FUBAR
Special thanks to Setulan for his advice and assistance.Kalahari Base Camp, City of Nazzid, Arel…“
Welcome to another day in the White City. We’re shaping up to get a bit of a relief from the sun today as skies are projected to be overcast until midmorning. The heat isn’t dropping much though, we have readings of 29 C with a low of 25, 27% humidity and, you guessed it, a 0% chance of rain. Winds are 13 kilometers per hour from the northwest but are set to gust more than twice that by noon, so we may be seeing a dust storm later today. We’ll keep you updated on the weather, but for now, some tunes. This is Radio Nazzid, signing off.”
Major Hitaro grunted and shook his head as the voice from the radio was replaced by music. “Least the cloud coverage gives that poor fucker something to comment on other than how damn hot it is,” the kitsune’s tail swished back and forth regularly, the armored limb fanning the warm air. Even one level underground in dim bunker confines the heat still seemed to find its way down, and waving his plume helped to keep it circulating past his furred muzzle where it was exposed out the top of his power armor.
“This is nothing,” his direct subordinate and executive officer First Lieutenant Kaiji just smiled. “Back on Tanto it broke 38 degrees sometimes once you factored in the humidity. This heat’s dry, you just have to keep hydrated. But back there it stuck to you, like you were all wrapped up in it, and sometimes you’d get no wind at all. Just glassy water all around.”
“Yeah, but I bet nobody was trying to kill you on Tanto.”
“Had a few hurricanes if that counts.”
Hitaro laughed. “I would kill for a hurricane here, lieutenant. It feels like it’s been years since I saw rain.”
“You have been around a while, haven’t you major? You were here before I was, I know that. How long have you been on Arel for?”
“Since I had a lower rank than you. Too long, lieutenant. Too long.”
“Major, Lieutenant?” the voice came from the other side of the door. “Come in.”
The office was cooler than the hallway outside, Hitaro couldn’t help but notice as he stepped inside. A ceiling fan rotated overhead, complemented by a desk fan that blew a few streamers in the general direction of the commanding officer of 8th Battalion.
Hot even for him, I guess. Lieutenant Colonel Yazos was a berrax with scales so black and glossy that Hitaro could see a faint reflection of himself in the officer’s hairless head. Yazos kept leaning over his laptop for a moment before raising his eyes to the pair of kitsune before him. Two violet eyes flicked between them as they bowed before standing at attention.
“Sit,” he nodded to the chairs in front of his desk. Once they had Yazos got to his feet, tail sliding off his own chair as he braced his hands on the desk. “At 0500 hours this morning Nazzid Survey Command picked up an ionic disturbance in the Bumhavar Region, about 100 klicks south of Nazzid City,” a map projection on the wall highlighted the barren area that was cut through by a highway. “They strongly believe the readings came from a smuggler’s transport, and that it was making a drop to operatives of the Sons of Arel. Imperial Customs Enforcement made several sweeps of the area but haven’t been able to locate anything. I have orders from division to change that.”
His eyes met Hitaro’s. “Major, you’re to pick one of your platoons and send it into Bumhavar to locate this drop. There’s been no activity detected since the original disturbance so in all probability whatever was dropped off is still out there, and I don’t intend to allow it to fall into the hands of those murderous bastards. Once they find it if at all possible the platoon is to engage and destroy whatever elements show up to collect it. For once our troops might get the chance to hit them out in the open, and I want to take advantage of that. Any questions?”
Hitaro’s eyes were on the map. “My mechanized infantry platoons were scheduled for security patrol through Nazzid today, sir. Will that still hold true for the other two platoons under my command?”
“That’s correct, Major. I don’t believe it should take any more than one platoon to secure the objectives I’ve laid out and the others will still be needed for duty here in the city. Beyond that you can use your own discretion in mobilizing and assigning the other parts of D Company in support of operations.”
“Yes sir. Do we have a timetable?”
“ASAP, Major. Ideally, you get that platoon out there and they complete the mission and are back here before that dust storm has a chance to roll through. That will favor the enemy more than it will our forces, so that means speed and thus time is of the essence.”
“Understood, sir. D Company will get it done,” Hitaro stood and bowed, closely followed by Kaiji.
“See that it does, Major. Dismissed.”
Back out in the hallway Hitaro glanced at his second. “Thoughts?”
“Seems pretty routine to me,” the First Lieutenant shrugged. “Any of the platoons could handle it. I wouldn’t send 3rd Platoon though, Lieutenant Gaaghii and his troops have a great rapport with the locals and he usually comes back from patrol with some useful intel. Can’t be spared if we can avoid it as far as I’m concerned.”
“Agreed. So either Roberts’s or Omori’s platoon. Omori’s the more experienced one, she did good work pushing out those bandits at Lubak last month and Emperor knows she’d love to get a shot at the Sons.”
“That’s true, sir, but I would recommend Roberts’s platoon.”
“Aren’t most of them green? Roberts is, I know that, she’s only been on-planet for a couple of weeks. Hasn’t even seen combat.”
“That’s my point, sir. She and her troops could use the experience. And, well,” Kaiji glanced around the mess area as they entered it before lowering his voice, “I think we need to break that reputation that 1st Platoon has.”
Hitaro frowned at him. “What reputation, lieutenant?”
The other kitsune sighed. “Some of the troops in the company, and, well, the rest of the battalion, seem to believe that the 1st is ill-fated. There was that shipping accident when they got transferred here with the rest of the company, you remember, they lost almost all of their Maxellians. That was bad enough, but then after that deployment up to Yanisirah half the platoon came down sick with that dead-limb fever that didn’t even have a name. None of the rest of the company got it, just them. And then there was, well, you know.”
“The bombing.”
“Yeah. Gutted the 1st. Most of the survivors transferred out too, or tried to. Had to rebuild it almost from the ground up.”
“I remember,” Hitaro said, but shook his head. “It’s ridiculous, lieutenant. The accident was an accident, could have happened to any unit, and I’m pretty sure they all got sick at Yanisirah because they were all camped out at the oasis. As for the bombing, well, same as the accident. Any unit could have been at the temple when it got hit, it just happened to be them. It doesn’t mean that the 1st is cursed.”
“Believe me sir, I’m with you, but the perception is still there.”
“Soldiers are the most superstitious bunch of people I’ve ever known. Maybe even more than spacers,” Hitaro sighed. “But you are right in that Roberts does need the experience. Get Corporal McCluskey to radio her, tell her to meet me at the company CP for assignment. You can go ahead and brief 2nd and 3rd Platoon on their assignments for today, I want this to be just me and her.”
“Yes sir.”
The metal of the Maxellian was warm beneath Private First Class Nishi as she stretched out across the top of the armored vehicle. She could feel it even through the blanket she’d draped over the sand-colored hull, almost matching the heat already beating down on her bared back. Shifting her tail, she let it drape over the side of the IFV to expose more of her to the sun’s rays. With her head nestled in her folded arms she took one last look at the vehicle yard of Kalahari Base Camp before closing her eyes. Sometimes deployment to Arel wasn’t too bad, she thought.
“Well well, what do we have here?”
I knew it was too perfect. Cracking one eye open, the Xiscapian squinted at the pair of shapes that swaggered over the concrete to her. The first one, a heavily-built lupine being, was so white that she was almost painful to look at in the bright sun, offset only by a pair of scarlet eyes above a black nose to give her any other color. Her companion was a human woman with fair skin gone a light red from the same sun and short ginger-blond hair that came down to her chin. She folded her arms while the other held hers akimbo, head cocked a little and tail wagging at the sight of Nishi.
The kitsune lifted her head so she could rest her cheek on her arm and look at the other females. “What the fuck do you want, Mug?”
“I just couldn’t help but notice you baring your little ass to the whole world. Don’t pretend like that ain’t what you’re about. You’re just waiting for some guy to climb up there and fuck your foxy brains out right on top of the Maxi, aren’t cha?”
“Mmm,” the nude vixen grunted. “It’s called sunbathing. You prolly don’t know about it on account of coming from some tiny backrocket moon that your discount escan people shit all over so it barely gets any sunlight anyway. But I’ll forgive you just this once.”
“Sunbathing?” the rasthan laughed. “Wow, this dumb bitch thinks she’s getting a tan.”
The human smirked. “It’s not like you have any skin showing to tan, Nishi. Have to shave you bald for that to work.”
“And I’d still be doing a better job at it than you, Feara. You’re already about as red as Mug’s ass was from when I spanked her in the company marksmanship comp.” She had the pleasure of seeing both Mugan and Feara’s smiles drop simultaneously.
“You know, I think we’re onto something with the shaving idea,” Feara leaned against the side of the Maxellian. “I’d like to see you running around all pink and naked.”
“Bet you would.”
“Yeah, you’d really attract some attention then,” Mugan grinned. “What’da’ya say, Nishi? I bet Sergeant Toal would let me borrow her razor, and then me and Shalla could go to town.”
“Touch me and die, Mug.”
“No, but really, you know you’re not gonna tan, right? I have to believe that even you aren’t that stupid. I’m just saying it’s a retarded excuse for prancing around in the buff trying to get someone to fuck you.”
“Mug,” Nishi sighed and stretched before settling. “If I wanted to fuck someone I’d arrange a date between me, this Maxi’s gun turret and your father’s asshole. Truth is I’m just up here ‘cause it feels good. You’ve probably noticed that it gets cold at night around here so when morning comes it’s real nice to just lie down and soak up some sun before you start the day. You should try it sometime, might make you feel better about being a blood-eyed freak that’s still waiting around for that abortion her mother should have gotten.”
Mugan snorted. “Big words coming from a fucking sand-eater fox.”
That made Nishi raise her head. “What the fuck did you just call me?”
“You heard me, bitch-tits. Sand-eater.”
“Sounds like you’re looking to get that big white ass of yours beat-“
“Guys, shut the fuck up,” Feara half-turned to look along the length of the Maxellian. “There’s the LT.”
All three heads turned to follow the platoon commander as she emerged from the barracks building. The big red she-drake was fully dressed in power armor and she was walking so quickly that the kitsune Platoon Sergeant and the communications soldier with her had to hurry to keep up. Six eyes watched as the trio strode across the yard to the headquarters building. “It’s too early for morning briefing,” Mugan uttered as the better part of the platoon’s command staff disappeared inside. “Something’s up.”
“No shit,” in one motion Nishi had rolled off the IFV and landed on her feet beside it. “I’ll let Sergeant Toal know, I think she’s in the showers. You gonna tell Sergeant Daniels and the Staff Sergeant?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell them. Feara, you make sure the other squads know.”
“You got it.”
The woman jogged off and Nishi was just rolling up her blanket when there was a sharp impact on her rear. One hand flying to her stinging butt, she glared over her shoulder at Mugan, who just grinned. “Just reminding you this ain’t over, Nishi.”
“You ever wanna get humbled, you know who to talk to, Mug.”
The command post for D Company was a small office in a row of such rooms inside 8th Battalion’s headquarters. Due to it being located near the end of the hall Second Lieutenant Nikol Roberts could see it looming larger with every step closer she took, and that made her slow all the more. It allowed her second, Platoon Sergeant Yuusuke, to step up beside her. The tod gave her a look and the bigger drakon halted. For a second the two stared at each other.
“Katana said to report immediately, Lieutenant,” Yuusuke reminded her, using the Major’s call sign.
“I know. It’s just, well, I just got here, you know? I can’t be in trouble already!”
“Relax, ma’am. This isn’t XenoArmy, there are no commissars breathing down your neck. If you want my opinion, Lieutenant, you’re about to get an assignment.”
Roberts glanced up the hall. “It’s not time for briefing yet.”
“Which means it’s not going to be the same sort of assignment that the other platoons are going to be getting, ma’am,” Yuusuke looked over at the office before turning his gaze back to his superior. “Best get a move on. Ma’am.”
“Alright. Private,” she looked over her shoulder at Hasan, the man who had been following them. “Wait out here.”
“Yes ma’am.”
It seemed like there was hardly enough room for the she-drake and her second to fit in on the other side of the table with its holographic map. Major Hitaro stood on the other side, hands clasped behind him as the Lieutenant and Staff Sergeant bowed. When he returned the gesture with a twitch of his ears Roberts realized that with his sensitive hearing he’d probably heard everything she had said to Yuusuke. That just made it feel like her stomach dropped away as her eyes met the kitsune’s golden ones. It didn’t much matter that she all but loomed over him in size; as far as rank was concerned their stature might as well have been reversed.
“At ease Lieutenant. Platoon Sergeant,” he nodded to his fellow tod. “I was just briefed by Greatsword, the Lieutenant Colonel. I was asked to choose a platoon for a seek-and-secure mission, and 1st Platoon was my choice. According to Nazzid SURCOM there’s been a supply drop to the Sons in the Bumhavar Region but ICE hasn’t been able to locate it, so that task is falling to you. They have a good idea of where it probably landed,” he waved a hand over the map to highlight an area around the highway, “so once your platoon gets there you’re to search it until you find the shipment. Once it’s secured Greatsword wants you to stick around to engage and destroy whoever shows up to get it before withdrawing. Note that the mission is considered time-sensitive, Greatsword wants you out there as quickly as possible to reduce chances that your unit might get caught in a dust storm.”
Roberts was looking down at the map. The terrain in the Bumhavar Region was typical of much of Arel in being covered in dune fields, with only the Nazzid Highway cutting through it and a few rocky outcroppings scattered about to break up the seemingly endless sand. Putting her own hand to it, she zoomed out until she could see the closest mountain range and the settlements scattered across it about 20 kilometers southwest from the area. “Do we have any contact with those villages, sir? Think they might come out of there?”
“Possibly. It’s hard to say where they might come from, Lieutenant, but that would be my guess,” Hitaro nodded. “We do know the settlements on the southern side of the range are Sons-affiliated, so we’ve made a point of trying to shore up the northern ones against them, but that’s with our own supply drops, fire support, that kind of thing. There’s no Imperial presence out there. Haven’t gotten any recent intel about Sons activities in the south end either.”
She nodded. “What kind of support will my platoon have, sir?”
“2nd and 3rd platoons have their own duties on security patrol, and I’ll be sending the company sniper team with 2nd. B Company foiled that bomber attack with good tactical placement of their snipers so if the Sons try for another temple today the 2nd will stand a better chance with Yumiya and his girls watching their backs. The MGS platoon is still in the shop for repair after rolling over those IEDs so that limits what I can give you, but the medical team will be on standby here in case there’s an attack so if your unit suffers any casualties you’ll be able to call them up. You’ll be too far out for the company’s mortars to reach you, but I should be able to secure you SFMV support so you’ll be able to call in rocket artillery if you need it. And like I said, I got this straight from Greatsword so if you end up needing any additional support I should be able to make sure you get it.”
“Nice to know he’s got a stake in this,” the she-drake exhaled slowly. “Seems straightforward enough though.” She glanced at Yuusuke. “Any questions for the Major, Platoon Sergeant?”
The kitsune lifted his eyes from the map. “Sir, what’s the ROE going to be out on that highway? I don’t doubt the Sons are going to come poking around but that doesn’t mean they’ll be obvious about it.”
“Ideally you’ll be able to scan any approaching vehicles or foot mobiles from range, Sergeant. Contact with those north side villages has given us intel on Sons members and affiliates out of that area, so if your FO can get a good look at any incoming natives he should be able to use our network to make a positive I.D. of any hostile elements. If you get that, you’re clear to engage. Otherwise, ROE is as standard; interdict any persons or vehicles moving through your AO and check them. If they clear the checks they’re free to go.”
“And if the enemy decides he’s not going to show today, sir?”
“Then we’ll take that as it comes, Sergeant. If the platoon has secured the shipment and not had any contact in a reasonable timeframe I’ll take up withdrawing with Greatsword, but until then you’ll sit tight and wait,” Hitaro looked between them. “He wants to see some Sons heads roll today, and I don’t intend on disappointing him. Neither should you.”
“Understood sir,” Roberts gave a small bow. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll get 1st Platoon rolling.”
“Very good, Lieutenant. Platoon Sergeant,” he gave Yuusuke another nod. “Good hunting. Dismissed.”
In the hall Hasan formed up with them again as Roberts and Yuusuke walked back to the entrance. “That wasn’t as bad as I was expecting,” she said once they’d cleared the hall and were (hopefully) out of the Major’s earshot.
“Ambushing those insurgents is a pipe dream, ma’am,” Yuusuke shook his head.
Roberts looked sidelong at the tod. “Why do you say that?”
“As much as I’m sure Katana and Greatsword would like for the Sons to come parading down the highway so we can blow them away, I don’t see it happening. Not with 1st Platoon in their AO anyway. They’re smarter than that. Before they send in any sizable force they’ll scope the area out one way or another, and when their recon types figure out that we’re there they’ll call it off. We outmatch them, and they know it, so they’re not going to give us a straight fight.”
The she-drake frowned. “I appreciate that, Platoon Sergeant, but I have my orders. My job is to figure out a way to make it work. You’ve been here longer than I have, so you tell me: how are they going to scope out our positions?”
Yuusuke’s ears twitched and he gave his superior a look. Finally, he answered. “Well, ma’am, given the kind of terrain we’re dealing with and knowing their typical MO there’s three ways they’re liable to do it. First way would be to send a drone in to fly around and get a birds-eye view of the situation. It’s safe and effective for them, but it’s not very discrete, and if that report about the dust storm is true then they might not risk doing that since they could lose the drone to wind or sand before it even makes it into the area. If they do, though, that’s game over for us as far as ambush goes. We can take out a drone no problem but if we do that then they’ll know we’re there.”
“What about the other two ways?”
“Second way would be with a scout, probably a lone foot mobile to reduce chances of detection, who would operate around the perimeter of the area where the shipment is and keep up overwatch for any other units in the area. Given the sand dunes I’d say they’d be liable to scale one of those rock formations so they can get a clear view. They’d probably have one of those old Republica 15A rifles so they could act as a sniper if needed. In that case it would be all about seeing him before he sees us. If we can tag and bag him without giving him a chance to report back we might stand a chance. Any of your troopers speak or write Thunasp, ma’am?”
“I do,” Hasan said from behind them before ducking his head as both Yuusuke and Roberts turned to look at him. “Uh, sir, ma’am. The Imperial Army recruited me from here for that reason. Just haven’t had much of a chance to use it. It’s more of a southern thing.”
“Well good, Private. There’s your chance to send a false report to the enemy,” Yuusuke nodded to the platoon’s communications man. “Might help with the other thing they’re mostly likely to send at us, which is a route reconnaissance unit. That’s usually a scout vehicle, by which I mean it’s a sedan or maybe a swoop bike with one or two guys wearing civilian clothes whose job is just to drive through the AO and report back whether it’s clear or not. Sometimes they’ll be real tricky and put one guy on a bus going through the area but with the storm on anything like that’s liable to have been cancelled. Still, it’s a problem because all they need to do is hit a checkpoint and they’ll call it in, and then you can forget about an ambush.”
“Not unless we do it like with the overwatch scout and hit them before they know we’re there.”
“You’d have to stop the vehicle without hurting or killing anyone on board, in case we can’t get a positive I.D. on them being Sons-affiliated. And even then, in the time that would take they could still get a message off if one of them is on a phone. We could use that to send a false report from them instead, but we’d have to get our hands on it before they could use it.”
“I’ll give it some thought,” Roberts sighed. “Is that all, Platoon Sergeant?”
“That’s all, Lieutenant. Our biggest advantage is the storm, it means they won’t conduct too much recon before trying to get at the shipment since they’ll be on a timetable same as us. They don’t want to be out in that any more than we do, it gives them cover but something like that could bury their shipment and at that point that’d risk losing it. I think that’s the only reason this might work though. And even then, I don’t like it.”
Roberts squinted at her second. “You don’t like getting a shot at the enemy?”
Yuusuke sighed. “May I make a statement regarding our mission, ma’am?”
“I haven’t stopped you yet, Sergeant. Go ahead.”
“Yes ma’am. The thing is that by interdicting that supply shipment we will have done the most damage to the Sons that we realistically could have. Without whatever’s in those containers they’ll have to keep relying on whatever aging secondhand Republica kit and supplies they can scrounge up. Staying in that AO trying to locate and kill Sons won’t have much of an impact on their operations, and regardless of our advantages it still puts the troops of the 1st Platoon in what I believe is needless danger if the Sons do decide they want to try to take the shipment back or at least kill some of us in retaliation. It’s just a way for the officers to claim more damage done to the enemy so they’ll look better to their superiors.”
The drakon gave him a look. “Platoon Sergeant, you may have forgotten but
I am an officer.”
He held her gaze. “Nobody’s perfect, ma’am.”
A beat passed and she had to smile. “Alright, Sergeant, now I know I’m not in XenoArmy anymore. I’d say we’re both lucky not to be there right now. But,” she gave a sigh of her own, “I take your point. That being said, as I told you, I have my orders and I intend to carry them out to the best of my ability. I don’t intend on exposing my unit to any more danger than is necessary during the course of operations. That’s all I can offer you.”
The kitsune shrugged. “I understand, ma’am. I wasn’t expecting you to go against your orders; you’ll carry them out just like I will carry out whatever orders you give me. I just wanted to make it clear that I believe that the ambush will be of negligible military value, if it happens at all. And to make you understand that out here, sometimes things don’t get played straight.”
“Thank you, Platoon Sergeant. Is that all?”
“Yes ma’am, I believe it is.”
“Good. I want you there with me when I brief the squad leaders. Once that’s done I’ll want us rolling out as quickly as possible. If what you say is true then to make this work we want to be out there before they are. Let’s make it happen!”
Arel’s sun beat down onto the soldiers of 3rd Rifle Squad where they stood by the line of Maxellian IFVs, only their heads bared outside their armor as the half-dozen enlisted waited in a loose semicircle by the carrier’s loading ramp. The same scene played out the same up and down the row for the other two rifle squads as well as the platoon’s weapons squad fourth in line just behind them. The only exception was the last vehicle in the line, which was no different from the others except in its role as the fire support carrier and the platoon staff who were grouped behind it. Heavy rifles were cradled in the arms of all the soldiers, each casually holding blocks of metal that would have been impossible for any of them to even lift without the twin benefits of their power armor and cybernetics. Surrounded and engulfed by so much machinery, the sapients looked at each other.
“So we’re finally gonna get to fuck up some sand-eaters,” Private Musashi ran a hand over his SAW. “About damn time, I say. I haven’t fired a shot in anger the whole time I’ve been here.”
“I do not think the Sergeant would want to hear you say that,” Corporal D'Voyle shifted from one foot to the other, the tall feline able to fold her arms with her light DLR slung over one shoulder. “She says we are supposed to be friendly to the Arellians.”
Musashi snorted. “That’s just fine and all, but I’m a fucking Imperial Army trooper. My whole role in combat is throwing so much lead down range that if the enemy does anything but cower on the ground like a bitch then he gets one of his limbs blown off. I exist to fuck shit up. And all I been doing is walking around the streets and playing kick-the-door with the sand-eaters. We should be out there killing scuts. Nishi, back me up.”
“Whatever gets your dick hard, Mussy.”
“Bet you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Mugan smirked across the semicircle at the vixen.
“I can’t even make a casual statement around you, can I Mug?”
“Somebody’s gotta keep you in check.”
“I guess by that logic you and Feara equals one of me, right?”
“We’d kick your ass in a fight,” the woman said.
“Maybe, but you two always come at me like this, like you need that support. Not that I think you need it Mug, Feara’s a fucking awful support element.”
“Fuck you Nishi.”
“Not now, try again later.”
“You know, I think the Corporal is right,” the other SAW gunner of the squad spoke up. Private Samon glanced across his five compatriots, his own tail curling. “We’re just here to back up the local police and shoot any Sons who try to get into Nazzid, but that’s still pretty important. I wasn’t around then, but from what the Platoon Sergeant has said this city was a shithole when we first got it, and now it’s pretty nice. There’s practically a Maxi on every street corner.”
“Yeah, but because the enemy’s a bunch of pussies, that just means they avoids us,” Musashi shook his head. “We haven’t been going where he is, we’ve just been sitting in this fucking city for weeks just in case he shows up, but he won’t, because we’d have enough firepower to blow his ass back to the Stone Age if he didn’t seem like he already lived there half the time. So he just squats out there and plants bombs everywhere and runs around the hills killing people and we don’t do shit. Not the Army, anyway, it’s all spec ops and shit. Which is scutty. Everybody knows spec ops is a bunch of bitches.”
“Well you’re gonna get a chance to take it to him now, ain’t you Mussy?” Mugan smiled. “You gonna notch your gun barrel?”
“Fuck yeah I am. Four and a slash, see if I don’t.”
“I’ll take that bet. I bet we barely even see the scuts, and even if we do, you ain’t gonna kill any of them. Maxis’ll get ‘em first.”
“Oh yeah?” Musashi looked at her. “What do you bet?”
“I dunno what I bet, but I know you got a subscription to that new NSE show. You’d never catch me paying for my porn but that’s quality stuff.”
Nishi rolled her eyes. “And you think I’m perverted.”
“So you want my account? Fine. But if I get ‘em, that’s five kills, you’re my bitch for the rest of the week. You fetch, you gimme pick out of any ration packs you get, you roll over and play dead if I tell you to.”
“You’re on. Ain’t never gonna get five kills you dumb fuck, they don’t fight like that,” Mugan laughed. “Be lucky if you get to shoot at anything out there.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see.”
“Squad!” Staff Sergeant Uta seem to come striding out of nowhere, appearing around the bulk of their Maxellian with the team leaders in tow. “Mount up! We are Oscar Mike in two!”
Helmets closed up over heads even as the troopers hustled up the boarding ramp and into the back of the wheeled IFV. Sergeant Toal joined them midway through, climbing on behind Nishi before the other fire team clambered aboard with Sergeant Daniels at their rear. Uta was the last on behind the zillar, still standing as the ramp hydraulics whined and the hatch shut behind her so she could lean against it. Even with her helmet up they could all feel the vixen’s eyes sweeping over them as the armored vehicle rumbled and lurched forward, joining the procession of troop carriers leaving Kalahari’s protective embrace. For a minute the only sound was the shifting of gears and the crunch of tires over Nazzid’s roads.
“Most of you have never been outside Nazzid’s walls before. It’s different out there, grunts,” her visor turned slowly. “Away from the big population centers, that’s enemy territory. We’ll pass through exactly one Army checkpoint on the way there, and once we’re through the next closest Imperial unit is another hundred and thirty klicks south at Bumhavar City. The platoon will have artillery support and from I’ve been told medical evac is standing by, but for all practical intents and purposes, the 1st is on its own.
“That means anyone else you see out there is a potential hostile. You must observe everything but admire nothing. If a target is declared clear for engagement, you take it the fuck out. We do this right, and at the end of the day we get to make a bunch of marks in the enemy KIA category and none in the unit casualties category. Am I understood?”
“Yes Staff Sergeant!” the squad came back.
“Good. Now settle in, it’s about an hour to the objective so we’ve got a ride ahead of us.”
As Uta took her own advice and sat down on the bench Nishi turned her head to look down her side of the bench at Sergeant Toal. “Sarge, she said most of us haven’t been outside Nazzid. I know Mugan, Feara and Musashi haven’t, and I’m betting that Samon and D'Voyle haven’t either. That just leaves you and Sergeant Daniels. You two have?” she glanced from the Alversian NCO to the zillar.
“That’s right,” Daniels leaned in from the opposite bench, visor on Nishi. “Back when it was just us and the Staff Sergeant in the platoon. I was a Private First Class just like you Nishi, and Toal over there was our squad’s anti-armor specialist. We shared a FP up at Yanisirah during the Sons attack there. You remember that?” the reptilian being glanced at her fellow Sergeant.
“I remember the oasis. I told them not to swim in the water and especially not to drink it, but they didn’t listen,” Toal shook her head. “Then of course that means me and you and everyone else who was smart enough not to got to pull double-duty when they all came down sick. Good times.”
“So you two were around during the, uh,” Mugan hesitated. “You know.”
“The bombing,” Daniels nodded. “Yeah. Most of the platoon got shipped back one way or another after that, and pretty much everyone else left wanted to get transferred out. Too many bad vibes, you know? The Staff Sergeant and Toal were the only ones who stuck around. I wanted to leave too honestly, but they offered me Sergeant if I stayed on so I figured, what the hell, I’ve survived this long, maybe I’m just lucky,” she shrugged. “That’s my piece.”
“What about you, Sergeant?” Nishi looked back to Toal. “Why’d you stay on?”
“This is my unit,” the woman seemed to be staring back at her even through the faceless visor. “After the bombing the Staff Sergeant and I made a covenant. Unless we get explicit orders to go somewhere else, we’re not leaving our unit. No matter how many casualties we take. We lasted through all the diseases and climates and homicidal fanatics that this planet could throw at us, and we’re still here. Some bad luck isn’t going to change that.”
For a long moment there was just silence among the squad. Toal leaned back, resting against the seat with her rifle across her knees. “And I believe in what we’re doing here. That we have improved this place overall, and just as much, that the Sons need to be stopped. So there’s no place I’d rather be.”
In the last IFV in line Lieutenant Roberts was taking her own look at her command staff. Yuusuke and Hasan were sharing the space with the company medic, one Specialist Aldan, as well as the Forward Observer Sergeant Kandar. The Fire Support Observer in Staff Sergeant Onpu sat in as well; it was her Maxi that the command staff was riding in. There was no need to go over a briefing or the rules of engagement, so instead the she-drake just reached up onto one of the racks and hauled down a long box. Setting it down on one of the benches, she looked to Yuusuke.
“You asked me earlier how I planned to deal with the possibility that the enemy would send a scout car disguised as a civilian vehicle into our AO. I tried to secure some telecomm jammers for the platoon’s use but I wasn’t able to secure any on such short notice. Instead I got these,” she pulled the container open to expose the contents. The others in the IFV all leaned over to peer into the crate. After a moment Kandar looked up, the escan’s tail wagging slowly.
“Ma’am, I don’t understand. This just looks like a bunch of civvie clothes and some old Republica carbines.”
“That’s right, Sergeant,” Roberts nodded. “The enemy wants to try to false flag us, well, he’s not the only one capable of it. If we can’t get a positive I.D. on a suspected Sons vehicle we’re going to engage in a bit of roleplaying. My plan is to outfit four members of the platoon with those clothes and weapons and use the anti-gravity strip in the bottom of the container to stop any suspicious vehicles that attempt to enter our AO. Posing as bandits, they will make searches of the stopped vehicles without risking discovery of our forces. If the vehicles are clear then they and their occupants will be released, but if they are Sons then even if they do get a report out it will merely be that they have been captured by raiders, not Imperial troops.”
“Who are you going to detail for that, ma’am?” Kandar looked up at her. “It couldn’t be anyone like me or, well, like most of us in the platoon. We’d stand out here like an alumina at a Huerdaen dwarf convention.”
“I have four in mind who will blend in. Hasan, you’re one of them, since you’re from here and you’re the only one in the platoon who can speak Thunasp,” she nodded at her Communications Trooper and he nodded back. “You’ll be my main man in there, since you’ll be the one who talks to anyone we stop and, if it comes to that, the one who sends the enemy a false report. Specialist Aldan, I know it’s not really your role but I want you to join him,” she looked to the Twi’lek female. “You’re one of the only non-humans in the platoon who has a chance of not arousing suspicion, given that there are members of your species living here. Your job will just be to back up Private Hasan and look intimidating. Can you do that?”
Aldan licked her lips as her lekku twitched. “I guess so, ma’am.”
“Good. You two will be joined by Private Kobylarz from the weapons squad, and, if I can have her, Specialist Bey,” she looked to Onpu as she referred to the most junior member of the fire support team.
“Shouldn’t be a problem, ma’am,” the vixen nodded. “As long as we’re not actually in combat my unit won’t have any immediate need for her.”
“That’s settled, then. Those three will back you up, Private Hasan, and once you get a drop on any stopped vehicle with your weapons out there shouldn’t be any trouble. The platoon will be nearby to support you if you need it, but obviously we’re trying to avoid that, at least for the initial capture. Any questions?”
Yuusuke was frowning. “I’m not sure about the legality of this, ma’am.”
“You let me worry about that, Platoon Sergeant. If any shit comes down on us because of it then I’ll take full responsibility, but right now I’m more interested in trying to make it work.”
“Yes ma’am,” the kitsune shifted where he sat. “Well, ma’am, let’s assume that our pseudo-bandits do actually capture a couple of Sons scouts, but said scouts manage to report back what happened before their communications can be neutralized. At that point the Sons would likely send a force to recover their men. What then?”
“It seems to me that with a limited window in which they have to recover the shipment before the storm hits whatever force they are sending for it will be the closest one, so it will be drawn into our ambush all the more surely if it tries to recover the scouts. If anything news that bandits are in the area of the shipment and have taken some of their operators prisoner will probably spur them on to get into the AO faster if they want to make sure the shipment doesn’t fall into other hands,” Roberts smiled. “I have thought this through.”
The tod grunted. “What if they send a psion? They’re more likely to be used for combat purposes among the Sons, but they are known for using such things and psionic scouts aren’t unheard of, ma’am.”
Roberts looked at him for a moment before swallowing audibly. “I, uh, I hadn’t considered that.”
“Well there’s no way around it without a null collar, which I don’t think we have,” Yuusuke sighed as the drakon shook her head. “That being said, I believe we have a way of improving our situation if that is the case. 3rd Squad has an alumina, one Corporal D'Voyle. If she can be brought on board with the false flag operation she can scan the minds of whoever we stop so if any incriminating surface thoughts or feelings go through their heads we’ll have some warning. From what I know about aluminan psionics I don’t think she’d be able to stop any psionic transmissions from going out, but she could at least tell us if they happen so we’ll know right away if the operation has been compromised, ma’am.”
“That’s a good idea, Platoon Sergeant. We’ll do that. Anyone else have anything to add?” When no one said anything the she-drake nodded. “Very good then. We’ll be stopping a few klicks north of the immediate AO to move the rifle squads in on foot to keep our profile to a minimum in case there are scouts already there. The weapons squad will head up the road with our false flag team to set up an interdiction point. Once our forces locate the shipment we’ll move up to secure it and adjust positions accordingly.”
Corporal D'Voyle. I have orders directly from 6 herself that you’re to join 4 at the roadside position immediately, Staff Sergeant Uta wasn’t even facing the feline as she peered over a dune with her fiber-optic camera, instead gesturing to her with her tail as her thought-speech echoed exclusively through D’Voyle’s head.
Come here.Ma’am, the squad’s designated marksman stepped up beside the squad leader with the crunch of sand under her jackboots.
Why am I being sent there, ma’am?Take my rifle and give me yours, Uta hefted her F-MBR and waited as D’Voyle pulled her laser rifle from her back before dropping the heavier weapon into her arms.
My squad needs a sharpshooter more than roadside needs one, and you might need a battle rifle yourself. 6 wants you to assist in road stops with your psionics.With the comparatively massive weapon in her arms the alumina looked down at it before watching her superior sling her DLR.
Do you know how to use that, Staff Sergeant?I went through training just like you did, Corporal. Now don’t fuck up my rifle, me and that gun have been through a lot together so I don’t want to see you putting any scrapes or scratches on it. You might be just about twice my height but if you mess with my primary means of killing the enemy I will bend you over my knee and make you regret it.Yes Staff Sergeant, I will take good care of it.See to it. Now get to 4, the rest of the squad has its own mission.D’Voyle jogged across the dune and down the next one in the direction of the black line that represented the highway and Uta pivoted back to check her squad and open communications with them.
Move up, she walked along in the same direction before catching Musashi by the arm as he climbed the dune.
Do not surmount the dune, squad, her visor reflected Musashi’s faceplate as she stared at him.
That will put you up high and silhouette yourself against the sky, delineating your body to the enemy. Go around the dunes and keep low so your active camouflage can help you blend in with the sand. She let go and the tod followed her around the dune. The slack between the previous dune and the next one looked just like all the others.
So let me see if I’ve got this straight, Private Mugan’s thought-voice echoed through each of the heads of the squad as the eight of them took up a close formation in the trough.
We are mechanized infantry of one of the finest military forces in the Twin Galaxies, using some of the finest armor anywhere in the Twin Galaxies, against one of the worst terrorist threats in the Twin Galaxies. We have been tasked with finding a shipment to these terrorists, probably of guns and bombs and other wonderful things, in a large expanse of desert, on a time limit before a storm hits. But instead of ripping over the dunes in our Maxis, finding this stuff fast and fucking up anybody who gets in our way, we’re walking around looking for it like a bunch of retards. Oh, and we’re minus our sharpshooter too. Is that how it is?6 wants to maintain a stealthy approach, Mug, Daniels leaned against the dune as her fiber-optic cable checked over its top and scanned the area.
Our Maxis are big and loud, kind of like you, but they also don’t have our active camo. That means if we bring them with then we’re gonna be seen. And that’s not what we want.So we’re sneaking around the enemy now? I thought the point of being here was to fuck him up.Indicating that the next slack was clear, Daniels dropped off the dune and started to walk around.
We’re maintaining stealth because we’re trying to ambush them. 6 hasn’t made me privy to the details of that or how the road stops fit into that, because it’s not our mission. The mission of this squad is to conduct a foot mobile patrol through this part of the AO until we locate the objective. If 6 wants us to do it stealthily then that’s how we do it.On the other side of the dune Nishi followed a few paces behind Toal, with Musashi bringing up the rear. The formation felt strange to her; normally D’Voyle would have been backing the Sergeant, but the alumina had been called away to leave the fire team with just three members. Yet of course the one constant was being able to hear Mugan even from across the dune. Looking at her 360-degree camera told her that the other fire team had just emerged from their own path around the dune, with Uta leading followed by Daniels, Mugan, Feara and Samon. For a minute she tracked the other vixen across the burning sand.
Sergeant, you said that you and Sergeant Daniels had been around in the old 1st Platoon, and you told us about it, but you also said the Staff Sergeant was there too. What’s her story?Watch those outcroppings to the west, on our ten and eleven o’clocks, Toal told her fire team.
As to the Staff Sergeant, Private, I would ask her. Her life is her own business, and I probably couldn’t tell you much anyway. She was here before Daniels or I arrived. I heard a rumor once that she completed boot with a broken wrist, but all you really need to know is that she knows this place and the enemy really well and she’s probably the best NCO in the platoon. So you should count yourself lucky-Movement! Musashi’s thought-voice cut across them.
Ten o’clock, on the outcropping, about two hundred meters!Down, Toal fell prone and the rest of the squad followed suit, brown-and-tan figures crawling through the sand of the dune as they spread out across it.
Use your fiber-optics to look, don’t peek your heads up. Musashi, do you have a lock on the target?Negative Sarge, I lost it when I dropped. I’m trying to-Got him, the words came from Uta where she lay along the ridge of the dune, only the speck of her fiber-optic cable leaning over it to look beyond.
Coordinates sent to all Wakazashi units. When she used the in-built camera to magnify she could see the figure clearly: a man in a heavy hooded traveler’s robe crouching on top of the rocky tower. There could be no mistaking the barrel of the long rifle strapped to his back or the boxy electrobinoculars that he held up to his face. As she watched he scanned slowly, visibly panning across the dunes.
Is that one of the Sons? Feara bumped Mugan with her shoulder.
Don’t jostle me like that, you’re making me lose my focus. And how the hell should I know? I can’t even see his face.Don’t focus on the foot mobile, we only need one set of eyes on him, Uta told them.
Scan the other outcroppings, the Sons usually send their scouts out alone but there might be more of them.Outcropping at our eleven scanned, I don’t see anything. You got anything Feara?Nothing on our twelve.My team doesn’t have anything else to the west, Toal reported.
Looks like he’s the only one. Do you have an I.D. on him, Staff Sergeant?Negative, he’s not lowered his field glasses yet, Uta said.
He’s definitely checking out our AO though. Looks like he might have a focus to our south.Are any of the other squads up there? None of them have moved up that far, he’s looking at something else, Uta frowned behind her helmet.
Might be focused on the area around the shipment. That was when the man lowered the electrobinoculars. He was older and bearded, she saw, but his expression looked passive. Her camera zoomed and framed his face as it attempted to I.D. him.
The results flashed along the bottom of the screen: no match.
Network failed to match him with any known Sons operatives via facial recognition, Uta pulled the laser rifle closed to her chest and eased herself down the dune.
Someone else put eyes on that target. I’m going to take the shot.Mugan turned her fiber-optic on the man.
I’ve got him, Staff Sergeant.Ma’am, you don’t have a positive I.D. on him as a hostile, came Toal.
ROE states that-I know what the ROE says, Sergeant, the vixen said from the bottom of the slope as she sat up into a crouch.
But that foot mobile is armed and performing what appears to be active reconnaissance in our AO and we’re expecting Sons activity, she jogged along the bottom of the dune until she came to the end, where she took a knee before falling forward and crawling with her rifle still held to her.
If 6 or anyone else takes issue with my decision then I accept that, but I am not going to waste time and risk the lives of this squad’s soldiers in attempting a snatch operation so we can figure out if he’s a Son or the stupidest shepherd on the planet.But Staff Sergeant, simply being armed isn’t grounds for engagement under the ROE. If you fire on and kill that foot mobile you might cause a civilian casualty.Uta checked her rifle’s scope.
I’m well aware of that, Sergeant Toal. But there are 8 of us in this squad and 50 in the platoon counting the vehicle crews and the fire support team, and we are almost 100 klicks inside enemy territory. We are all alone out here, doing our best with the objectives we’ve been given. My point is that the ROE isn’t a lot of help in this situation. What I know is what I see, and right now, I don’t like what I see. She edged her rifle around the slope and edged the muzzle upwards.
The man was still squatting on the ledge but he had his field glasses up again. It only took the slightest movement for her to center the crosshairs on his head: unlike with more conventional ballistic weapons, an energy weapon like the DLR didn’t need to account for things like drop and wind speed. Exhaling, she raised the rifle a few millimeters up from face to forehead. The beam was powerful enough to go right through the field glasses and kill the man, but she didn’t want to take any chances. Having nothing between the laser blast and her target’s skull was the way to do it. Toal had stopped talking too, so she knew that this was the best chance she was going to get.
Engaging, she informed her squad, inhaled, and held her breath.
It only lasted a few seconds, but those beats of time were Uta’s own personal sanctuary. The entire universe condensed down to nothing but her, her rifle, and the target in front of her. Quicker than she could even think about it her own self slipped away until she was just the finger on the trigger. It was a perfect dichotomy of action: passively don’t pull, or a literally kinetic pull.
Uta pulled the trigger.
The man’s head jerked back and his electrobinoculars tumbled out of his grasp to the sand below. For an instant she caught his expression, eyes wide with brows raised, before he slumped over. He had never seen the person who had ended his life.
Target eliminated, he’s down. Only then did she exhale.
Nice shot Staff Sergeant, I saw him go down too, Mugan told her.
Thank you Private. Sergeant Toal, I want you to take your fire team to that outcropping and search the body. If he was a Sons operative then he had some way of communicating with them, and we’ll need that if we want to send any false reports. Private Samon, go with Toal’s fire team. The rest of Daniels’s team and I will cover you.Yes ma’am, Toal pushed off from the slope of the dune.
Nishi, Musashi, on me. Come on Samon, she jerked her head at the tod as he scrambled down the slope.
Buddy with me. You two watch each other’s backs.Yes Sergeant.They had barely gotten twenty meters away from the rest of the squad’s position before Samon spoke up. He was walking next to Toal, with Nishi and Musashi a few meters behind, but their conversation was between themselves.
Sergeant, I don’t like what the Staff Sergeant did either. It doesn’t make sense to me. I think we could have pulled off a snatch operation.The woman didn’t say anything for a moment.
Sam, she said, then stopped.
There’s nothing we can do about it. The best I can think of is that we get to the body and find out that he was one of them. That’s what I’m hoping for.We can file a report about this if he isn’t. Or, well, even if he is. I know that made you uncomfortable, Gemma. I felt the same way. But we can make it right, or at least as right as we can.No, Sam, she glanced back at him.
I see what you’re trying to do, but no. If he was a Son then it just proves that the Staff Sergeant has good instincts and that she did the right thing under the circumstances. She doesn’t deserve to be punished for that, not for breaking the ROE for a good cause. And if it turns out that he wasn’t or we can’t tell, she paused.
Nothing good would come out of it. Either she goes, and we lose the best NCO in the platoon, or she rides it out and that just guarantees division between us and her. Neither of those is good for the squad, or the platoon. And if that man was just some civilian, none of it would bring him back from the dead.They walked further for a time without saying anything. The sky was the same pale blue overhead and the mounds of sand stretched on until the outcropping in the same way they had everywhere else, seemingly eternal. It was like nothing had changed. But when they looked up a little they could see the curled body that was the dead man on the ledge. Finally Toal spoke again.
I still believe that Staff Sergeant Uta is a good person. She’s a good soldier and a good squad leader, and I know those don’t always go together with being a good person but her first priority has always been us, the people in her unit. She didn’t take that shot because she was bloodthirsty or because she has some kind of hatred of Arellians, she took it to protect us, even knowing that it might be the wrong decision and that I might report her for it. I can’t go through with something that would hurt her and this squad and benefit no one in the end. That’s what the covenant we made was all about, keeping this unit intact, She looked at him.
You have to do what you think is right, Sam. But I’ve made my own decision.He was quiet as they approached the outcrop. Then he sighed.
Well, Gemma, I’m with you.Musashi was looking up at the stone formation.
We finally find an enemy only for the Staff Sergeant to take him out silently from 200 meters away. When I went in for mechanized I thought we’d be rolling into places and lighting up scuts, not doing this recon commando type shit. I signed up for the wrong fucking thing.Nishi stopped beside him.
Aww, poor guy. Did your Army recruiter tell you that you’d get to shoot people when you signed up?Fuck yeah he did. Now here I am, walking about in Bum-fuck-wherever Region trying to be stealthy while I look for some smuggler’s luggage. Fucking Army.Private Nishi, Toal turned to the vixen.
Get up there and carry him down to us.You’re making me move, Sarge. I hate that, she said, but she was already slinging her rifle. A few steps forward and Nishi launched herself up with a boost from her armor’s hydraulics to jump onto the outcropping, boots crunching into the stone before she thrust her hands out to catch herself against the side. Turning slowly, she crouched down next to the corpse.
You sure I can’t just push him off? Would make things easier on everyone.I said carry him down, Private. Don’t want to damage anything he might have.Fine, fine, Nishi scooped the body up in her arms and hopped down. She let the body fall from her arms before straightening up and pulling her rifle out again.
One dead sand-eater delivered, Sergeant.Toal was already kneeling next to the body.
He’s got a 15A on him, she pulled the long Republica-era rifle off the corpse’s back.
Not that it means much, seems like almost literally everyone and his mother has one on this planet. Neutralize the weapon, Private, she handed it off to Samon.
Don’t want it falling into the wrong hands. As Samon started to bend the rifle’s parts out of shape and strip out its charge pack Toal turned the body over.
Damn, Musashi leaned over to look the dead man in the face. The only evidence of what had killed him was a small black hole in the middle of his forehead, little more than an exaggerated scorch mark.
Staff Sergeant has some real skills. Maybe I should’ve become a sharpshooter.As a SAW operator you’ll kill way more of the enemy than most sharpshooters will, Toal told him as she pushed her hands into the corpse’s pockets.
If I ever even get in firing range of them where I’m allowed to engage, maybe.Charge pack, charge pack, charge pack, Toal commented on each magazine of ammo before she tossed them over to Samon.
That’s enough for, what, 200 shots counting the one in the gun? Overkill for any normal person. Staff Sergeant might have had the right idea. Let’s see what else he has, she plunged her hands under the folds of his robes and pulled free a mobile phone. There was the white letters of a text message on a green background, but it wasn’t a language she could understand.
Might be our smoking gun, if we knew what it said.Have to get that to Private Hasan over at the roadside position, he’d probably know, Samon said.
Bagging that, then, she slipped it into a compartment in her armor.
Just going to give him one more once-over. After a few moments of tugging she grunted.
I’ve got something in his hair, like a… It came off in her hand and she lifted the object up for inspection.
Hair piece? The length of twine had a few colorful beads in it.
Not sure what that’s about. Maybe the Staff Sergeant will know. She stowed it and stood.
Finished with that weapon, Private?Think so, Samon said, and let the pieces fall from his arms. It wasn’t even recognizable as a rifle, little more than a pile of twisted black metal parts around a long shaft.
Probably not even fit to be a walking stick now.Good work. Let’s head back.