Point MAB, Camp Lejune and rail yards all over the place and ports up and down the coasts. We've already taken one probing attack against the electrical supply near Bragg.
DeleteThose of us in the populated east are going to have a hard time of it if the ballon goes up. I'm not looking forward to it.
A cordless drill and gasoline to go?
DeleteWorks best when the family is out and about. No gasoline every Body is around the house and very aware of things going on with all the troubles.
Even the COVID troubles kept folks mostly home and gasoline was available.
Still amazed that the Gimme Dats are so quiet with the news and supply chain issues. The internet must be functional as we've seen how excitable they got from a couple state few days failure of EBT.
Michael
I learned what ramps are. had no ideer. We have some volunteer spring onions. At least they smell like onions.... I better check.
ReplyDeleteCursory check of the 'net yeilds: Rule of thumb, no false onion will smell like an onion. That's handy. I'll double check to make sure I know what I'm looking at.
Gimme Dats are overwhelmingly urban. They will venture BLM style to the suburbs, but given the lack of fuel, would not try raiding rural areas until closer places are cleaned out. Since the news is locked down, our heroes aren't going to hear about goings on in the cities any time soon, and are too busy taking care of their own to care much.
ReplyDeleteTweell, maybe in your area friend. Gimme Dats are not always "Amish" or whatever the code phrase is now. Its behavior not race, you know.
DeleteUrban types tend to stay urban, I agree but there are rural Gimme Dats. Was the Meth Cookers of an earlier story from the area or out of prison folks that moved into what they thought of as "easy pickings".
I'm pretty rural out here in my area of New England.
We have a lot of working poor and living with their elderly social security mommies with an "injured back" welfare folks around here.
I know a lot of them because I work EMS and see a lot of interesting social living situations and work at the Food Bank.
Most are fairly decent folks BUT that's in freely available welfare "Safety Net".
NOT pushed against the wall of irregular EBT cards, severely rationed gasoline, news of terrorists blowing bridges causing trucks to be slower, thus lack of available food-beer supplies and hungry kids.
It's been said that we are 72 hours from chaos if food is at risk. Bridges out, EBT cards irregular and such is pretty close to that scenario.
Thus, my curiosity about the outside world backstory.
The fine folks at the Cove are not distracted by the outside world. They have the luxury of being able to (almost) focus completely at the tasks in front of them.
DeleteA good reply, Joe. Thanks.
DeleteGreat story, sir. I eagerly await each new installment. Just a suggestion, for what it's worth: A Fiskars hand cranked drill is small, light, ergonomic and dead quiet. I used to have to do repairs in a row home when everyone else was sleeping. It kept the grumpier neighbors off my back.
ReplyDeleteStay safe
Fiskers makes some great stuff. My neighborhood dogs might get curious about you being under our cars even with that.
ReplyDeleteMy point perhaps poorly made is when things get scarce (like the Odd-Even Gasoline lines of the 70's occurred (goodness I'm old) folks tried to get "creative" about getting gasoline. Folks got pretty ugly about that as they too needed gasoline to get to work back then.
you can buy motion sensor heads separately from lights. I find them useful for all sorts of things- they can trip alarm relays to tell me when someone is poking around my vehicles, or when the raccoons are trying to get into my chicken coop. Pretty useful things....
ReplyDeleteA few notes on the current engagement, this is stream of consciousness so please excuse my grammar and spelling.
ReplyDeleteFormer Marine & Army characters will use the 5-paragraph operations order (OPORD) for planning. The paragraphs consist of the following: Situation – Enemy Forces/Friendly Forces/Weather/Terrain; Mission – Who/What/Where/When & Why (Note – How is not covered here); Execution – Commanders Intent/Concept of the Operations (phases, movement to and from the objective, actions on the objective, Fire Support); Service & Support – Medical/Expendable ”Beans, Bullets & Batteries”; Command & Signal – Whose in charge of each element, over all Chain of Command/How you will communicate before and after the shooting starts (Radios, hand and arm signals, whistles, horns, smoke, flares)/Frequencies/Code words/be sure to also include a break contact and withdraw to the rally point signal “no man left behind”
Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) is key to knowing what your forces will face and choosing the right time to engage. The objective should be under surveillance all the way up until the attack occurs. When conducting Low Visibility Surveillance for an extended period a Listening Post/Observation Post (LP/OP) is only part of the effort a separate patrol base with a 2nd team should be positioned close to the LP/OP. The rotation of these teams prevents complacency on the part of the observing element, it also gives them a place to relax to some degree. The hide site personnel can come to the assistance of the LP/OP if it is attacked. Some things the recon element should be trying to determine: Are any of the enemy force absent from the objective for an extended period of time; what security do they have in place; do they have thermal or night vision devices; are there dogs; how are they armed; are there periods of reduced vigilance such as do they all get drunk or stoned at the same time; are all enemy forces sleeping in the same building; what are the avenues of escape if something goes wrong; what are the lines of sight from the buildings and are there upper floors that extend those lines. At some point the person in charge should conduct a “leaders recon” and get actual eyes on the objective and the activities of the enemy. Then and only then is the plan finalized, any changes are disseminated to friendly forces.
Rehearsals are critical and should include at a minimum Actions on the Objective & contingencies. You don’t want friendly forces to freeze once the plan goes off the rails. I will add another saying to the ones already provided, “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat”.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a “raid” where friendly forces will withdraw after the engagement, the plan is to re-occupy the ranch/farm. Somethings that need to be planned for now is what to do with the bodies of the deceased and all the physical evidence from blood to vehicles, weapons and cell phones.
The last thing before beginning movement to the objective is the leader needs to make sure each person briefs back individually the critical information what the mission is and what the withdraw plan is.
Pull up a copy of the Ranger Handbook, FM 7-8 or FM 7-93 for more info.
Something to consider is the a “dynamic forced entry” may not be the best plan. Either due to a lack of forces or difficulty in taking the objective without significant friendly casualties. Can the enemy be smoked out either by making them think the structure is on fire or by gaining access to “tear gas” from a source with access [cough former cop cough]. Then engaging the enemy after they out in the open.
Another option is to divide the forces either by ambushing a group away from the farm in order to reduce the number faced when attacking the house or attack the house then ambush the away force when they return.
Finally, a big consideration is moral/psychological. The attacking force is not trained or experienced killers, some will freeze when it comes to actually taking a life while others will have trouble dealing with what they have done after the fact. Emphasizing that you are retaking the home of a “family” member and that the farm may be critical to the survival of everyone will help. Another big issue is prisoners, decide now what will happen if someone is captured. These are not the grifters that can be handed over to the local police, this type of vigilante action will be viewed as premeditated murder by many law enforcement agencies. It may even be seen as insurrection by federal forces because of the paramilitary training. This leads us back to prisoners, prisoners who would gladly tell law enforcement about a group of armed militia in the area. A policy of “take no prisoners” and who will “execute” said policy will undoubtedly lead to a heated discussion among members of the group.
Thank-you for your awesome comments!!!
DeleteAs an author I have to let them make some mistakes. For example, Lliam and Eddie's outpost is much too close to the drive at 60 yards and their training was almost zero...it never occurs to them to report the TV and when it is on/off.
One of the incredible advantage of this format for fiction is that the story can happen in the posts and the data-dumps in the comments.
For instance, how do you deploy the two least capable members of the crew? Maybe guarding the entrance so a goblin doesn't come in behind the attack? Maybe to stop "runners"? If they are inexperienced, you cannot put them at opposite corners of the house because there are way too many ways B-on-B can happen, so where DO you put them? How do you handle the garage which may have a man-door into the house and a man-door to the outside. Likely the last space to be cleared.
Lots of nitty-gritty details that are important but 80% of the readers will be annoyed by them...until they need that information.
So let me repeat...thanks for the comments. I will let the crew make some tactical and strategic mistakes and I hope you (and other readers who live-and-breath this stuff) will kick my ass and educate my readers.