Chapter Seven
From February to May the Ukrainian forces had succeeded in pushing the Russian forces back.
This had been part of their eastern Ukraine offensive and the successful engagement was now being referred to as the Battle of Kharkiv.
Although Russian forces continued to shell the city, they had withdrawn most of their units from the area.
One of the team’s earlier missions had been to assist the Ukrainian forces during their offensive maneuvers and Captain Andrich, an officer from one of the units they had been with, was meeting them now.
After they had all exited the helicopter and brought their equipment over to a remote hanger, Captain Andrich came up to Master Sergeant Town and said, “Welcome once again, Sergeant! It is good to see you, my friend!”
Master Sergeant Town grinned and after exchanging salutes, he extended his hand, saying, “Yes, it is good to be back, Captain!” They shook hands and then the master sergeant introduced the team members whom the captain had not previously met.
Since none of them were wearing any rank insignia, when he explained, “This is Lieutenant McCrea, she is leading this mission,” the captain was rather shocked.
“I am surprised to find a woman to be your leader,” exclaimed the captain. He examined Missy closely and then slowly shook his head side to side, obviously marveling at finding someone both so young as well as female to be in charge.
Missy extended her hand and in Russian she asked, “Why are you so surprised, Captain Andrich?” She gave him a big smile when he shook her hand, his expression showing he had understood what she said.
In Russian, the captain answered, “Only because I know your mission will be inside Russia. However, as it seems you can speak the language, perhaps that helps explain this.” After a pause he added, “Although I was aware that women have been serving in U.S. combat units for a while now, I confess that you are the first whom I have met.”
Missy nodded and said, “I have been assigned to this unit for three years now but my commission is very recent. I therefore will continue to rely on Sergeant Town’s leadership in the days ahead.”
Master Sergeant Town laughed at this and said, “My Lieutenant is being too modest, Captain. Having fought side-by-side with her on numerous occasions, I can assure you she is the fiercest warrior in our unit and is most qualified to be our leader. Now, I understand you have some vehicles which will bring us to the border, right?”
The captain smiled and said, “Yes, come this way. I have them parked just outside.” He then led everyone out through a rear door to where three small vans were waiting.
Once everyone was inside the vehicles, they proceeded out of the airfield using a secondary road.
Thirty minutes later they pulled over and stopped.
After exiting the vehicles and gathering around Captain Andrich, they listened to his briefing on how best to cross over from there into Russia.
He explained, “We are now a few miles north of the village of Liptsi and are about a mile from the border. As you can see, the area is densely wooded. I was told it’s your plan to cross over just as it gets dark.
You will find there are several paths through the woods where others have been doing this over the years.
If you are careful to avoid any Russian forces which might possibly be in the area, you should have no problem making your way using one of those pathways.
I wish you all the best on this mission of yours. ”
The team then said goodbye and with Missy in the lead, they proceeded along a pathway which brought them away from the road and into the trees.
This was what they had all trained for and silently they followed Missy.
The weather was cooperating as the forecast for the next few days was for it to be dry and warm during the day, dropping into the fifties at night.
As it grew dark, Missy led them to an area where she wanted them to pause while she did some out-of-body reconnaissance. As had become customary, Staff Sergeant DeMarco watched over her body whenever she did these recons.
Zipping around in her spirit form, Missy was quickly able to determine both where they could walk without meeting up with any Russian personnel and also where they could make camp several miles inside. She returned to her body and after reentering, she stretched and sat up.
“Welcome back, Missy,” said Staff Sergeant DeMarco. “That didn’t take you very long. How does it look for us?”
Missy smiled and answered, “It looks clear for us and I’ve selected a nice area where we can rest awhile once the sun comes up.
” She stood up and waited for the others to join her.
Then she said, “Okay, things look good. Just follow me for the next few hours. As I just told Luis here, I’ve got a place we can reach by first light where we’ll all pause for a few hours.
I should be able to find us a vehicle we can use after that, as we discussed back at our initial briefing for this mission. ”
The plan was, while her team members were resting, she would teleport around and find a truck or large van which she could steal.
She would then materialize and drive that back to where the team was staying.
Yes, she would also need to steal something she could wear but that didn’t seem like too much of a problem.
Being able to simply vanish should that become necessary made plans such as this rather easy. Missy picked up all her own gear and then led them off into the night. Being able to see in the dark also made things easy.
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Wednesday, Jun 1, 2022
Now that his classes were over for the summer, Mike was back at his desk at the SOD Group.
Since they all knew Missy was on a mission inside Russia, everyone had been following the frequent updates which were coming in from Team Twenty-Two’s headquarters.
They, of course, were getting messages via satellite from those on this mission whenever any of their designated checkpoints had been reached.
The mission was for the team to make their way up to Bryansk which was about two hundred forty miles north of Kharkiv and two hundred forty miles southwest of Moscow. Using the various roads, they would actually be traveling over three hundred miles to get there.
Their target was a large manufacturing plant in Bryansk which was a major producer of explosives used in artillery shells and warheads.
The plan was to cause what would seem to be an accident which would destroy a large amount of inventory as well as cause some significant damage to the plant’s manufacturing capability such that repairs would require several weeks.
Since this was a test mission, the idea was to demonstrate the team could operate inside that area without being detected, somehow blow up this factory such that it was considered an accident rather than sabotage and then make its way back out to Ukraine. In and out. Leave no evidence behind.
Of course, knowing Missy was now doing all this had Mike a little worried.
He knew she was more than capable of dealing with whatever the team might encounter but he just could not help the way he felt.
Since she was way beyond the five hundred miles within which her mental messages would reach him, he was also experiencing “Missy withdrawal”. Oh, well! That was their life now.
Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn came over and asked, “How’s it going, Mike?”
Mike replied, “Well enough, according to all the checkpoints they’ve reached.
” He knew the question was concerning this mission which Missy was on.
“They have a large truck and have stopped about halfway to Bryansk for the night. They should get to the target area by tomorrow night which will be around two or three in the afternoon back here our time.”
“Yeah, that’s great,” said the lieutenant colonel.
“There’s no hurry on this mission. Making whatever destruction they can manage all appear to be an accident will be what’s important.
Then too, of course, remaining unnoticed until they make their way out.
General Hingham has several missions like this which he’d like to keep sending the team on. ”
“Right, I heard all that on the phone during his briefing,” said Mike.
“Proving the team can “live off the land”, so to speak, without being noticed … that will enable missions where they go deep inside Russia for days or even weeks at a time. Interfering with what the Russians are doing so they can make a difference.”
“Well, unconventional warfare is what the Special Forces does best. Being able to use Missy’s supernatural abilities in doing that is huge. I know it’s what she has trained for all these years, right?”
Mike nodded and said, “Oh, yes. Because she can, she believes it’s her destiny to do so. Those beliefs have only grown stronger during all her years of training. Now she’s finally getting to fulfill all that.”
They chatted for a little longer and then the lieutenant colonel returned to his own office and Mike returned to checking his computer screen for any updates.
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Thursday, Jun 2, 2022
After stopping for the night at an abandoned farmhouse which Missy had managed to locate for them, the team settled down inside and enjoyed a meal using some of the MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) which they had brought with them.
There was water in a well on the property which Missy had verified was safe to drink.
Their truck was parked out of sight inside the old barn.
Master Sergeant Town said, “The plant which we are targeting is only a few miles away. We will stay here tonight and Missy will go do her invisible spying. Based on whatever she determines, we’ll see what sort of mayhem might be possible for tomorrow night.
We are ahead of schedule thanks to not encountering any problems up until now. ”
Missy said, “Yes, finding the truck which I stole and now finding this farmhouse we can use as a base are opportunities we could not have counted on. The trickiest part for me so far was finding that oversize shirt which I stole.” She had made quite a spectacle climbing out of the truck’s cab when she had rejoined her team that morning.
Staff Sergeant DeMarco asked, “Ma’am, will you need me to watch your body while you’re out spying tonight?”
“No, that won’t be necessary. Since I can use one of the rooms here to get dressed again when I return …
,” Missy paused and smiled at him. Then she continued, “You can leave my clothes in whichever room you think best. I want everyone to get some sleep here now since we may be up all night tomorrow. I think I’ll get started now.
” She took a few steps back from the group and after saying, “Goodbye for now!”, she vanished.
Staff Sergeant DeMarco went over and gathered up all her clothing and boots.
The nine other men all laughed. One voice said, “Love it when she does that!”
Another voice said, “Hey, is she letting DeMarco actually touch her panties?”
A third man who had been watching the staff sergeant gather up all of Missy’s things announced, “Nah, she isn’t letting him do that, guys! Apparently, Missy has been going commando on this mission!” Everyone broke out in even more laughter. They all really loved having Missy as their leader.