The new platoon, the 1st Direct Action Platoon. The guys were fairly chill about everything. We had a bunch of guys from Recon and a handful of SEALs; seemed like we were supposed to be a new elite unit. Our platoon leader, First Lt. Andre Cohonez, was one of the most easygoing officers I’ve ever met. He came across as though everything he was doing was for kicks, that nothing really bothered him. That is until we formed up to get a formal introduction by him and Gunnery Sergeant Alisoun Uscinski. Cohonez ran things relaxed since we would be working under new strategies, weapons, and gear, or at least that’s how it’d be when we weren’t pulling trigger time. Anytime we were training or in combat we would, as Uscinski said, do everything “silently, swiftly, and with intensity”. Meanwhile he wanted everyone to be as relaxed and at ease as possible. He didn’t bother using his rank, preferring to keep everyone on a first name basis; Uscinski was the same, telling us to call her Allie.
We had four fire teams with four people per fireteam and had specialists split up between squads. Every squad had a squad automatic weapon to give massed firepower. First squad had a grenadier, second squad had the medic, third squad had the radioman, and I was assigned to fourth squad as the designated marksman. Andre and Allie were given liberty to move between squads as they saw fit; didn’t make sense for the leaders to be stuck with one group when that group may not have the best spot to lead the platoon.
The new way of grouping guys and the smaller number of people was nice, though the real fun part were the new weapons and gear. When Jed told me that we were going to be testing out new toys he wasn’t kidding. We had replaced the pulse rifles with kinetic weapons, ones that fired bullets. The XM72 assault rifle replaced the M68 pulse rifle, firing 10mm caseless rounds instead of energy bursts. The great thing about this rifle was that it was designed to be modular, being able to take multiple accessories from scatterguns to grenade launchers. If you wanted to add more firepower you attach the XM103 underslung grenade launcher. My M28 was replaced with the XM83, being much more compact and with a quieter report. I was also given the choice between the new XM93 pistol or XMP8 PDW, a compact SMG, both of which fired 7mm caseless rounds. I could go on and on about the new guns except there were other goodies still.
One of the new developments was the new body armor that we were issued. Supposedly it could take four or five hits from a pulse rifle or one of the new kinetic weapons; something to do with the material it was made with absorbing the energy and dissipating it in the form of low level infrared energy; at the worst it would get warm enough to break a minor sweat, a small price to pay for staying alive. The new LBVs we were given could be worn over the armor easily, and were much more comfortable with the way it distributed weight. As much as I hated and loved at the same time, we were given personal shields as well. Thankfully the new shields were a much improved design; the casing for the projector was much more durable and efficient, from what the field tests showed, and although they weren’t any more powerful than the current issued models, they wouldn’t fail as often in the field. One of my favorite toys was the new headset, which included an eyepiece that folded out in front of your left eye, giving a HUD that displayed different types of imaging from thermal to night vision, could display maps, satellite imaging, and platoon member data among other things. Allie said that the mercs didn’t even have some of these yet; I can’t tell you how good that made me feel.
Among the last things we were given were new uniforms. It seemed that the military was doing away with some of the old tradition and actually issuing gear that looked modern. The utes were a set of pants, belt, undershirt, and top, much like the ones that the humans wore currently. The pattern was much different, though, along with the material. The new pattern was a digitally enhanced pattern that the humans had been developing for years and were letting us run trials with. The material of the uniform was almost the same material that the body armor was made of, able to take a few hits from pulse rifles before the fibers would give way. The best part about this was though it was a tough material it didn’t feel any different than wearing a pair of jeans or a light coat; it was light, breathable, and comfortable. The undershirt also helped wick away moisture and sweat to help keep us cooler in the hotter climates, adding to the comfort that the new uniform already gave. The only thing that was the same was the belt; it was the same 1.5 inch thick web belt that the humans have had for years.
It felt just a little awkward to be wearing pants and a shirt again, though I have to say that they did serve a good purpose. Now we had light armor covering our legs and we wouldn’t have to worry about half as much getting stuck and matted in our fur. The pockets the uniform offered were a help too since everything we would carry before would have to be stashed in our LBVs before, weighing them down with random gear that wasn’t as necessary. It didn’t take too long before I was comfortable enough in the new uniform, hell, it even reminded me of when I was a civilian wearing jeans and t-shirts.
“Alright, everyone, now that we’re all suited up we’re hitting the range for some weapons familiarization.” said Andre. “Everyone have a rifle? Good. Tiradas, Aelurus, you’ll have your PDWs waiting at the range; take a 72 though. Trekome, your rifle is waiting at the range as well, draw a 72 meanwhile. Platoon, fall IN.”
We formed up quick enough and jogged our way over to the firing range, the entire way clear of anyone else in the regiment. From the looks of it we were given our own section of the base to sleep and train in. The only time we really met with the rest of the regiment was during mess where we generally sat together to get to know each other better. We got to the range fairly quickly, finding ourselves in a newly set up firing range, just for ourselves with our own armory sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Masters, a grizzled looking artic wolf who towered over Andre by a good seven inches. It was amusing to see Andre walk up to Masters and exchange a grin and a slap on the shoulder.
“Nice to see you again, you sonofabitch.” Andre said cheerfully.
“Good to see you too, Andre. Nice group of pups you got there; they look like they’re ready to lay down a poundin’.” said Masters as he rubbed his shoulder.
“Absolutely; handpicked most of them with Jed; they’re supposed to be the best and the brightest and have the most potential.”
“Jed, eh? How’s the runt doing?”
“Climbing the ranks, just like we all knew he would. I think he misses the field, though, he never was entirely meant for a desk, you and I both know that.”
“Aye, quite fucking true… I’ll have to drag him along on some of our field exercises now and then to cheer him up.”
I was amused at the banter and how casual they were with each other. It reminded me a little bit of how A’Shual was with most of his men: relaxed and casual. Masters smiled as he came over to us, his voice booming out over us as he started explaining the new weapons to us. They fired a variety of 10mm caseless rounds; we’d be firing 10mm depleted uranium sabots most of the time since they had a 90 % rate of success in taking down shields within ten rounds and usually a 75% chance of doing it within five. The magazine capacity for the weapon was 50 rounds and was linked electronically to our HUD to display how many rounds were left. The standard scope could be adjusted as a holosight for reflex shooting with no zoom or up to a 4x zoom; handy feature to have. I noticed the switch to a bullpup design too; having the mag behind the pistol grip making it more compact than the pervious M68. We all had some time familiarizing ourselves with the new rifle, pumping out a dozen mags downrange.
After we had all qualified as experts with the rifle we went on to test out the attachments, starting with the XM103 underslung semiautomatic grenade launcher with a fire control system built in so that it could fire airburst rounds. The 103 was designed so that it could be modded onto the 72 by removing the scope and carrying handle to mount the fire control system, which was basically a larger scope with a microprocessor built into it. The nice thing about the 103 is the fact that it ran on the MetalStorm system, with the grenades using the barrel as the magazine as well and being fired electronically rather than needing an external mag. All you had to do was change out the barrel and you had a fresh 5 rounds ready to go.
We would get familiarization with the other weapons over the next few weeks, each of us getting to know how they worked and felt in depth. I was loving my new sniper rifle, which may have had the same caliber as my old rifle was a completely different design. It was made as a bullpup rifle, allowing it to be shorter, had a new recoil reduction system, and a few other minor touchups. Firing it was a dream; I immediately I noticed that it didn’t jerk back as sharp, giving more of a push. The next thing I noticed was that the deep boom my rifle would normally give was replaced with a sharp crack that was only half as loud with less a concussion from it as well. I thanked the gods since while neither rifle had much muzzleflash my M28 would make such a racket that everyone and their mother’s dog would be able to figure out where I was soon enough. This should help out quite a bit in keeping hidden and help keep me alive in the long run.
We stayed at the range for most of the day, finally stopping to clean our weapons just before chow. Masters shot me a grin when he came by and saw me with my weapon, how I was holding it like a newborn pup. He chuckled to himself and sat besides me, grabbing a pipe from his cargo pocket.
“Funny how most of you guys treat your weapons like they were your pets.” He said to me.
“What can I say, it’s a gorgeous weapon. I replied with a grin.
“Trekome, right? You guys are some lucky sons of bitches, you know that? I wish we’d had these weapons long ago; could’ve helped us out a lot.”
“Well, it isn’t always about the guns though.”
“A very valid statement, Trekome, but they sure as hell help.”
“I’ll give you that. I’m curious, how do you know Jed?”
Masters gave me a surprised look and smiled brightly.
“I used to be his platoon sergeant until I nearly bought it. Spent some time in a hospital and then was recylced into another unit, Andre’s.”
“So how do you three know each other so well?”
“Our units did a lot of work together. Spend months on end in the field with the same guys and you’re bound to make friends.”
“Gotcha... I’m wondering if Andre is a hardass or chill about everything.”
“Oh he’s a really relaxed guy, I’m sure you can tell. He just takes a few days to chill out, though Allie can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.”
“At that time of the month or more often than that?”
“Hah! No, she’s just a bit of a hardass, but if you give her a chance and a couple weeks she’ll warm up to you guys. Now what about you? How do you know Jed?”
“We camped out together before taking Azual and we hit if off from there.”
“Gotcha… Hey, wait, you’re the one who got Hriss, aren’t you? Yeah, I thought your name was familiar… You’re younger than I expected, though, would’ve figured you to be in your thirties.”
“No, but I’m getting closer to it.”
“Heh, amazing that you got gunny so quick. How’d you do it?”
“A few field promotions, some work with the Loupians, and being buddies with Jed I guess.”
“I guess he’s got something planned for you if he promoted you that quick. Hell, took me until I was in my late thirties before I got promoted. Would’ve gotten a few more promotions too ‘cept I’m not the nicest drunk.”
“Heh. I guess that means I’m not going to be buying you any hooch.”
Masters laughed and got up, slapping my shoulder.
“Hey, next time you guys are down on the range I’ll let you play with some of the incendiary rounds.”
We spent the next few weeks going over new tricks and tactics, mainly urban combat. It wasn’t too hard to get right away, and the only thing any of us had difficulty with was the fact that our weapons had more recoil to them now and the gear weighed more and was comparatively restrictive to only having an LBV. Andre said that we’d adjust soon enough, and most of us did, save for Hrula and Grigor, who were slowly getting adjusted to the different LBVs. Thankfully it was a nonissue by the time we had finished training; we would get our trial by fire not more than 12 hours after we had completed it.
Urban combat. So much fun… do note the sarcasm. Lately the Chattans have been getting smart about things and been picking their fights better rather than the usual mass wave tactics. Reinforced bunkers made from various buildings that were seemingly random, hidden mines and bombs, hit and run tactics, and an insane intensity in every firefight we’ve encountered. The change in tactics wasn’t all too sudden, but they were getting much better at it. We’ve been getting 50% more casualties lately and they’ve been getting their dead and wounded out so quickly we haven’t been able to tell what we’ve been inflicting, but from the smell of the blood in their holdouts after we go in to check we’ve been hitting them pretty hard. Problem is without any hard evidence to know our forces are doing anything we don’t know whether or not we’re doing any real damage. Take a town or a compound and you motivate and boost morale. Know you killed enemy soldiers and you do the same. But to take more casualties than ever before and not see the payoff… destroys morale. We don’t know who we’ve killed, if we’ve killed anyone, and we start to not care. On top of that the tactics they use have slowed us down some in the cities.
It’s easier to clear out a city block if you know that each building is occupied with enemies. But when you don’t know which building has people in it and which ones are just a trap makes things slow. We have to take our time clearing things out to keep from taking needless casualties. Granted House Lupus has one of the largest armies in the galaxy it’s still expensive to lose a soldier that’s been fully trained and even more expensive to treat ones that are wounded.
Andre had us moving slowly, moving each squad in bounds along the walls of the buildings and keeping a meter between us and the walls. We were clearing out a city block as a test to see how well we could work on our own. If we did well then all the time and money put into our new unit would have been worth it and we’d be the model for the next specops company. Once we became an official unit we’d be used for anything and everything, though mainly deep insertions where we’d wreak havoc behind enemy lines. So for all intents and purposes we were on our own for these two square miles of city. And for a total of 18 people that’s a lot.
First building we looked at was a department store with fifteen stories to search. The satellite feed we were getting showed a few heat signatures in the building and we had them pinpointed between the eighth and tenth floor interspersed evenly throughout. Intel couldn’t be completely sure but it looked like three dozen Chattans in this building alone, which seemed unusually high. Intel was getting reports from locals that the building was being used as a staging area for raids so this was high on our list of targets.
Check the doors for traps or alarms; nothing. Two squads through the side entrance, the other two through the back. Fan out, move quickly, keep alert for sentries, cameras, or detectors. Shields were off for this just to be sure they wouldn’t be able to pick up the energy signatures; scent suppressors used just to make sure we had as much of an advantage as we could. Silencers on; we’d do this one quiet.
Two sentries in front of us; they haven’t picked up our scent and we’re not showing up on any detectors or cameras they have. I’ve got a modified 72 with a variable zoom scope that links directly to my HUD which makes urban sniping a breeze. Line up my shot on the Chattan behind the other two. Steady my breathing, wait for the pause between heartbeats, fire off a three round burst. The weapon cycles so fast the third round has already hit before I feel the recoil. A fine pink mist replaces the soldier’s head; his comrades immediately following suit. Andre reports three on his side down as well. We move out quickly through the floor to make sure it’s clear before moving on.
To the stairwell now; so far so good. Well, was good. They planted mines throughout the stairwell; this’ll be slow to get through. Andre called in through the comlink that the stairwell on their side wasn’t much better. Check the other stairwells; same story. Ok, we’ll take this one slowly.
Disarm the mines along the walls and jam the alarms planted throughout. Work our way up slowly to the eight, ninth, and tenth floors then get ready for hell. Allie clicked twice on the comlink to signal we were ready on our side. Two clicks back from Andre telling us he was ready. Daniel cracked the door open and slid in a remote sensor. Immediately we got a live video link showing us everything behind the door. How nice, it was the outdoors department complete with hammocks, tents, grills, and other niceties. The thermal view showed ten Chattans in full gear lounging around the area.
Move through the door quickly and without a sound. Daniel has point with Allie right behind him. She took her squad left while I went right. Hrula and Grigor stayed behind as rear security. Andre took his two squads to the ninth floor meanwhile. Three Chattans sleeping on hammocks; they never expected us. Move on quickly; don’t let them have a chance to pick up the scent of blood in the air. The floor is cleared in minutes. Hrula calls in that he’s got movement coming our way and that he’s falling back for cover. We’re on our way.
We take positions behind support pillars, though they won’t do much as most of the pillar is covered by drywall. Wait for the armed response to burst through the door. Sound of men lining up behind the steel doors. Nothing. We wait. Keep relaxed, breath easy. The door cracks and we hear a clunk. Grenade. We close our eyes and prepare. Flashbang. Deafening. Disorienting. They come.
I can still see. Pick a target and fire. See them go down; pick another target and fire. They came. And they died. We check their uniforms for their unit: Chattan Light Guard, 9th Battalion, Charlie Company. A regular infantry unit; might explain why they were so lax in everything. The regulars are getting complacent in what they’re doing. Not good. Though I can’t say too much more for our units as well. Everyone’s getting tired of this war.
We move down to the eighth floor and sweep it; two were staying behind in case there we showed up. They didn’t have a chance. We came in from two different directions and had both of them confused as hell. They panicked and fired wildly at the doors, but we were already through them by the time they started pulling the trigger. Allie cooked them both with a frag. Satellite scans showed the building was clear; we swept it again just to make sure.
The second building was almost a clusterfuck. No signs of any traps when we were entering. Not until we started sweeping the third floor. We caught a video camera that was watching us. We jammed it, but by the time we were able to do that Hrula caught the scent of explosives coming from the stairwells. Not just the trace scent from a mine; it was strong. The building was rigged to go off. Thank the gods the gear we had didn’t weigh us down like the old gear would have. Allie had just shoved me out the door when the building went. A deep boom and then the thunder of concrete giving and collapsing. Everyone checked in; no casualties. We got out of that one lucky. Intel was able to trace back where the video feed was; two buildings down the road. We’ll take care of that one when we get to it.
The next two buildings showed up clear. No one in them and no traps. We went over every inch of them, though, just to be sure. Nothing. Now to the ones that were watching us. They knew we were coming so we made it a point to move quickly. Through the doors, eyes, ears, noses open for signs of trouble. Nothing until the fifth floor. The sensor ball we tossed in showed makeshift bunkers pointing at the doors. Thermal showed half a dozen Chattans waiting for us; three in that bunker, three more behind them.
Smoke grenades helped mask our movements, though seeing how they were shooting with some accuracy showed that they had thermal imaging. Not your usual grunts then. We return fire, but they’re well covered. And their fire is getting more accurate. No use being quiet now.
“Shaul, right side, on two. Grigor, you go with him.” Allie calls her commands sharply.
“Aff. Right on two.” I call back.
“Ready, one, TWO!”
I make a mad dash to the pillar to the right, Grigor besides me. Allie and the rest fire at the bunker’s slots to try to cover us, though it doesn’t do too much. Grigor squeezes my shoulder to signal he’s ready to move. I give a thumbs up and snap my fingers to signal to move again. We make another mad dash to try to get to the flank of the bunker and try to get around it. No luck; they know we’re moving.
“Keep their attention here. I’m moving in.” I growl to Grigor.
He nods and gets ready to fire back. I squeeze his shoulder and run as he unloads to draw attention. It works; they don’t know I’m running in alone. Combat instinct kicks in. I make it to the back of the bunker and look across to see the other bunker facing away. Andre’s group has the other three busy; they don’t know I’m here. I draw my sword and creep into the bunker facing Allie. Slash, turn, slash, turn, thrust. Three down, three to go. Allie keeps firing so as not to hint that the first bunker is down while I slip into the second bunker. Slash, turn, slash, turn, slash.
“CLEAR!” I call out.
Everyone moves in to make sure that’s everything. Check; no one else waiting. We move out to clear the rest of the building.
No one on the next floor. They were waiting on the next one, though. Same deal; bunkers back to back. Same tactics, though this time I got some backup. Andre moved in from the other side like I did. We didn’t bother with our blades, though, and tossed in two frags a piece to clear the bunkers. When the smoke died down we checked them and moved on. A quick look at the uniforms told us they were the Chattan Heavy Guard; 1st Battalion, Alpha Company. They knew what they were doing; they were a major step up from the regular infantry. And we took them. No time for celebration, though; there’s another seven floors to clear.
That’s how it went: building by building, floor by floor. Systematically take each building down with cold cruel efficiency just like we’re supposed to: silently, swiftly, and with intensity. It took the better part of the day to get through our section of the city while the regular units took care of theirs. We only called for support once to take care of a mech that had decided to move through our block. Granted our platoon is better trained and better armed than most any other unit on the planet but we knew our limits. With the gear we had there’d be no way we’d be able to have taken care of a mech on our own. That’d be something we’d have to train and be prepared for next time. Andre made note of that with Jed.
Back at base we rearmed and refitted. We had to move out again when we got word of a company that had been cut off when the Chattans had pushed on our lines and broken through. We’d be the spearhead of the rescue effort, and from the sound of it things were going to get ugly and fast if we didn’t get our forces through to stop the breakthrough. Andre made sure we packed heavier weapons; we took three anti-armor missile launchers manned by Hrula, Grigor, and Adrian with twelve rounds divvied up between us all. I took my new XM83 and was happy to find plenty of armor piercing incendiary rounds compliments of Masters.
We were taken to the front as quickly as possible via APC. As we got closer we could hear the sound of tank fire complimented by pulse rifles going off all around us. No real need to play things quietly at this point, though we decided to use suppressed weapons to keep our movements unnoticed as much as possible. A sudden jolt and loud thump rocked us out of our precombat trance. The APC doors opened and we all jumped out before our APC got hit again. Lucky for us the missile hit the bulk of the armor in the front and the reactive armor mitigated most of the main blast of the warhead. We took cover as the gunner rained hell towards where the missile came from. A quick look behind us showed four other APCs deploying the rest of the troops while providing as much cover as possible. The tanks at the front of the armored column were busy blasting away at enemy positions. Andre signaled for us to move out while the attention was off of us.
Our job was to make it to Echo Company and reinforce them as best we could while the rest of the House Lupus army stopped the breakthrough and linked up with us. If Echo Company is completely overrun by the time we get there then we stay put and cause as much havoc as possible while the main effort does their job and links up with us. It’s a good thing we packed plenty of ammo and water.