SS1 11.3 - Welcome Dinner
Once we arrived in the shooting range I immediately started the brief. “Welcome to Smoking Skull. My name is Shimon Berg, your first team leader. You can call me Sir, First Lead, Top, or Boss.”
“…”
I then pointed my finger at Bae In-nu. “This is Major Bai In-nu. She is our second team leader. You can call her Major Bai, Ma’am, Second Lead, or whatever nickname she allows you to.”
“:..”
I then turned my gaze to the most senior wolforc. “T 0-1, can you become our third team leader.”
T 0-1 gave me a firm nod. “I can, Sir.”
“Just so you know. I don’t mind if you want to change your name.” I said as I gave T 0-1 a hunter tablet.
After gasping for a moment T 0-1 firmly said, “Please, call me Tulpar, Sir.”
“Okay. You are Tulpar starting from now. Use that name for your tablet.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Tulpar gratefully said.
“You’re welcome,” I then distributed tablet hunters to other wolforcs and said to them, “If you want to change your name, now is the time.”
“Please call me Lior, Sir,” T 0-2 said.
“Please call me Yuvar, Sir,” T 0-3 said.
“Please call me Gonnar, Sir,” T 0-4 said.
“Please call me Azgar, Sir,” S 0-1 said.
“Please call me Toudor, Sir,” S 0-2 said.
The wolforcs looked so happy with their new name. I guessed it meant a lot for them. Then, I continued the brief.
“Now, we have names and team leaders. Let’s distribute the team member.” After a short pause I continued, “I take Ariel and Toudor.”
After receiving my gaze Bae In-nu immediately said, “I take Lior and Azgar.”
“Tulpar,” I calmly said. “Yuvar and Gonnar will be in your team.”
“Aye Sir,” Tulpar firmly replied.
“I don’t mind if you want to keep your old weapon system,” I calmly said. “But I have one demand. You have to become adept in firearms too.
Major Bae will give you firearm basic drill. After that, we can start to hone our teamwork.”
Without further ado, I handed over the firearms and ear safety system to Ariel, Tulpar, and the other wolforcs. Other than their individual weapon, team leader would also hold the squad weapon for now. After that, I let Bae In-nu took over the brief.
After teaching the wolforcs how to use their hunter tablet, she asked them to mark their individual weapon with their initial. Then, she went straight to firearms basic drill. I watched to ensure Bae In-nu knew what she did, and I found she was not stranger to western firearms. She was very adept on it instead.
Without further ado, I went to sat in a corner. I had not yet bought the combat outfits for Smoking Skull. It seems Tulpar and the other wolforcs also didn’t have proper daily wears. They came only with a small bundle of luggage in their lower back. I had to buy them daily wear too.
---
While enjoying a pack of crackers as replacement for my lunch, I started the shopping. I already had the body measurement for everyone. I only had to put the order through my tablet and paid it. It’s just that, I was under budget constraint right now. I had to carry the shopping very carefully.
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In summary, other than hiking shoes, low visibility outdoor wears, sport wears, daily wears, rain coat, and protection gear, I bought BDU pants and frog combat shirt from various surplus stores. The patterns I chose were CADPAT Temperate Woodland, AOR2 Woodland, M81 Woodland, JSDF Flecktarn, and MultiCam.
The pants had integrated knee pad, while the frog combat shirt had integrated elbow pad. For the pants I bought for Tulpar and the rest, I also ordered adjustment to accommodate their tail.
In total, I bought four set of low visibility outdoor and two sets of each BDU pattern. I hoped these hunting wears would last for a year. Other than that, I also made everyone’s name tag, along with tons of Smoking Skull’s patch.
Then, I went to bought tactical radio. I chose Bowman Elite headset and paired it with custom-assembly individual radio from Italian manufacture. Mossad’s black ops operator used it a lot. I used it several times when I was tasked to support them.
It worked well almost in any environment under heavy disturbance, both man-made disturbance and natural disturbance. I just had to make a bit adjustment for Tulpar and the other wolforcs. Their ears had different shape and location than human. I had to accommodate it.
In a glance it was only simple shopping, but when I finished it, it was already 16:20. Wasting no time, I called everyone and distributed the stuff I bought for them. Tulpar and the other wolforcs looked very happy with their new clothes and protection gear. They checked every item while having big smile in their face.
Then, Bae In-nu asked me, “What is the BDU schedule?”
“No BDU schedule,” I casually said.
“Are you saying we don’t need to wear the exact same BDU?”
“Yeah,” I firmly nodded. “As long as you don’t wear mismatch BDU like mixing Marpat pants with AOR2 shirt, it is fine to wear different pattern.”
“I see.”
“You can also use low visibility outdoor wears when we are in a hunt,” I added. “The outdoor wears I bought for you are more suitable for the hunt actually. It is just that they are freaking expensive.”
Bae In-nu immediately gave me a light nod. “Okay.”
“Other question?”
“…”
After everyone lightly shook their head I said, “Well, let’s choose your room, taking afternoon bath, and then let’s have your welcome dinner at 18:00.”
---
Bae In-nu gave me suggestion to have Korean BBQ as welcome dinner for Tulpar and the rest and I agreed. After finishing my bath, I went to set up the dining table. The main set up was three grillers and nine serving trays. Each serving tray had a bowl of white rice, along with personal serving of kimchi, garlic, Korean green chili, lettuce, carrot salad, sweet BBQ sauce, and hot BBQ sauce.
As for the main dishes, each griller had a big serving of thinly sliced brisket, prime bone short rib, seasoned boneless short rib, beef belly, beef tongue, Shitake mushroom, and enoki mushroom. I also put lot of fruits as dessert.
Five minutes before the dinner time, Bae In-nu and Ariel arrived at the dining table. The two wore sweat pants, T-shirt, and jacket. They looked happy and kicking as usual. While having big smile in her face, Ariel helped me arranging the table. As for Bae In-nu, she went to sit in her usual seat and happily checked the table.
“Wait a second,” Bae In-nu said before turning her gaze to me. “You order only beef without pork.”
“Yeah,” I casually said while continued arranging the table. “Beef is more delicious than pork, right?”
“Correct,” Bae In-nu said, “However, Korean BBQ is not complete without pork. They enjoy beef as opening to get deep flavor, and then continue with pork to get fullness.”
“I see.”
“Let’s replace the beef prime bone short rib and the beef belly with pork equivalent.”
“Okay.”
Without delay I followed Bae In-nu suggestion. I didn’t eat pork, but everyone else did and it could ease our food budget. She also asked me to add egg tofu. I had no idea that we could grill egg tofu, but she said it’s very delicious. As for the drink, other than lemonade Bae In-nu asked me to buy three packs of 6-can Yona Yona Ale.
A moment later, Tulpar and the rest came out of their room. They all wore light grey track suit that perfectly matched their fur. Overall, they looked very happy but also a bit shy with their new clothes. Honestly, they looked like a pack of elementary kids who wore their New Year clothes for the first time.
‘Well, I’m glad they like it.’
Tulpar then led the rest to dining table and stopped right before me.
“Sir, we are ready for the dinner,” Tulpar said in a tone as if we were going to a hunt.
“At ease, hunters,” I casually said. “We are not in a hunt.”
“Aye Sir.”
Tulpar firmly replied, but he didn’t lower his combat readiness. I guessed it would take some time before he and the other wolforcs realized it was fine to become casual in front of me, even when we were in a hunt.
“Well, take your seat.”
“Do we eat in the same table with you and Major Bae, Sir?” Tulpar asked me as confuse look filled his face to the brim.
I could see the other wolforcs also looked very confuse. I immediately asked Tulpar back, “Do you have something that make you can’t eat in the same table with us?”
“No, Sir,” Tulpar firmly said. “But, usually, we have to eat in the floor, in corner of the room.”
I lightly nodded before my expression became drop dead serious. “I will say it only this once, so listen to me carefully.”
“…”
As Tulpar and the rest became very tense I continued, “Human or non-human, I treat my man equally. Got it?”
“Aye Sir,” Tulpar firmly replied.
“Good,” I calmly said. “Take your seat then.”
Without delay, Tulpar and the rest took their seat. They were nervous as hell, but I said nothing about it. It would take time before they were ready to receive equal treatment like human and I preferred to let the process go naturally.
Then, after I asked everyone to offer gratitude for the food in their own way, we started the dinner.
*****
