Chapter Eight - Early to Bed; Early to Rise

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Eight - "Early to Bed; Early to Rise"

The next morning was back up and "at 'em"; the viewpoint on the town having changed. Since they were there for the long haul, they looked at integrating themselves into the town activities as well as military personnel were able to. That usually meant having to deal with daily chores and other things of necessity. It also meant that they had to try to get along with the townsfolk as best they could. It was no longer an adversarial situation. They were going to do what it took to follow the Constitution and protect the rights of the townspeople.

Meg was back down at the potion table trying to create some more potions that could possibly give them an advantage. They hadn't been in contact with Admiral Pointer since the last conversatoin and the revelation of the position of the townsfolk had not been disseminated to the Pentagon. They knew however if they didn't make contact with Command Authority soon, they would be looked for and they didn't know what they could do to prevent a bloodbath if the military came looking. Six would not be able to fight back against a full-scale Marine Infantry Division along with its assembled firepower, including Marine Air Support.

Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Fairies; any occult or not, no matter how fast, how strong, how lethal - were absolutely no match for the combined firepower of a US military offensive. They wouldn't be up against one soldier to one occult, they'd be put up against a rain of molten lead and high-explosives that would rip the occults' offensive to shreds.

Tosh had stated his position and his friends believed in him. Tosh had the tactical knowledge to be able to mount a possible defence of the town against the combined military offensive, should it come down to that. Highly familiar with tactics (one didn't just study naval combat tactics in War College) you learned how all the services combined to work together to win a war and that would be what they would be facing should the military choose to eliminate the town instead of sitting down at the negotiating table.

Kimber and Mac decided that they were going to work on their martial arts so that they would have a physical upper-hand should they be required to utilize thir hand-to-hand knowledge. Tosh was a black belt in both Kung Fu and MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) and thus was able to keep Mac current to USMC standards. And when they sparred, he was unrelenting. There was no letting up in a real life hand-to-hand combat situation; you walked away when the other person was incapacitated and no longer moving (preferably not breathing either) crumpled on the ground.

And everyone did their part in keeping themselves in shape. Tosh and Harm went at the pull-up bars and Phil pumped iron in order to keep fit. Of course, Phil, being insane, just had to use heavy clothing in order to cut more weight and make himself more lean and mean, by wearing winter clothes while working out. The rest of them wondered if Phil was going to pass out.

Stockpiling rations was also important. As far as they knew, until they got back to Pointer, their whole town was under siege. So Haruo and the rest of the ad hoc military family headed out to the grocery store in order to stock up, meats as well as vegetables. They were going to need it.

Meanwhile the only two who were relaxed were Atlas (the dog) and Charlie (the cat). Yeah, relaxed was another term for curled up showing ones' happy bits to all and sundry. Just what everyone wanted to see. But of course, both Atlas and Charlie were pulling their own weight. They kept the household running, with Atlas bringing in gemstones of varying but highly expensive values (when cut) and Charlie brought in insects, birds, lizards, snakes and other animals that could potentially be sold for a decent return, including those confounded Malayan Kraits. The sooner they were able to get those venomous buggers into zoo hands, the happier the populace would be.

And considering that they didn't have to worry about the UCMJ any more, Meg and Tosh took every advantage that they could; besides it was certainly a lot more comfortable sleeping together than in a cold bed all alone. After all, they say skin-to-skin is the best way for warming someone up who is hypothermic. It could be said: that certainly a stretch in this case.

In the morning after eating breakfast, Harm washed the dishes thoroughly. Dishwashing at the best of times is an onerous task. What most people wouldn't give in order to just be able to rinse things and shove it in the dishwasher, but the military crew didn't have such luxuries. They had to wash things by hand and well, Harm drew the short-straw this time around. As Mac pointed out, drawing straws more often than not, would favor the person holding the straws, as they would know which was the long one; which was the short one. Well, for Harm it didn't matter, he was the one who got stuck doing it.

...then he headed off to the elixir shop to look for more cure elixir, annoy the bees and this time, watch an iguana sitting on the ground perusing the shoe leather covered feet in front of it, wondering what they were.

Phil was back over at the dumpster by the grocery store. Oh, what fun. Reconstituted food waste from the diner, coupled with out of date, rotting produce from the grocery store combined to make a scent that would cause a maggot to throw up. And Phil got to dunk himself headfirst in that odiferous bin. That really made his day and the consequent swearing and cuss words that came out of his mouth would make any religious person cross themselves, offer up a prayer of penitance just by hearing it. If they had kids with them, they would end up hastily walking the other way; all the while making it a moral lesson to not use foul language in public where other children could hear and possibly get their aural canals scoured. Bottle brushes don't work to well on one's ear canals; just a public service announcement.

Harm was now back from the elixir store and was in the process of learning some alchemy. If they were able to get their magical elixirs up to a high-standard, they could generate some offense with some of the elixirs. Has anyone ever tried to shoot while being buzzed by angry bees? That would probably affect anyone's concentration. As would an incessant need to eliminate. There were probably others in there as well, but those were the two that Harm had found so far.

Since the honey replenished every sixty minutes, Mac headed down to the elixir shop to see what was available and to try her hand at getting some honey. Unlike most beekeepers, who covered themselves from head-to-toe, it appeared that she only opted to cover her face which left a good deal of area that the annoyed bees (having been annoyed twice that day; first by Harm and then by her) could attack...and she certainly got herself stung. That would smart for twenty-four hours.

Tosh decided that they would end up wearing camo on full moons and for the next full moon, they would do so. So the Type I work uniform was pulled out of mothballs and worn at the home (since it was technically their military installation) and they wore it around the home along with their rifles in easy access. The Navy Type I uniform was highly unpopular as it didn't camouflage anyone...unless they fell overboard off a boat...and frankly that was the last place you'd want to be camouflaged if that situation happened.

Phil, Harm and Tosh spent some time in the alchemy room trying to up their knowledge in alchemy. And Tosh utilized that moment to take a Young Again potion. They would all need to be at their strongest, and most youthful in order to stand a chance if the military staged an all out assault on their position.

As Tosh was an adult enroute to being an elder, being able to go right back to the beginning of young adult was an invigorating feeling. It felt like he could quite possibly wrestle a bear and win, although he wasn't about to try that, but there wree other things that he could do and Meg would be right there with him taking her own potion and the two of them would have their whole lives together.

And take her potion she did...in their bedroom. Which technically put their life ages pretty much on par with each other when the transformation took place.

...and of course that prompted a steamy make-out session in the shower. Hey, why not kill two birds with one stone and get satisfyingly CLEAN at the same time?

Chapter Seven - "We've Been Sold a Rotten Bill of Goods"

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Seven - "We've Been Sold a Rotten Bill of Goods"

Daytime was an uneasy time as the six knew that the closer the clock ticked to the time that the full moon rose into the sky, the danger grew. At least during the daylight hours, they knew where the threats were coming from and could see them clearly. With the approach of night, the darkness would swallow them up and they wouldn't be able to see well, whereas the vampires and the werewolves would be able to keenly see and smell where their opponents were. Mac had been in a firefight before at the embassy in Indonesia where a mob tried to storm the embassy after not liking the judiciary decision on a case where a Marine was accused of gross misconduct with a minor. And she knew that it was pretty much like that situation...however instead of an angry mob, it would be hordes of weres and vampires, all of whom had the capability to kill, severely wound or even worse turn them from human into something that they had nightmares thinking about.

Plans were made to replenish the foodstocks and stock the fridge so that they could withstand a siege. Tosh was the highest ranking officer in charge, Harm was next in seniority so the two had a conference with each other. "I think we need to put in an interior perimeter wall so that anyone who comes over the first one has to scale a second. That just might slow them down enough that we can get off a shot or two before they overwhelm us." Harm suggested.

"Good idea, Harm, but I don't think we have the time to build one before the moon rises at least this time around. We'll have to wait for sunrise and start construction then of our secondary perimeter. I think we should also have M134 7.62x51NATO emplacements along the perimeter. If we start chucking hot 7.62 in their general direction with the rate of fire at over 6000 rounds a minute, they might start thinking twice about trying to breach our wall." the vice-admiral replied nodding, however, a sign that he thought the suggestion from Harm was a good one, just that they didn't have time to do that before tonight's Full Moon.

"And quite a few of them are going to go down." Harm responded, "Tracer rounds."

"Negative. I don't want them to be able to see where the rounds are coming from. Use the barrel of your weapon to sight."

An initial wolf-howl that rent the air at around 1730hrs brought the officers the information that the transition had started. Despite the cold chill down the spine of the officers at the inhuman howl, the comforting feel of the M-16A3s in their hands, provided a sense of security. Phil and Mac took first patrol, well, Mac because she knew and prescouted the lay of the land so that they would be able to figure out exactly where the defences needed to be shored up. The weakest structure point of the fence was the security gate. Wrought iron, but still able to be ripped from the mounts, it was certainly easier to try to breach than scaling the walls. The fountain could be utilized as cover, just in case the vampires were smart enough to carry weapons themselves.

...and Phil, just plainly because he was insane and wanted to have something interesting to do.

"Sir, permission to back them up?" Kimber asked as she hefted her M-16 and glanced meaningfully towards the door that the other two had left.

"Granted...keep your eyes peeled."

"Aye-aye, sir." and with that Kimber headed for the door, rifle at the ready to go back up her friends.

Harm stated, "I know that this is dangerous, but we need to get an idea of the lay of the land beyond the perimeter during this full moon."

"Are you suggesting a LRRP, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol? And exactly where?"

"Sir, might I suggest that we take a run down to the grocery store and see exactly what's going on, under the pretext of buying more food?"

Tosh was uneasy, but he knew that they needed more information. At least they were in civilian clothes and well, people did go hunting, even with military style weapons. "That might be a good idea...we could use the intel to our advantage, Meg. Harm" he said, looking over at her then over at Harm.

They exited the house...indicating to the three on point. "Hold the fort, we're going on recon to get some intel!"

"Aye sir!"

"Safeties on while in the car. Don't want to get perforated by 5.56 tonight."

"Aye, sir."

When they reached the grocery store, they found humans mingling with occult with no sign of hostility or aggression, other than the occasional worried stares at the weapons in the hands of the ones who just arrived, meaning them. Tosh and Harm took up positions. One by the rear of their car, one by the hood. There was tension in the air as the occult in the crowd and the officers sized each other up. But none of them made a move towards each other.

Meg headed into the store, her M-16 by her side as she went into get a few more items to stock the fridge with.

Meanwhile, outside, the humans were looking over at the officers outside, "Hey...you one of them gun-rights guys?" Tosh was sizing them up and gave them a stony glare. "Nice guns, man..." No response. "2nd Amendment rights, huh?"

When Meg came back out, the officers tensed, hands on their weapons as she cut a path, "Excuse me...thank you, Excuse me..." through a group of them. Not one raised a hand towards her. Whether it be vampire, werewolf, fairy or otherwise.

Witches were pretty much undetectable because they looked nothing like the ones in the Wizard of Oz, they looked pretty much like any other human on the street with nothing to give them away other than if you were to see them in the act of casting a spell. And Tosh wasn't about to go up to one of them and go, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Yeah, that wouldn't go over well and he didn't want to be turned into a toad. Flies might be an alright source of protein, but it certainly wasn't something his gastronomical palate was inclined to sample. As Meg moved the car out to the road, Tosh and Harm walked backwards towards the road, their eyes not moving from the crowd, M-16s at the ready. Not a single one of crowd moved.

When Tosh got into the vehicle, he looked over at Harm and Meg silently for a long while as Meg drove them all back to the house and he finally spoke as Meg pulled up to the house. "Meg, Harm, I think the Pentagon sold us a spoiled bill of goods."

"Sir?"

"Form up...Listen up!" he stated as he got out of the car and the gate closed behind them as they stepped back onto friendly ground.

The women and men under his command assembled as he stood there with one hand holding his rifle and a contemplative look on his face as the green tinged moonlight cast a menacing glow on his head.

"Now, I'm just a beat up old combat veteran..." Tosh stated, "And maybe I've lost a few braincells in my day...whether it be at Olongapo during deployment or bashing my head against the canopy a couple times too many during a knife-fight in a phonebooth, but I can tell you this much, something doesn't add up here in the Pentagon's story."

"Sir?" the air of question was in the faces of those assembled looking back at him.

"What I can see here, is a Sanctuary. A place where occult go to get away from humans. They're not assembling here to conduct an all-out attack, they just want to live their own lives. The LRRP told me one thing. Nobody's out here to attack anybody, other than us. And that's not going to happen."

"When I took my oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, I didn't take it to promote speciesism; the superiority of humans over everyone else; the rights of humans over anyone else. The Constitution of the United States of America is supposed to protect everyone in the United States. When I took up my officer's oath in 1980, I promised to defend everyone, not just a select few. These people just want to live their lives and the government seems to think that they're a threat when all they want to do is send their kids to school, cook up a nice meal, and have a great day just like the rest of us. We've been sold a lie...and told to come here and stir up unrest. So that leaves us a choice, do we break our oaths to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights of these people to have a life or do we follow orders. That worked out really well in 1946 at Nuremburg."

"Go on inside...all of you, I don't think we have anything to fear from these people."

Chapter Six - Camaraderie and Duty

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Six - "Camaraderie and Duty"

One of the things that the six realized was that it was getting close to the full moon. Werewolves were affected by the full-moon and they were the most dangerous of the occults that they had to deal with. Vicious and cunning, they could and would savage anyone that they took offence to. And the full moon caused their form to change for the duration that the full moon was up and visible. This was also a weakness since the whole town would know who was a were. The Alpha Pack Leader was also the one that had the capacity to give you a cursed bite. So they had to be careful. And Tosh discussed this with his subordinates at dinner time. They needed to be on their guard at full moon. "I want everyone equipped with M-16A3s, locked and loaded. one in the chamber on your person at all times during full moon. If they breach the perimeter, we're toast otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Aye-aye...sir!" Tosh received a chorus of assent from his subordinates.

"If we have to go out to do perimeter patrols, we go in pairs. Each one covering the other; just watch your fields of fire and make sure that you have a clear shot if you need to take it. Weapons hot when you're on the perimeter."

"Yes, sir!"

"If any of the occults breaches the perimeter, you are clear to take him out with due prejudice."

"They may be mean, but they can't outrun a bullet, sir." Phil stated, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Any chance that we can get crossbows and wooden arrows for the Biters."

Kimber smirked at him, "Weres or vampires, they both bite."

Phil looked disgustedly at Kimber "Thanks...better to call them walking leeches then?"

"Oh, you mean those pale undead guys with sharp fangs." she smirked at him.

"Pretty obvious, ain't it?"

Tosh looked over at Harm, "You know, I think Burrows has a good idea. We could use crossbows. It'll mean not having to close with the enemy and keep us out of their arm's reach. Two shooters with .556 and a crossbow. The .556 NATO will incapacitate the vampire and the arrow will stake him. Adios, Vlad the Impaler. If they set one foot inside our perimeter, it's going to be showtime, that we're not going to go down easy and they may very well lose a good number of their kind."

Phil snarled ferally, "If Eddie Cullen shows his face, I get first dibs to put a stake through him." The three women present in the room laughed at him...

...and Tosh smirked, "So...Burrows, did he steal your girlfriend? I thought he was playing footsies with that...uh...werewolf... and anyways, isn't that a woman's bedroom fantasy script or somethin'? I don't think he's real."

Phil grumbled, "Well, I hated any mention of that movie, the last three women I dated wouldn't shut up about it...so I figured that pale sparkly foofoo would be somewhere around here with the rest of his sparkly buddies and I might get a chance to stake a couple of them after having my ears assaulted by that drivel."

"The company you keep, Burrows..." Harm snorted sarcastically.

After the meeting broke up and the rest of the group went to make sure that their sidearms and rifles were cleaned and prepped for the next night's festivities, Meg and Tosh had their own little private celebration. Thank goodness for the CNO. Any reservations that they had about initiating a relationship had vanished like the early morning mist when it meets the hot sun's rays after sunrise.

Their little ad hoc family had grown by two family members, an adopted Rottweiler named Atlas who was aggressive and would make a good guard dog as well as a hunter of gemstones and Charlie the cat; a stray that had wandered up to their gate and yowled piteously until he was let inside by a soft-hearted Meg Austin who had showered affection onto Charlie: in return was reciprocated by the fluffy male cat. It was a long hair and a rare one at that since it was a calico: most calicos being female. Since Tosh had grown up with dogs as well as cats, he didn't mind in the slightest and hey, if he was going to open up the house to anyone, better it be the four-footed kind than an occult whose allegiances he was not privy to or, for that matter, to a human he didn't know.

Meg and Tosh knew that they were not going to get a whole heckuva lot of sleep the next night; as it was the full moon. They would probably be kept up the majority of the late hours of the night ensuring that their perimeter was secure. So they hit the sack early and got in some very intimate snuggling time; and some skin to skin contact, with nothing coming in between the feel of the sheets to bare skin. Needless to say, it was a comforting night for Meg to be nestled in her lover's arms.

The day of the full moon cast an eery pale green glow on the ground...and the ominous green-tinged clouds were a supernatural omen. Harm felt an inner hunch that he needed to check the elixir shop and headed out. He hit pay-dirt as there was a cure-elixir being sold by the proprietor and he was able to get his hands on it. Tosh had told him that there was no hard limit to the purchase price; just get a cure elixir or as many as he could in his hands. But there was only one...but that was enough for the time being. They would have other opportunities that they could try to acquire more or start learning alchemy themselves: it was one foot in the deep end of pool, but sometimes one had to swim with the sharks to get an idea of what the situation was like.

Meg and Tosh got in some intimate time before getting dressed to go downstairs to get their breakfast, but not before a passionate kiss. The two officers were in love and well, with no UCMJ to have to deal with thanks to their friend at the top of their rank structure, they took every available opportunity to further their relationship in every sense of the word.

...and mainly because tonight would mean that they would be too busy securing the perimeter to have any sort of intimacy.

Chapter Five - "NOT...a WORD!"

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Five - "Not...A Word"

Evidently Meg and Tosh had not been as quiet as they would have liked during their nocturnal exercises and he'd received a raised eye-brow and a smirk from Harm when the two walked into the kitchen in the morning. "Not...a word...Captain." growled Tosh under his breath since it was all that Harm could do to stop from breaking out in a fit of laughter.

"Aye-aye, sir..." Harm said...his expression belying the respect that was supposed to be in those words. "Not...a single word will escape my lips...sir."

"You're pushing it, Rabb."

"Sir...aye, sir..."

Meg was beet-red with embarrassment, just grabbing her plate of lemon cobbler and heading to the table.

Ignoring the warning glance from Tosh, Harm forged ahead, "Sir. I trust that the CNO is aware of the situation?"

Knowing exactly what Rabb was beating around the bush about, the vice-admiral nodded, "Yes, CNO Pointer has had this matter brought to his attention. He is going to be asking the JAG to look the other way. This goes for the six of us. Captain." He inclined his head knowingly, "Should you choose to do so, the JAG will not level Article 133 charges against us for entering into a relationship with whomever you choose of our present company, present company excluded." the admiral indicated that Meg and he were an item by a sweep of his hand towards the dinner table. Harm grinned at the admiral.

...and then it was back to the tasks at hand. Meg trying her hand at creating potions. Presumeably there was a bladder flow potion in there which would be good at incapacitating occults at least for the temporary measure. It would at least give them a chance to flee the situation. Mac and Kimber took over the science stations and Tosh went to work out for four hours with the Universal Gym doing some bench press as well as pec presses. There was a lot to be said for being fit and muscular: it would give the opponent some pause to think about whether he wanted to do this or not - the intimidation factor was real. This was no ordinary war. The opponents they were up against were faster, stronger, and more lethal than any opponent that they'd ever faced in combat. These opponents could go toe to toe with Spetznaz and end up coming out the victor and Tosh wasn't about to let his women and men get into that situation. Unorthodox though the situation was, they were still his subordinates and still under his command and as such, he was duty-bound to protect them, even if they hadn't had the common bond of friendship.

Tosh had been out of the loop for a while, tied to a desk at the Pentagon and as such, his fitness level had suffered. When one was flying on a regular basis, g-tolerance was measured by how much muscle mass you had. If you had a bull-neck, you could crank out 6+Gs with no problem other than a minor graying out. You have to remember that 6Gs was 6 times the force of gravity pressing down on you when you yanked your Tomcat into a hard break while trying to evade a lock-on by enemy radar. That meant anything on your head...as well as your entire body weighed six times what it really weighed and if you weren't physically fit enough to yank the stick around, you'd be digging a hole and six men would be carrying your casket while taps played mournfully and your squadron mates would cluck their tongues somberly saying "what a great driver you were, but you humped the pooch; sure glad it wasn't me".

And if someone launched one of those telephone poles with wings and a high-explosive nose, you better be dam sure that you could crank out as many Gs as you can to break the lock or you and your aircraft would be reduced to a greasy blob of suet and spare parts expanding in mid-air.

Tosh was so into his workout he didn't even hear the small explosion at the potion table. Meg was certainly nonplussed to say the least. "Well, I guess I'd better not use THAT combination again." she said audibly while Mac and Kimber looked over at her wondering what that bang was. Luckily there was a shower there, so she was able to get all that soot off her.

Harm went fishing and wasn't there long before he ended up reeling in a black goldfish. That provided him with an opportunity called Say Hello to My Little Fish, those black goldfish were ornery as heck and kind of like that M4 with M203 grenade launcher that was in that Brian De Palma movie, they weren't the type of fish you'd want to make an acquaintance of. Let's just say a rabid Rottweiler would be friendlier than that fish. So it was over to the police department to drop off a decided brassed off black goldfish and the sooner he got it off his hands the better. Thank goodness that thing didn't have teeth.

Meg was, however, successful as she managed to create a mood enhancer potion, though it wasn't the Bladder Flow incapacitation potion that they were looking for. Maybe that Mood Enhancer potion might put a more pleasant twist on those ever-grouchy werewolves and thus prevent them from having to perforate said werewolf with hot lead.

And Tosh worked on his body. Yes, Meg was going to be very pleased with the results. ~smirk~

And Phil...well...Phil was up to his eyeballs in rotting goop. Wondering how the hell he always managed to get dragooned into these things. "I could be pleasantly sitting on a lanai in Pearl drinking a Mai-Tai while on liberty instead of inhaling rotting plasma fruit vapors and getting sick to my stomach. Did I ever mention I hate vampires. I hate vampires so much, I'm going to stake the next one I see." He popped his head out of the dumpster to shout to no one in particular. "Has anyone see that bloody Eddie, whatever the hell his last name is, around here anywhere. I've got a stick with his name on it!!!"

He snorted, "Figures that sparkly fruitcake won't make an appearance. Any of you other fanged rear-hole-munches wanna have a go at me?" Nope, evidently not.