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Ch: 50 Korean MRE

Emily sat down with her Korean Meal, Ready to Eat (MRE). The package said fish soup. She ripped open the package and took out both the chemical stove package and the fish soup. She adding water to the chem stove so it started to heat up. Once that was done she added water to the fish soup and then dropped the food package into the stove package and she set them both down on the ground to heat up.

“Here, eat it with this.” The man beside her said in Korean handing her two small foil packets. One was red the other one was purple.

Shrugging Emily opened both packages and dropped them in the soup that was warming up. “You sure this is the best one?” She asked looking doubtful at the soup.

“Fights have been known to break out over the soup.” The man said smiling at her before looking down at his MRE. His MRE had beef stroganoff written in English on the side of it.”You sure you are not making fun of me with this?” He asked frowning at the MRE.

“Fight have been known to break out over that,” Emily said smiling making the man laugh.

He was the South Korea version of a Main type super. Unlike the Americans, the South Koreans nationalized all the Supers into the South Korea Republic Defensive Force and allowed them in front of the camera’s making them celebrities. They were classified and placed in Super teams that were based all around South Korea with their strongest team based in the capital of South Korea, Seoul. All supers were required to be in The Defence Force making it a crime for a super to be not on a team. The strongest team was called Super Force and there were about twenty-five members on the team give or take a few depending on that year's lineup.

Si-Woo, the man sitting next to Emily, was on the Super Force and one of his countries three Main type supers. He was a Time stopper and could stop time for roughly ten seconds of his perspective time and interact normally while everything was frozen in time. The drawback to his powers was that he was unable to use his superpowers for a little over four minutes afterward.

Emily was glad he was a really nice guy because his powers were really scary. In the past three weeks, they had practiced together in military exercises and he had shown that even though he did not have super strength or immunity he could attack an entire force head-on and killing hundreds of people in less than a blink of an eye. He had even ‘killed’ her several times while she was only able to ‘kill’ him once.

She picked up her soup and with an overly large plastic spoon that came in the MRE, she mixed the soup. It didn’t smell bad. In fact, it really smelled good. She scooped up some soup on to her spoon. The fish soup was made up of mostly water and rice with some green things that she guessed was seaweed. She poured the spoonful out back into the package and scooped up another spoonful. This time there was a tentacle on her spoon. It was really small about an inch long but it really was a tentacle with the suction cups along the length of it. Blinking in surprise Emily adjusted the spoon and the tentacle flopped over making it appear alive. Cursing she dropped contents back into the package.

Emily scooped up another spoonful from the soup this time without the tentacle and took a sip. It wasn’t bad. It did have a nearly overpowering fish flavor sort of like eating salmon. She smiled and looked up at Si-Woo and smiled. “It’s pretty good.”

Si-Woo, on the other hand, was frowning at his dish. “I am not sure about this beef stroganoff.” He said dropping his spork into the package. “Trade?” He asked her holding out his MRE.

“Hell yea,” Emily said smiling and switched MRE’s with him. She pulled out her hot sauce from the rucksack beside her and dabbed a few drops into her meal.

Smiling happily she looked around at her fellow Special Forces teammates and the South Korean Commandos that were sitting down with each other eating lunch. She had been with the First Special Forces Group since September after she graduated from all the Basic and Advanced Special Forces training. Basic Special Forces normally lasted around two years depending on when a class they needed opened up but she completed it early since she was had too double up on most of her training. Advanced training was after basic training and was a bunch of different schools. Advanced training contained High altitude, low opening (Halo) Parachuting, Combat Diving, and Jungle warfare to name just a few.

She now spoke five more languages with Korean being one of them. She could switch her accent to both South and North Korean with ease. Unlike most everyone else who went through Special Forces training, she found the training easy. That was mostly due to her Stamina. She could run nearly forever and her memory while not photographic was still better than the average persons. It was why they double up on training for her. They were trying to make the training harder.

The first phase, called phase one, was a five-week ‘warm-up’ to get in shape for the rest of the course. The last two weeks of phase one was a two-week small teams tactics course. For Emily and those who went through Ranger training it was just a refresher course but for those who hadn’t had the training, it was their first introduction into special warfare and small unit tactics. Phase two was a five-week try-out to get one of the four non-command or non-super jobs on the Special Forces teams. The jobs in which everyone who was not picked to have a super related job were competing for were Weapons Specialists, Engineer Specialists, Combat Medic, and Communications Specialists.

There were two Super related jobs which were for a Main type super and the Secondary type super. Since most teams did not have a Main on their teams they relied on their Secondaries. To get a super job a person had to have the superpowers of a Main or a Secondary before even applying and then pass several physical and mental tests. The physical tests were just a bunch of endurance tests that were harder than all the other endurance tests that everyone else had to pass. The mental tests were mostly written tests but there was a lot of emphases put on target recognition. To pass the selection process a person had to know who was the bad guys and who were the good guys under pressure. That meant a lot of ambushes and timed simulated attacks at gun ranges where targets popped up and the person had to choose which was the right target to shoot. Most of the tests were done in low light with a lot of distractions like smoke and loud noises bombarding the super going through the test.

The two Super related jobs were basically the same job. The job was to counter any enemy Supers. The Secondaries were trained to work in groups of two’s to kill a super while a Main was trained to kill them by themselves. Not all teams had a Main type super but every team had at least two Secondaries who don’t quite measure up the high standards of a Main type super but they came close.

The Weapon Specialists job was to know every type of weapons systems of their area where they would be deployed in and be an expert shot with those weapons systems. For the First Special Forces Group that meant all weapons that are used in the Asian Theater from the Chinese weapons to the knock-off weapons coming out of Indonesia. To pass the Weapon Specialists test during the training a person had to get a 28 out of 30 on both rifle and handgun test on the range. That meant that they could only miss the bullseye once or twice depending on where the bullet landed on the target. Even then the missed shot had to be within the second circle outside the bullseye or they failed.

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The Engineer had to pass a bunch of written tests. Most of the tests were on math. Their main job was building and destroying things as well as they had to know how to drive any land and sea vehicles. If you needed to build something or blow something up then they were your go-to guy and gals.

The Combat Medic's job was a really intense job. Not only did they have to know basic and advanced combat medicine they also had to know a lot of biological jobs like Veterinarian Medicine, Pharmacology, and Vector analysis of biological contaminations and how to stop the spread of the contaminations. The Combat Medic’s school was the longest school in the Special Forces training.

The Communications Specialist job was to know how to use every type of communications devices available from satellite transmissions to homemade electronic listening devices. Not only did they have to be able to talk to Command and Control when on a mission, but they may also be called on to plant a spy device on or near the enemy or in some cases even their allies.

Emily and the two secondaries that she trains with were also trained in a lot of odd stuff like how a building was made and how to spot how things like reinforced walls and doors. They also were trained on how to go through or around that reinforcement. They were also trained in the most common behaviors that super had like Brutes not squeezing a person’s hand during a handshake. They were also trained on how to avoid those same behavioral traits.

There were only four billeted Main type supers in the entire Special Forces groups. One for each active duty Special Forces groups. Each group had four battalions or as they were called in the Special Forces world Operations Detachments (OD). So a Main was usually attached to the first OD team in the group but they could be pulled onto another OD team depending on the need of Special Forces group that they were attached to. Currently, there were only three Main type supers in the Special Forces groups with the 7th Special Forces group lacking any Main type supers.

Emily found the makeup of the Special Forces teams strange. Each of special Forces group was broken up by Battalions called OD teams. Most Special Forces groups had four OD teams. The OD team was divided into three Teams called ODA, ODB and SFODC team.

ODA was the combat arm of the Special Forces group. They were the ones who went on missions. They were usually comprised of fourteen members. Two of each job classes plus the command staff which included the Captain who was called the Detachment commander. The Warrant Officer which was the XO of the team who was called the Assistant Detachment Commander. Then there were the two Team Sergeants called Operations Sergeants. The ODA was split up further into two platoons with each of the Operations Sergeant being in charge of a platoon. So the total members on the team were fourteen or fifteen if they had a Main type super available. ODA was its own company.

ODB was the backup team. The OBD was split up into three companies which were numbered two through four. Each of the companies was made up of fourteen people. ODB was commanded by the Major who was also the XO of the battalion. He was in-charge of all the training and everyday things for the teams. There were about forty-five people in the ODB.

The last group SFODC was the Command staff for the Colonel and were called the Headquarters team plus a Quartermaster Battalion which, while not Special Forces themselves, were attached to the OD team. The Quartermaster Battalion had a Major who was in-charge of the group. She was not in the direct chain of command but she did answer to the Colonel.

The OD’s were identified by four numbers that started with what Special Forces group they were in. The second number was what battalion they were in. The third number was what company they were in. The last was what platoon they were on.

Emily was on ODB1142 currently. She was in the First Special Forces group in the First Battalion in The Fourth Company in the Second Platoon. She was in the Fourth company because she was still in training with the teams. The Fourth Company was where they put those who were new and needed training as well as those who were injured and were recovering. It was where everyone was either on light duty or the Coronel didn’t trust them on an active mission yet. The only reason Emily was picked to be on the ODA for the past three weeks was that she was a Main and it was a training operation. She hoped she proved herself in this past few weeks to be promoted to Second Company. She knew it would be a while before they had enough trust in her to promote her to ODA and First Company.

The Special Forces were different also from the normal Army because of what they did. They were trained to operate alone behind enemy lines and make up their own orders to complete their missions. Because of that, they were a lot more relaxed than the spit and polish of the Rangers and the rest of the Army. Those in command were either supers themselves or had trained side by side with supers in the Special Forces basic training program. Everyone in the United States Special Forces had to have gone through Super School even if most of the people were not supers themselves. The odds of an Impossible order episode was really low. Even then she didn’t think she would get an NJP for it now unless she really pissed someone off.

Emily finished her beef stroganoff and reached into the MRE bag and pulled out a bag of chocolate chip cookies. She offered one to Si-Woo but he declined. The First Special Forces group, first OD team had been sent to Korea to be part of Foal Eagle. It was the semi-annual Field training exercise with the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and the United States Armed Forces. It was basically a political statement whenever North Korea did something that the United States didn’t like. Normally no Main type supers were involved but North Korea had been really annoying lately so the President and his people in the Pentagon decided to go all out this year.

This year’s Foal Eagle exercise had been to simulate a full-scale invasion from the North. The Field training had included a Marine landing on beaches near the capital of South Korea, Seoul. An airborne invasion just outside several cities and even a tank battle between two mixed battalions of tanks. Emily had wished that she could have seen that but her entire OD team along with to Korean Commandos had been deep in the mountains simulating attacking random training bases.

After Foal Eagle ended they stayed to train with the Commando’ for two weeks. Emily with ODA and the South Korean Special Forces, the Black Berets, had just finished an exercise where they attacked the US and South Korean Army training outpost at the top of one of the many mountains in South Korea. Both the US and Korean Special Forces job was to destroy the communication array before they could get a message out and they succeeded. One thing Emily had to give the Black Berets was that they were really good at what they did. Very professional.

The ODA team with their Korean counterpart were hanging out with each other at the staging area on a mountain that overlooked a large valley. This was the last exercise with the Commandos and everyone hope that it would be the last exercise for them as well. If all worked out well then they would have time to spend in Seoul for a few days before heading back to their home base in Okinawa, Japan.

Emily finished eating and stuffed her stuff back into her rucksack then waited for everyone to finish eating. She checked her M9 and made sure it was ok. Most of the exercises she had participated in were live-fire exercises using real bullets instead of the Miles Gear. She had ten full magazines across her vest and four pistol magazines in her pocket. She ran her hand over her little black knife then patted Righteous that was in its sheath on her back. Nodding to Si-Woo she headed towards down the mountain a bit awaiting the order to head down. There was no path so she had to look around for an easy way down. Once the order was given she led the teams down the mountain followed by Si-Woo who followed about thirty feet behind her. The rest of the two teams followed them.