Strands of Sorrow (eARC) by John Ringo

Author:John Ringo [Ringo, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Military
ISBN: 9781476736952
Google: CcPEoAEACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2015-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

“Commander Daniel J. Wojcik, reporting aboard with a crew of sixty, sir,” the commander said, saluting.

“Welcome aboard, Commander,” Hamilton said. “Glad you’re here.”

The “crew of sixty” was unloading from the USS Florida, another OMFG class.

One important aspect of the OMFG class, post-Plague, was that it had additional berthing and thus could be used for moving personnel around. Two OMFGs had carried the core of PacFleet to the Pacific and now the Florida had brought the Base Operations group up from Gitmo to take over running Mayport.

Some of the arrivals had clearly not enjoyed the experience of speedy travel in the ocean’s depths. A few were being carried out on stretchers.

But the base operations force was here. Just in time, too.

“We’ve got two days to do hand-off,” Hamilton said. “Then payday activities for my crews, day and half off and we roll north. Official turn-over and stand-up of Mayport will be a ceremony involving turning on the exterior lights. We’ve refrained both there and on Blount until we had the infected in the zone reduced. Our electrician’s mates say that we’re ready and the security situation is getting to the point it’s doable. We’ve got two of the barracks being cleaned and prepped for more arrivals and we’ve informed the refugees that they’re going to be moving from the Bo and temporary space on Blount over to the Station. As usual, they’re handling most of the cleaning. The main issue unresolved is the damaged POL point which is on your plate. Questions?”

“No, sir,” Wojcik said. “We’ve got plans in place to begin rebuilding of the POL point. The Eric Shivak is a day behind us with POL resupply and we should be good until we can get it up and going. Two days should be about right.”

“Then as fast as your people can get recovered from their voyage, they need to link up and start turn-over,” Hamilton said.

“We’re ready when your people are, sir,” Wojcik said. “Well…most of them are. The rest it’s going to take a few hours for the tranquilizers to wear off. Some people, sir, are ill-suited to the sub service…”

* * *

“King’s Bay, Georgia,” Colonel Hamilton said, pointing to the overhead.

Hand-over was complete. They were waiting for that evening to turn the lights on at both bases. The last ground sweep had been completed and now it was time to talk about the next mission.

“Home of every boomer in the Atlantic,” the colonel continued. “And quite a few of the fast attacks. Which in strategic terms means… Gunny?”

“Big stash of special weapons, sir,” Gunnery Sergeant Sands said.

“Master Guns” had found his niche. He’d remained “retired” and had settled into an office on Blount Island like he was born there. They were never going to be able to get another round out of the place. They’d have to scrounge for pens and pencils for the rest of the war.

“Special weapons storage facility is here,” Hamilton said, pointing to the magazines. “No infected have been detected inside the facility.

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