"Corporal Asami Sato reporting for duty." Asami saluted the woman she was told was in charge.
A tanned woman looked up from the Humvee she was working on, and Asami instantly saw that this was not going to be an ordinary reassignment. "Put your hand down, I'm only a sergeant, not your general." Asami complied, and eyed her up. She was wearing a simple black tank top, a pair of brown leather shoulder holsters to hold a pair of nickel-plated guns. Other than that, she was wearing a pair of standard issue camo-pants and combat boots. Her hair had been pulled back into a messy ponytail, with two rather large bangs lining her face. "I'm Korra," she said, flicking away a cigarette. "Welcome to The Ward."
Asami was a bit confused. "The Ward? What's that supposed to mean?"
Korra chuckled. "Means that whatever you did, they don't trust you around their precious 'sane' soldiers anymore," she said, making air quotations with her fingers. "Just dump your stuff here, we can come back for it later. Let me give you the tour."
The corporal decided to just do as she was told, and put down her personal affects before following Korra, who was walking further onto the base. "What is this place? We're nearly on the front lines, aren't we?" Asami asked, unsure as to why the seargant was so casual.
"Yes, we are, the official line is just about ten clicks that direction," Korra said, gesturing to the east. "But since our base is so small and not really strategically located, they don't care." She held the door open for her to a small building. "This is what we call the radioshack, it's from where we control everything. Kai, say hello." A guy with skin just as dark as Korra's turned around from his screen.
"Damn," was the first thing he muttered, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks. "Uhh, hello," he quickly corrected himself. Asami shook his hand, trying not to flinch when she felt how clammy it was.
"Kai is our eye in the sky, to put it plainly," the sergeant quickly explained. "Command lends us a drone every now and again, and he can fly it, give us air support if necessary, the lot. And we figured that since he's in here anyway, we might as well make him our lifeline to Command when we need to. You know, in case we ever need fast-movers and such." She snapped her fingers. "Right, let's move on."
Once they were outside again, Asami got curious. "Sergeant, you said that there was something you did to end up here. What did he do, he seemed pretty normal?"
Korra scoffed. "Well, he was an excellent drone pilot, but after a while, Command got nervous every time he had to actually give air support, because he had a cavalier disregard for the phrase 'danger close', so they handed him to me." She moved on to a sniper and her spotter, currently practicing their shooting on targets that were well beyond Asami's line of sight.
"That is Opal," Korra said, and pointed to the girl wielding the gun. "And that's Jinora," she continued, gesturing to the spotter. "Jinora kind of got screwed over by Opal, though it was semi-fair if you ask me. She never spoke out against what she was doing. I have a sneaking suspicion Jinora enjoyed Opal's handiwork as much as she did. Opal and I sort of founded this unit, because they put us together after her squad members got lightly traumatized by her tendency to maim, not to kill." The sergeant smiled, and pulled Asami in a little closer, so that she could whisper. "Don't tell her this, but she's my favorite of this unit. First off, she's adorable, but more importantly, she's an artist with an M107."
A loud gunshot drew the corporal's attention, and she turned around to the sniping duo. "In tha plums," she heard Jinora say, in such a smug tone that Asami couldn't help but smile.
"Oh boy, another poor wooden target just lost his family jewels," Korra sighed. "That's her favorite spot to aim for, and as she has just proven, she can hit them at a mile away. Literally!"
Asami raised an eyebrow at this, but before she could comment, Korra had moved on, walking more in the direction of what appeared to a table full of high explosives with two people sitting at it. "Those are the Twins, Wei and Wing. They're our resident dem-specs. Command got slightly pissed-off with them after they tried to blow them up because they weren't allowed to have Skittles."
"You're kidding me?"
"Actually, it could have been M&Ms, but don't quote me on that."
"Wouldn't that be marked as treason?" Asami asked, reasonably certain it would.
"Well, we can't afford to execute everyone who fucks up every now and again, especially when they are the best in the business. They can make any building fall exactly the way they want to, and they're able to eyeball the amount of explosives needed for a single vehicle. Trust me, they're good."
"I do, but can I trust them?"
"Yeah you can, just don't try and get on their bad side. You get one warning with them, then they put C4 under your pillow. Anyway, the only two you haven't seen yet are Mako and Bolin, over there." She gestured to the far end of the compound, where two men were sparring. "Brothers. Brawlers, brilliant as soldiers, I should add."
"What'd they do to end up here?"
"Well..." The sergeant hesitated. "After they first got out of boot camp, they were split up. Their talents were noticed, but they also fell into depression quickly for some reason. After Command moved them back into the same unit, their depression vanished like a fart in the wind, and no one could figure out why. That is, until their CO discovered they had a very... unusual way of displaying brotherly affection."
The corporal raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"
Korra raised her fist, pumping it back and forth slightly. "Yeah..." she said, slightly uncomfortable. "There's a reason we moved their tent to the far side of the vehicle hangar. Make sure you announce yourself before entering. Trust me, I learned that the hard way." She cringed somewhat. "That image will never leave me... Anyway," she suddenly continued, as if she hadn't just revealed incredibly disturbing things about her unit. "Get your things Sato, you're bunking with me."
They walked back to the place where Asami had dropped off her things, and she picked them back up, after which the sergeant guided her to a tent as well. There were two simple field beds, one of which was surrounded by crap, presumably Korra's. "That's yours, she said, gesturing to the clean one. Korra plonked herself down on her bed, lazily leaning against the wall. "So what did you do to make Command send you to me?"
Asami hesitated. "I'd rather not talk about it just yet."
"That's fine, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." The corporal looked over to Korra, and smiled at her sincerity. "There is one thing you have to do though: take off that uniform. It's 28 degrees out here, I don't want to have to treat you for heat exhaustion." Asami hesitated again, but the sergeant just raised an eyebrow. "That's an order, corporal. I'm the team medic, so trust me on this one."
"Alright." Asami dropped her harness and jacket next to her bed, leaving her in a simple olive T-shirt. Korra reached over to put up some music, smoking a cigarette and watching quietly as she unpacked her stuff. After a while though, the corporal couldn't hold her curiosity in anymore. "Sergeant..." she started, but Korra immediately raised her hand to silence her.
"Just 'Korra' in here. And I know I just ordered you, but that's just because you're still naive enough to believe that. Out there, I demand discipline, in here, you're good."
Asami smiled. "Okay then, Korra. What is this unit? I'm still not clear on the particulars."
"We wage what they call 'psychological warfare'. When we get word of scout units within our area of operations, we get sent in to take care of them, and leave a message for the main force."
"What kind of message?"
"The kind that makes them lose their lunch. That's where I come in: I used to be a normal surgeon, working in a field hospital. My unit got ambushed, but we managed to overpower our attackers anyway. They left me alone with the prisoners, who had killed most of my friends. Big mistake. When my CO came back, I had cut them all open, most of them barely alive, but they were all quickly dying." Korra grimaced as she thought back of that moment. "They deserved every ounce of pain I gave them that day. And we do this so that others don't have to suffer the same fate. Command hates to admit it, but they founded this unit specifically to do the job that no one wants to, and they'd rather use soldiers for that who are already unstable. You know, have us explode near the enemies instead of near the good soldiers."
"Not really. Is this unit about committing war crimes?" the corporal asked, suddenly a lot less pleased about her transfer.
Korra scoffed again. "Nah, nothing to worry about. That's just how they see it high up. They like to say things like 'they don't exist', so that when people come asking questions, they can claim they never heard of us. We kill our enemies, just like every other part of the army out there. The part they just don't tell with that is how quickly we have to kill them. You'll catch on."
Asami wasn't convinced, but wasn't given the chance to linger on it.
"Sergeant!" Kai came running to them. "I just got word from Command. They spotted a scout unit about fifty clicks north-east of here, and they say it's a perfect opportunity for us to make an example of them. We can intercept them in a small town not too far from their current position."
Korra smiled at the corporal. "Would you look at that, trial by fire." She turned back to the drone pilot. "Did they arrange transport?"
"Tenzin is on his way in a Black Hawk, ETA 5 minutes."
The sergeant's smile grew and she stood up. "Alright, let's get to it then." She walked out the tent, getting ready to address the rest of her unit. "Listen up ladies! We got work to do, suit up!" her voice thundered through the air.
Asami felt a wave of nerves roll over her. What the hell did she get into this time?
Please let me know what you thought guys, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to continue this one. Also, if you want a read of the line "In tha plums" that I'm going for, look up Jeremy Clarkson as he says it, particularly in Supermarket Sweep.