Loonz Morrow Project Pages

Stragglers

One might take it as an omen, some might think that on the first day of a
noble and goodly effort the higher powers would grant a fair commencement.
Alas it is not so. As the last 6 members of V-C108 debark the helicopter
that brought them here it is clear that they're will be no spiritual
cooperation.
It's the worst snow that any one has ever seen. Visibility is null, you're
only able to see an arms length maybe two in front of you. Your warned
before exiting the aircraft to stay with your buddy, don't let go of the
tether, bundle up "it's colder than a witches teat in a brass bra out there"
And indeed it is. The cold slams you like broken glass on any bare skin,
the Parkas provided you in the helo don't seem as adequate now. It's the
coldest few hundred feet any of you have walked in awhile or maybe ever.
At last you reach the coatroom of your barracks, since the room only holds
a couple and there are 7 of you the inner door must be open as well.

Sylvie, DJ and Ray have been waiting for the team's arrival by one of the
wood stoves in the bunkroom. The few seconds the door is open immediately
strips the room of it's heat and the welcoming committee quickly wishes they
had donned their own Parkas. Tearing your thoughts away from the cold you
watch a half dozen or so figures enter the room.

DJ was giving Sylvie a little ribbing about a shopping trip when he hears
Raymond come into the room. He hears the chopper about the same time and
figures the rest of the group has arrived. He greets Ray and the rest of
the newcomers with a handshake and a small smile. He enjoys cold weather,
having grown up in New Hampshire, but even this cold gets to him.

Ray thought he was late in getting into Zebra Station,
but it turns out that only Sylvie and DJ beat him
there. Taking his parka off after entering the blessed
warmed of the station, Ray says, "where are the
others?" As soon as those words are out of his mouth,
Ray hears another chopper landing outside. Ray started
to dust the snow off his 6'4" tall frame. Other than
his black hair due to his Welsh grandmother, hes as
anglo-saxon as you can get.

The first to doff their hood is John Fisk. "Hi you guys, keeping warm?" he
smiles addressing the three huddled around the stove. "Team?" now
addressing the crowd thawing by the door, pointing with his open hand in
sequence "This is Ray Jones your PIC",

"huh? Uh I mean hi." Blurts Benny

John smiles as Benny recovers and continues. "Sylvie Ferguson your PMM and
Dennis Lee who looks like your sniper as far as I can tell from his early
scores"

Sylvie is a tanned, black-haired Hispanic girl in her mid-twenties,
attractive and fit, but not a knockout. Her hair is cut just above
the shoulders and her coveralls are zipped down in front halfway,
revealing a white T-shirt beneath with a large red cross logo on it.
She's got her hands wrapped around a tin cup full of steaming black
liquid.

Smiling at the new arrivals, she raises her tin coffee mug a few
inches in greeting.

"Sniper?!, I thought this was a peaceful science operation John I wasn't
told of any need for a sniper. Guns yes but military operations? No
offence to Denny there." As he says without looking away from John.

He hears the mentioning of his name and the sniper position in front.
"No offence taken, but perhaps it would be better if you thought of me more
as a recon type of person, not so much the paid killer that 'sniper' is
often associated with."

He again give John and Benny a small smile hoping for no conflicts on the
first meeting.DJ gives his mass of cow lick a quick hand comb and forces himself to startgetting involved in conversation with the newcomers. His slender build and slightly asian features usually help him keep from intimidating people in
conversation, but his quietness is usually what most people take for
standoffishness.

Alec's attention seemed to perk up at the mention of guns.

Sylvie looks over at Ray - an unspoken caution passing
between their eyes. Raymond thought to himself, "god,
don't tell me hes against force like Sylvie."

(Tree hugger, definitely treehugger) Chet thinks to himself.

"Just calm down Benjamin you and your team can talk contingencies after
your all settled" John looks around the room for a mythical consensus so he
can continue, "People this is Benjamin Fieldman; Marine Biology. " motioning
to the remainder of the group still by the door. "Su Lin; Communications,
Martin Charles; Civil Engineer, Richard Dennison; Forestry and Education,
Chester McBraddock,; Security and Alec Winn; Geology and Herbal sciences."

"Primarily Herbology, with a minor in Geology John." Alec adds.

"You've got one other team member who was delayed coming from the left
coast, she'll be with you as soon as the storm settles a bit, it's suppose
to get worse for a day or so." Looking around the room for comments and
question, he dons his hood again, "For the new arrivals Ray has set up Male
and Female head schedules, but buy and large it gets kinda of Unisex from
here on, sorry" grinning to acknowledge he isn't. "Ray they're all yours
see you in the morning for I-Doc"

John starts to depart leaving the cold team to look at one another, busting
out with a big grin "If it's that cold in that tank they're going to put us
in, I think I'll reconsider. Hi I'm Chet." Offering his big paw to Ray.Then tipping his imaginary hat to Sylvie and DJ.

Ray answers "Hi, Chet, good to have you on the team."

Alec watches as the twin towers greet, Ray appears to be 6' 4" or 6" 5", and
Chet beats him by a hand or so (one of these guys is my new best friend)

He then follows Chet in greeting Ray "Please to meet you Boss" then moves
closer to the heat.

Sylvie sips her coffee and says quietly, her Texan twang clear as
a bell, "Minus three-hundred-twenty degrees Fahrenheit, but who's
counting?" Then louder, to the group as Ray shakes hands with
Benjamin. "Why don't y'all shuck those coats and grab a cup off
the rack. There's coffee here on the stove - it ain't very good,
but it's hot." And after people start grabbing cups, grousing about
the cold some more, "Y'know I think John enjoys this - it wouldn't
really shock me to find out they've got a big snow machine sittin'
over the next hill dumpin' this on us on purpose."

Alec steps towards Sylvie next "Where you from Sylvie to be sounding so
sweet?" Then nodding his head at DJ "Hi there DJ", Alec is clearly making
his way towards to cups Sylvie pointed out.

Sylvie cracks a wide grin, her smile very white in her tanned face,
"Raised in Sweetwater, Texas, Hon."

Su Lin seeing Fieldman was not moving to quickly, steps toward Ray, "Hi Ray
I'm Su Lin glad to finally be together, well almost atleast" <referring to
the missing member> Su Lin is a lovely girl soft in manner and speech,
standing all of 5' if that she looked as though nearly ready to go airborne
out in the storm, she has 3 distinct slashes down the left of her face,
starting in the hairline traveling down under her chin. The upper one just
barely misses her eye. Su Lin is surprised or rather relieved at this point
not to be signing autographs, after 2 years on "Days of Passion" that is a
relief

Rich walks into the room after hanging his coat up, he is tall, in good shape
but more lean than muscular. His light brown hair is in a 'high and tight',
something Rich is really regretting under the particular weather conditions. He
has an ever present smirk upon his face as he enters the main room. In the pen
holders on the upper arms of his jumpsuit he has three twizzlers sticking out.
"Wooooo!!! Nice weather huh??" He says a little too loudly. He walks up to
Ray and gives him a firm handshake saying "Hey! I'm Rich, but you can call me
Admiral." And with that he moves to the next person repeating the line, before
he can get a response. Once he makes it around the room, he walks over to a
dresser and leans with one elbow up on it casually looking the group over.

Ray thought to himself, "loose cannon, have to watch
him..."

Benjamin then steps forward "Hi Ray how is it we just got here and your
already the PIC, I thought that was suppose to be a team function?" then
glancing at DJ and Sylvie briefly "Hi", then focusing back on Ray.

Sylvie interjects before Ray can answer for himself - "Depends on the
team, Darlin'," she shrugs with a grin, "I was on another team afore this
one, an' our chain of command was assigned too. One thing I've learned in
my time in this outfit, is that The Morrow Project moves in mysterious
ways!"

Martin Charles hearing the PIC conversation says, " Leaders are harder to
find then grunts, I for on see that preselecting them makes the most
sense." Martin is a six foot tall man, who is slight of build, some might
call him lean. Martin skin is a bronze that hides his Irish freckles
though his red hair is a give away. He seems to scan all persons and
equipment or lack of. He looks to Ray, saying, " A pleasure boss man."
After shaking his hand moves to meet Sylvie, "Hi, medic, nice to have
patch person around. Trauma Nurse?" We says with a look of sincere
interest.

"Bingo. Put a lot of Uncle Sam's best back together, but I'm looking
forward to having my skills go all soft, cause none of you guys are
allowed to get hurt." She winks amd smiles at Martin, thinking to herself
that he's O-negative, and wondering if he's ever had a transfusion from an
O-positive donor. If so, he'd be out of luck for getting blood from half
the team, but he could still donate to anyone in a pinch. "So what kind of
engineering do you mostly do?" she says, drawing him aside.

Martin replies, " Mainly Civil, most of my Enginerring experience comes
from work in the Peace Corps, so I am used to working in poor envrioments
and with little resorces. Before that I was Para Rescue for the Air
Force. So previous team,?(referring to her previous comments) What
happened?"

"Oh, I was in a full-medical team before - a dedicated hospital base.
But
they reassigned me to Recon, so here I am. Wow, para rescue, huh? So you
must be medic qualified! That's great." As she's talking she pours a cup
of coffee and hands it to him. "It'll be nice to have some backup. I've
heard some amazing things about para-rescue, Martin, so I'll be
expectin'
you to hold up the myths! I knew a corpman who used to call all para
rescue
guys 'Jesus' on account of they got half the Air Force Crosses given out
during the war!" She smiles as the two of them sit down together to one
side. "Where were you stationed with the Air Force?"

" Well I trained at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, then on to the 66th Rescue
Squadron, Nellis AFB Nevada. I was a PJ for six, eighty to eighty six. I
loved the rescue work but I wanted to be more proactive. So on to school
then on to the Peace Corps. I still hate the thought of one of mine "out
there". Once SAR is in your blood it never goes away." Martin has the
look of remembering. "That Others May Live... How those few words have
shaped my life. If not for them I would not be here. But I do have to
tell you the idea fo spending twenty years in a hole just gives me the
heeby jeebies. I would rather be out side."

Martin speaks the last words with a grin.

The blizzard had subsided only slightly. It had been just a week since the
team's arrival here at what Ray had coined as "Zebra Station ". John the
few times he had been asked smiled and called it Shangri-La.

0530 every morning except for the weekend Dutton the PT instructor was
yelling wake ups in the barracks. Benny and Chet were hard to rouse out as,
Benny would whine and complain and Chet, well you could blow off a tank
round by Chet and he could sleep through it. The team was also getting
used to him grabbing a few minutes shuteye at every opportunity.   Between
physical training, after classes and during breaks. Besides as far as
morning wake ups nobody wanted to get up to the cold floor of the Q.
Every morning the team would form a herd and head across the compound to
the chow hall. The food was tolerable and there was no blame to be laid for
it's quality as each morning a new team member had to cook. Another duty
that Benny objected to.
Class room started with John Fisk giving his induction speech;
"Well I hate to start I-Doc without the whole team but our missing member
has been further detained on the coast and it maybe a few more days till her
arrival, I'd like to apologize for that, but there doesn't appear to be
anything we "The Project" can do about it, but I am sorry still.
First off, for myself and on behalf of the human race I'd like to thank you,
and I mean sincerely thank you people for volunteering. This is the
greatest challenge humanity has need to under take ever in the history of
man.
Your mission once on the other side, as I call it, holding up fingers in
turn, is to;
1. Protect the security and mission of "The Morrow Project".
2. Conduct your mission as briefed here and updated by Prime or higher
authority.
3. Upon completion report in to Prime or higher authority.
4. Then await further tasking from Prime or other higher Project authority.
Over all your mission is to rebuild the United States, care and protect for
all people in need of you in your assigned area to the best of your ability
while keeping constant mindness of rule 1.
You'll be awaken 5-20 years after the nuclear assaults. Be given a specific
mission to complete and after that good judgement will guide you where Prime
or higher Project authority fails to.
You'll be given an over view of project equipment old and new. You'll be
given am intensive but generalized training regimen to round out your
already existent talents.   Most of all your going to be in the best shape
of your life , because as Sylvie and DJ can tell you as long as your in
great shape your wakeup is a lot smoother. Frozen fat cells spell lots and
I mean lots of pain, so keep that in mind over the next year.
If there's any project decisions you'd like to question bring them up at our
happy camper meetings Mondays after breakfast, but go through Ray if you can
to see if it can be solved at the team level.
Well that's it, let's get started."
After that came the beginning of the pretests, everything from chemistry to
history. This was Benny's element was there nothing this guy didn't know?
He has viable input on just about every subject broached that week. These
testing periods last till the afternoons, then it was calisthenics again
before dinner.
Eventually everyone was shown the basement at the armory where they could
squeeze of a few rounds a couple times a week at the firearm range, real
weapons training hadn't started.   Hand to hand however had as Dutton took
turns giving the basics before he'd try to throw everyone a few times.
"Falling is just as important as throwing" he'd say repeatedly.
Wearing MI issue gray wasn't required yet, but plenty of clothes from
Goodwill were available. Members pulled laundry detail as well, it was more
enjoyable because of the heat from the dryers.
Well the weekend came and went, and after DJ's breakfast with mystery meat
they all wandered over to the corner for the first happy camper meeting.
John was the first to speak as he took the closest open seat "Good morning
108, who'd like to start?"

Rich stands up: "Well I guess I'd like to start off by apologizing for last
Wednesday's "Meatloaf" incident. Although I don't consider myself a *bad* cook,
my skill with entrees beyond pasta and sandwhiches are a bit lacking....I
guess. And Chet, I'm really really sorry about hitting you in the eye with that
piece of meat. I was wrong and overreacted, and yes you are correct, I can't
cook worth shit. <G>."

Martin then stands. " Good morning all, sleep well. Hey DJ great chow, con you cook more often?"
" So how many of us is there, nine plus one straggler?" Martin asks.
" Do we all know one another and our skills and specialities? For those
who don't know I an Martin Charles, outdoorsman, former Para rescue, the
number two medic; I think, and a civil engineer, with experience in the
Peace Corps."

DJ somewhat dreading speaking in public, decides that he might as well get
it done.
"Thanks Martin, but I'd rather not cook more than my share, I only know so
many dishes to cook and I'm running low already. But if it's between me and
the 'flying meatloaf', well maybe we can work something out. Personally I'd
vote for Sylvie to pull the extra shifts." DJ takes a deep breath and
continues...
"In case you haven't yet talked to me, I'm Dennis Jacob Lee, but I'll answer
you better if you call me DJ or Lee. I think I'm going to fit into a sort of
recon spot for the group. Spent some time in the 'conflict' and got a
little education, then the MP folks put me to sleep for a bit. Then the
decided that it was time to dust me off and see if they could retrain me.
So now I'm here. I'm pretty good with the outdoors and can handle a lot of
different vehicles.
Well... I guess that's it, anybody else..."
With that DJ sinks back to a chair very happy not to have to do that again
for awhile.

"Ah-choo!" sneeze Raymond.
"Sorry, the trip in the slow(snow)mobile and the lack of sleep must have gotten
to me, so forgive me if I ama bit slow on replying to your questions," saidRaymond.
"Ok, week in review is that I have talk to thequartermaster put in our equipment requistion forms,yes, there will be 40mm grenades in our vehicle, Martin."
"Sorry about the mystery meat DJ, its suppose to be beef in the form of country fried steak, or thats what the quartermaster said."
"Oh, did all of you turn in your personal questionaires (OOC: background) to Sylvia?"
"ahhh-chooo" (as Sylvia pulls Raymond down to stop Raymond from talking forever).

The Weather Breaks

After a week of miserable cold the weather broke, mild temperatures and
clear skies dominated the rest of the winter. Classroom, firearm and
equipment training continued well into April.
By mid March it was obvious that the lost member wasn't coming. John
stopped making excuses and apologizing for it. It certainly appeared to
bother him but the signal he was sending was clearly, "let's get on with it,
let's do our jobs".
In mid April the team took part in its first 2-week field training. The
team along with Dutton and Fisk were taken into the hills by an old Shawnee
twin rotor Helo, DJ and Sylvie were surprised at its condition, which was
pristine. Every surface was black matte, and it was very quiet. Once
airborne normal conversations were possible in the sections furthest from
the rotors. "Fusion" John said pointing to the motor sections.
The passengers were dropped in a clearing several minutes away from the
base. There was a fresh hole of considerable size and 4 shovels sticking
out of the earth by their blades.
Catching the team's curious looks Dutton was the first to speak "If you
want dinner and a place to sleep tonight your going to have to recover your
gear." Pointing to the fresh dirt, "It's in there." "Where?" asked Benny.
"In the hole," smiled Dutton, "within 300 hr's of your wakeup you'll have
dig yourselves out of possibly 15 feet of earth, then when your ready to
deploy your vehicles you'll have to dig more because they'll be 15 feet down
as well and require a ramp to drive out. So a few times during training we'
re going to remind you of what this is like" "Oh my goodness" cried Benny,
"this just gets better and better at every turn."
That night it turned out to be 7 feet down. On the other occasions it was
15 feet down. The team practiced the "Dig-Fest" all of 6 times before the
following winter, and once in winter which required Ray to do some low power
blasting of the perma-frost.
Training continued all year, the team FAM fired bazookas, flame-throwers,
recoilless rifles and automatic turret cannons on vehicles airlifted in for
the day. John said it was to familiarize the team with the equipment the
older teams have with them. Some enjoyed it more than others. Benny rarely
had his eyes open for firing anything bigger than his rifle. During the
vehicle weapons phase Chet and Martin empathized with Benny's convictions
and offered to use up his ammo for him, he accepted. Driving school
consisted of the planned team equipment and some older vehicles as well
Sylvie and DJ were reintroduced to the XR-311, which most of the others didn
't think much of.
During the yearlong classroom periods Benny showed his metal, he was
critical in keeping DJ and Sylvia on par, as he and Ray would repeatedly
explained new equipment, technology and theorems. It was not uncommon to
hear "we can do that now?", "how fast?", "how long has it been like that?"
from DJ and Sylvie. Keeping it in small digestible bits Benny and Ray were
able to spoon feed the modern knowledge to the duo. Soon it was the team's
last Christmas topside. Su and Chet cried during carols. The exchanged
handcrafted gifts some more elaborate than others, Martin gave everyone
crudely crafted leather wrist bands made from a boot that had vanished
during the summer.
As January was coming to an end John informed the team of their February
17th freeze date at the Monday "happy camper meeting". John followed it up
by asking if there were any questions?

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