Stone the Crows

Posted on Wed Feb 20th, 2019 @ 10:43pm by Brigadier General Nathan Wolf & Major Jacob Asher & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus

Mission: A Brand New Day
Location: Cheyenne Mountain, Project New Dawn
Timeline: Current

Jeremiah was left to stew for a little bit before a Brigadier General and a Major entered the room. The Major had a file in his hands. They stood in front of the table and stood there and waited, looking at him.

Just sitting must have got to him because, while he was determined to watch the door, he started to doze. As he heard the door close and, not fully awake, just saw the leaves and star. Instantly awake now, he jumped to his feet quick enough that it knocked over the chair. His arm sprang up into a salute as he looked toward the General. And his only though was Oh shit! How much trouble am I in?. "General, sir!" he finally said, staring over the general's shoulder and at the top hinge of the door. shit shit shit!

The Brigadier General just looked at Jeremiah, letting him hold the salute for a moment before finally returning it, lowering his arm and sitting down. After moment, the General looked up as if he suddenly remembered Jeremiah was there. "As you were, Sergeant. Sit down."

"Sir," Jeremy said, still reeling through his mind any little thing he ever did, going back to ROTC. If they sent a general after him, it had to be something significant. He was in full on squat when he realized there was no chair beneath him. He held for several moments, confused what to do then, with a sigh, he stood again and righted the chair before sitting. He put his clasped hands on the table and waited, his leg bouncing as an indicator of how scared he was getting over something he didn't even know about.

He wanted to ask but...one did not simply question a major, much less a general.

The General held out his hand without looking and the Major placed the file in it. The General looked through the file and completely ignored Jeremiah.

"Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus," the General said, finally. "I'm Brigadier General Nathan Wolf. This is Major Jacob Asher. He's my senior team leader. If you've got what it takes, you get to be on his team. Say hello to the nice Staff Sergeant, Jake."

"Hello, nice Staff Sergeant," Jake said.

"Major," Jeremy answered, looking up only briefly to make sure he followed courtesy rules then stared back at his hands. Here it comes, he thought, finally he'd find out why he was here. What he did that was so bad it brought in a-

"Did you say team?" he blurted out. Then realizing his mistake quickly added a rushed "sir".

"Yes, Sergeant," Nathan said. "I said team. I did say team, didn't I Jake?"

"You definitely did say team, sir," Jake said.

"Tell me, Sergeant," Nathan said. "Do you believe in aliens? You know, intelligent life forms from other planets?"

"Aliens, sir?" he asked, confused. What did aliens have to do with being arrested or...being on a team he..."I mean, yeah, I guess so, there's gotta be something with billions of stars out there, right?" He looked down at his hands again. "Am I under arrest for something?" His stomach knotted as he waited for the answer to that question.

"We're asking the questions, here, Sergeant," Jake said sternly.

"Jake!" Nathan scolded. "That wasn't nice! Apologize to the nice Staff Sergeant."

"Of course, sir," Jake said. "I'm sorry, nice Staff Sergeant."

"That's better, Jake," Nathan said. "It never hurts to be courteous, I always say. Aren't I always saying that?"

"You do always say that, yes, sir," Jake said.

"Now, Sergeant," Nathan said. "The big question: how would you like to visit other planets? Would you do it even if it meant you'll probably have people shooting ray guns and the like at you? If it meant that if things went pear shaped far enough, your team might be entirely on its own indefinitely? Most importantly, could you keep your mouth shut about doing it? Could you do it knowing you'd probably never be able to tell anyone about all of the cool stuff you were doing? We do a lot of cool stuff here, don't we Jake."

"Yes, sir," Jake said. "Lots of cool stuff."

Jeremy shook his head as he looked between the two of them several times before he couldn't help himself. The relief at finally realizing this was nothing more than some elaborate prank was too palpable. He burst out laughing, standing so he could breathe better. As he tried to calm down and speak, just looking at the two the "Brigadier General" and "Major" sitting before him. It took a few moments but, gasping and red faced from the insufficient oxygen, he finally managed to bring the roar to a chuckle. "Did Johnson set this up? I swear, I wasn't part of those pictures of him and the goat! I swear! What're are you, a couple noncomms repaying a favor? Going to other planets, you had me going, you really did. If you stuck with the arrest, yeah, I might have crapped my pants there, but aliens. Yeah, right "General"!" he said, finally pulling the chair to him and sitting on it, the back to the table. "But, those two out there, Bellows and Acadia? They're good, kept me guessing the whole way. It was Johnson wasn't it? Yeah, he got me. Got me good. Oh yeah, "General" I'd love to visit other planets, boldly go where no Jedi has gone before. Definitely. Beam me up, Major!"

Jake laughed. "YGBSM!" he said.

Nathan also laughed. "Definitely YGBSM. Okay Sergeant, let me tell you a story, but first, let me ask you another question. Have you ever heard of an Air Force unit known as the Wild Weasels?"

"I've heard something, maybe?" he asked, still chuckling. "Gotta hand it to you, you guys are dedicated to this bit."

"The Weasels are a SEAD unit," Nathan said. "Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses. They were established during the Vietnam War to take out enemy SAM sites. Essentially, they work in pairs. One plane shakes its ass and looks sexy until a SAM site locks onto it, and then starts yanking and banking and tries to unass the area before they get their asses shot off, while the other plane locks on to the now exposed SAM site and kills the Hell out of it. When one of the EWOs (Electronic Warfare Officer) heard that he was to fly back seat to a self-absorbed fighter pilot while acting as flypaper for enemy SAMs, he said You Gotta Be Shitting Me. It became the unit motto. If it wasn't already the Weasels motto, it could be ours. Hey, Jake, maybe we could use GTFOH? You know, as in Get The Fuck Outta Here!"

Jake laughed.

"Anyway," Nathan said. "When I was assigned here and they told me I'd be in charge of an operation that sent teams to other worlds through a device of ancient design known as the Stargate and that my job was to defend the Earth against aliens and protect others 'out there', I told him the same story I just told you. And then he showed me proof that he was not, in fact, shitting me. Nor am I you. So I'll ask you again. Would you like to travel to other planets? Meet people who were taken from Earth so long ago that we need historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists to tell us what we're dealing with? Fight aliens who spent so much time posing as gods on Earth that they practically believe it's true themselves? Because I've read your file and so has Jake and, despite being, at times, a pain in the ass, you've got what it takes to do this. The question is, do you have the guts to do it. Well, what do you say, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus?"

The tone Wolf took, full of confident authority and the right to wield it resonated within Jeremy. He'd been conditioned, practically since birth, to respond to that authority from first his police officer father, to his ROTC instructors and ten finally, the entirety of the Air Force. Suddenly, this wasn't a joke. The general really believed what he was saying and...so did the major. One, he could believe was bat guano crazy, but both? Together, inside an Air Force base? What were those odds? And...

"Sir," he said, soberly addressing the general and hoping his laughing at his misconception wouldn't get him into too much trouble. "I went to PR school and earned that beret, same as the Major. It taxed everything I had to get through the program but I made it because I want to represent the Air Force as the best. We are the best, sir, the pararescue, best the military has to offer. Which means I live up to being the best the military has to offer. If that means this program, then that's what I'll do. Except," he sat up straight but bowed his head. "Can we not make the motto GTFOH? I'd be in trouble with my parents every time they saw it." He waited for their laughter, but he had to ask.

Both of the officers chuckled.

"I'll give that some thought," Nate said. "But no promises."

"Thank you, General," he said as the idea finally started sinking home. Did he just sign up to chase UFOs?