I don't own anything.
The Legionnaire
-Chapter One:
Martin Dogsong eyed the decimated city around him with a professional eye. This was a bad area of town. A lot of legionnaires had been ambushed around here, especially yesterday. "It's too quiet," Kalash Chamusso stated, his voice carrying across the street easily in the eerie stillness.
"Yeah," Paul Jameson agreed.
"Where the hell is everyone?" Liam Taylor added.
"Might be hiding after the explosions yesterday," Martin suggested as he glanced behind him at the rest of the section. Why was his fire team always on point? Despite his own words, Martin could feel something in the air. "Something's going to happen."
"Yeah," Kalash replied. He held up his hand and the rest of the team stopped and mirrored his hand sign. They had paused as the road the section was patrolling on emptied into a large open square with a fountain in the center.
"What's wrong, Chief Corporal?" a rough-sounding voice asked over the radio.
"No one's around, Chief," Kalash replied. "This is a market. There are supposed to be people everywhere and something just feels off."
"Right," the Chief Sergeant replied. He had taken over the section for this patrol after the Lieutenant had been rushed to the emergency room for some reason. That was in addition to his role as leader of the section's first group. Martin swept the square with his machinegun. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
"Oh, shit." Somewhere ahead a machinegun opened up and Paul was thrown to the ground with a yelp of surprise and pain as his leg was knocked out from under him.
"Contact front! Contact front!" Kalash roared. "Take cover!"
"The fountain!" Martin snapped. It was the nearest, biggest, most solid thing to hide behind. He grabbed at the left shoulder strap of his fellow American's load bearing equipment. Kalash got a hold of the man's right side and they dragged him behind the fountain, despite the bullets tearing into the ground all around them. The low height of the fountain's edge forced the four legionnaires to their stomachs in order to seek cover.
"Who's hurt?" Kalash demanded, over the steady whine of bullets zipping by over head.
"Me," Paul replied weakly.
"I'm good," Martin replied as he cradled his Belgian-made weapon, checking it over with an experienced eye.
"Good to go, Corporal," Liam stated.
"What's happening?" the Chief Sergeant demanded.
"We're taking fire from an unknown location," Kalash reported.
"Try to locate the shooter," the Chief ordered. Kalash stuck his head up and a round slashed the camouflaged fabric of his helmet cover. He took that as a sign and ducked back down.
"No go, Chief. They're focused in on us," Kalash stated. "Can you see anything?"
"Negative," the Chief replied. "They must be using a flash suppressor. Do any of you have thermal sights?" Kalash glanced at them. Martin shook his head as he unbuckled the individual medical kit on Paul's load bearing equipment and set about trying to stop the blood pulsing from his leg.
"No, Chief."
"God damn it," the Chief swore. "Second team! Set up a smoke screen and rush to support first. Third, give them support. Second group, stand by." Martin looked back at the road leading into the square and saw two smoke grenades soar out of an alleyway. Suddenly, the roar of the machinegun seemed to double and the smoke began to twist unnaturally in the air.
"Cancel the attack! Cancel the attack!"
"What's wrong?" Kalash demanded.
"They're spraying the smoke, Corporal," Martin replied.
"They're spraying the smoke, Chief," Kalash reported.
"They've shifted fire?" the Chief asked.
"Negative," Kalash stated. "There are two machineguns. I say again, two machineguns. One's on us and the other is on the choke point."
"Shit," the Chief stated eloquently. "Piper?"
"Here Chief," the sniper replied.
"Do you have any kind of angle?"
"Negative Chief," Piper reported. "I do have a good view of the road blocks they set up to keep you from flanking them."
"Right," Chief said flatly. "Chief Corporal."
"Here," Kalash replied.
"Give me covering fire."
"The moment we stick our heads up, they'll shoot at us," Kalash replied.
"Stick your guns out and pull the trigger," the Chief ordered.
"There are civilians, Chief," Kalash protested. "We were told to check fire!"
"The civilians should have warned us," the Chief replied. "Do it." Kalash glanced at them and Martin nodded. He rolled onto his back with his machinegun across his chest.
"Ready here Corporal."
"Same," Liam added.
"On three!"
(:ii:)
"Three!" Kalash stuck his FAMAS over the edge of the fountain and pulled the trigger, spraying the opposite edge of the square with automatic hail of 5.56mm NATO bullets. Beside him Martin had finished tying off Paul's leg and opened fire with his machinegun. Kalash chanced a glance at the smoke cloud. "Holy shit." A man burst out of the cloud and sprinted towards them, firing his rifle from the hip. The ground on either side of him exploded as rounds slammed into the compacted dirt and stone. He dove forward and slammed harshly into the fountain beside Kalash.
"Fuck," the Chief growled as he scrubbed at the dust off his goggles. He tore the magazine out of his rifle and shoved a fresh one in from one of the pouches on his load bearing equipment before flipping down the FELIN monocle over his left eye. Being the section's commander, he carried the extremely expensive and, in the post Third Impact world at least, extremely uncommon French integrated electronics suite.
"Cease fire!" Kalash ordered. He quickly reloaded his FAMAS. "What are you going to do Chief?"
"Prove that thermal sights are a God send," the Chief replied. He thrust his rifle up, panning it across the square. A round slammed into the bulky combined camera/thermal weapon sight and knocked it clean off the rifle. "Shit."
"Did you see them?" Kalash demanded. The Chief just grinned and grabbed his radio.
"The target's a four story gray building," he stated. "You get that Sergeant?"
"Copy that Chief," Sergeant Chieu, the leader of the second group, replied. "Did you get that Adler?"
"Got it, Sergeant" Adler replied. A different roar sounded in the square and Kalash watched as the 89mm rocket from second group's LRAC tore through the air overhead. The resulting explosion made the very ground under Kalash jump. He peeked over the edge of the fountain and stared at the pile of rubble sitting neatly between two more buildings.
"Holy shit. Was that one of those Novel warheads?" The Chief peeked over as well.
"I think so," he replied. "Everyone good?"
"I'm great!" Paul stated. Kalash glanced at the wounded man. Martin just shrugged.
"Morphine," he stated.
"Ah," the Chief replied as he climbed to his feet and pushed his monocle back up onto his helmet. He pulled his goggles down around his neck, revealing surprisingly delicate-looking Asian features and dangerously bright blue eyes. Kalash stood too, towering over the Chief Sergeant by a good dozen centimeters. "We have made contact with and destroyed the enemy. I'd call this patrol a success."
"Sounds good to me," Kalash replied. "Think we can go back to the FOB now?"
"Please," Paul added in a far away voice.
"I think we can," Chief Sergeant Shinji Yamamoto replied. "Just another day in the Legion, no?"
"Can't say they didn't warn us," Kalash replied. "At least this beats dodging warlords back in Somalia."
"It was a lot quieter back in Japan," Shinji stated. "Need a stretcher down there, Legionnaire?"
"No way, Chief!" Paul stated. "Now where are those bastards? I'm gonna get even!"
"I admire your spirit there, but you're too late," Shinji stated.
"Shoot," Paul stated.
"At least you can apply for citizenship under the 'French by spilled blood' provision," Shinji commented.
"Upside to everything," Kalash stated, checking his watch. It had been two hours since they had left the forward operating base. Time crawled when you were being shot at.
(:ii:)
Shinji stepped into the command tent and stared at the organized chaos inside. "Good job Chief Sergeant." Shinji turned and saw that the speaker was a Captain from the regiment's command and logistic company. "Real good. Word from regiment is that you might be heading for a promotion."
"Thank you, sir," Shinji replied.
"The locals are having a shit fit over the destruction of that building, though," the Captain stated. "Expect a bitchy officer from some Civil Affairs unit and that promotion being shot down by some bureaucrat."
"Couldn't be helped, sir," Shinji stated.
"I figured," the Captain replied. "I need a team to take over a UN checkpoint a few clicks outside the city. Who do you have?"
"First team, first group," Shinji stated after a moment.
"They're down a man," the Captain stated.
"I'll be filling in for him," Shinji stated. The Captain paused and a smile curled his lips for a moment.
"Smooth. So be it. I'll give you five hours before you need to get back here to catch a VAB to the checkpoint. Get out of here."
"Yes, sir." Shinji walked out of the tent and into the blazing Sudanese sun. He looked around the tiny forward operating base that now served as the head quarters for the Second Foreign Parachute Regiment's First Company. He crossed the base quickly and found the tents housing his men. Inside all was dark and almost completely silent.
"Chief," someone greeted. Shinji nodded to the group sitting quietly in the center of the tent and moved towards them.
"Good shot, Adler," he commented, patting the man on the shoulder. The German nodded silently.
"We were just talking about citizenship," Wallace stated. "Are you a citizen, Chief?"
"No," Shinji replied as he sat down next to the section's other group leader. "Citizenship cannot be given under a declared identity."
"Still won't declare your name, eh?" Chieu asked. He and Shinji had been serving together for a long time. Shinji had been his team leader back when the Chinese soldier had been a legionnaire.
"Here Chief." Shinji glanced back and saw that he was being offered a shot glass. He took it and knocked it back.
"Whoa."
"Good, eh?" Giovanni asked. "Strait espresso. Little taste of home." Shinji leaned a little further back in his seat and saw a small espresso machine.
"How are you powering that thing?"
"The command tent's generator," Giovanni stated proudly, "a quick snip and splice here and bingo."
"I didn't here that," Shinji stated. He turned back to the group. "Anyway, I crossed certain people with long memories and longer reach." Shinji paused and considered the question some more. "Where's Chamusso?"
"Corporal's in that rack," one of the soldiers. He was the machine gunner, Dogsong. Everyone called him Dog. "What's up Chief?"
"We have something to do," Shinji stated. "Go get some sleep."
"No rest, eh?" Wallace asked. Shinji just shrugged. He'd let the team get as much sleep as possible. Shinji glanced at the youngest member of their group, an athletic Spaniard named Martinez.
"This is your first deployment with the Legion, right son?"
"Yes Chief," Martinez replied. "I was in the Spanish army for a few years, but it was too boring so here I am." Shinji nodded his understanding. "Where have you been Chief?"
"Just about everywhere," Shinji replied. "A lot of places are still having trouble maintaining order, especially under developed nations. I've been deployed to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, China, all over South America, couple of other African countries, even did some time in Mexico and the US."
"You were in the US?" Martinez asked in shock.
"Some rich fuck American pulled together a standing army a couple hundred thousand strong and tried to carve himself a country out of Mexico and parts of the American South West," Shinji explained. "We got called in to help the Mexico-US coalition. Through a couple of odd twists of fate, my unit pulled joint operations with the Americans in the retaking of New Mexico and Nevada in a pincher move with us coming from the south and the Americans coming from the north and east."
"I remember that one," Chieu stated. "Remember when Augo got in that fight with that really big Marine, because the Marine called him a traitor for leaving America for France?"
"I remember," Shinji replied. "God those two could fight. Too bad the MPs showed up. That was a good show."
"Yeah," Chieu agreed. "Too bad about Augo. He was a good one."
"Yeah."
"You must have been in for years," Martinez stated. "You could be an officer."
"Need citizenship," Wallace replied.
"Why'd you join, Chief?" Martinez asked.
"That's not a question you should ask someone who joined the Foreign Legion under a false name," Chieu stated.
"Oh," Martinez replied. "I see your point."
"Let's just say, it involved a girl," Shinji answered after a moment. "You know what I mean."
"Always does," Chieu replied.
"If you only knew how true that was," Dog commented.
"No kidding," Wallace added.
(:ii:)
Liam looked around the inside of the VAB and stretched his legs out. With only four men in a vehicle built for ten, it was actually kind of spacious, still noisy though. "Did you hear anything about Jameson, Chief?"
"There was an infection scare, but the doctors have him stabilizing," Shinji stated as he checked his rifle. With the loss of the FELIN FAMAS in the ambush, he had managed to scrounge up a short-barreled FAMAS Commando with a red dot scope mounted on the carry handle. The weapon was so new that the spray painted tan finish was still tacky. "He'll be fine, but he won't be back for a while."
"Too bad," Martin commented.
"I'm not enough for you Legionnaire?" Shinji commented.
"Of course, Chief!" The VAB pulled to a halt.
"We're here, Chief," the driver stated.
"Right." Liam pushed one of the back doors open and climbed out. He stared at the cheap plywood fence and sandbag-lined pit.
"Oh, boy." The Chief climbed out and frowned.
"Yeah," he replied, "our checkpoint."
"Check pit," Liam stated. The last two members of the team climbed out and the VAB drove away.
"What do we do, Chief?" Kalash asked.
"This is your team," Shinji stated and he pulled off his helmet and pulled on a tan colored balaclava. The sun was going down and it was getting cold. Liam was glad he had brought his watch cap and gloves. "I'm going to go check the radio and set up the laptop." Liam watched him disappear under the camouflage net draped over the pit.
"Dig in men," Kalash ordered. "It's going to be a long night."
(:ii:)
"That's disgusting." Martin ignored him teammate and tucked the wad of chewing tobacco behind him bottom lip. "Americans."
"You're just jealous that you can't get your nicotine fix," Martin stated with a smirk as he pulled his thick, insulated gloves back on. He leaned back in the folding beach chair that one of the last guys on checkpoint duty had left behind.
"Don't spit near the pit," Liam stated. "That smell makes me sick."
"Fine," Martin replied, holding up an empty water bottle. "Is Chief still up?"
"It's not him shift," Liam stated. "He and Corporal are probably both out cold."
"When's it our turn to sleep?" Liam glanced down at the watch strapped to his load bearing equipment.
"Two more hours."
"Great." Martin glanced down the road and frowned as he noticed a pair of headlights coming towards them. Liam must have noticed because he picked up the handheld night vision device and brought it to his eyes.
"It's a sedan," he reported.
"Great." Martin climbed to his feet, pulling off the glove on his right hand. He also pulled his helmet on over his watch cap and picked up his machinegun.
"Think we should wake up Corporal and Chief?" Liam asked as the car drew close enough to Martin could make out the model even without night vision.
"I don't see why," he stated as he raised his hand and the sedan slowed to a halt. Liam walked up to the window and tapped on it. The driver quickly rolled it down.
"Identification, please." The driver began jabbering away in the local dialect.
"What's he saying?" Martin asked.
"I think he's saying that he doesn't speak French," Liam replied. He tried his thick cockney English. "Identification."
"I speak good English," the driver stated.
"Good for you," Liam replied. "Identification, please."
"Of course." The man handed Liam a big red folder. The Brit opened it and leafed through the papers. "I just taking my family away from city. Too much shooting, yes?"
"Yeah," Liam agreed. "It's all here. Raise the gate."
"Right." Martin turned and lifted the flimsy plywood gate by hand.
"Go on," Liam ordered. He pointed and the car began to role forward.
"Hold it!" Martin turned and saw the Chief sprint out of the pit with Corporal in tow. "Stop the car!"
"Stop!" Liam bellowed in English. The car's back wheels squealed. The driver obviously wasn't going to stop of his own will. Martin squeezed his machinegun's trigger. The weapon roared and a line of bullet holes appeared across the sedan's hood. The engine sputtered for a moment and died. Martin kept his machinegun trained on the driver and tried to ignore the screaming children in the backseat.
"What's happening, Chief?" he demanded.
"I ran this guy's tags through the network," Shinji stated as he stalked up to the car. "This is his tenth trip out of the city tonight. I just wanted to ask what was up. Guess we know now. Innocents don't try to run. Open the window!"
"He doesn't speak French," Martin stated.
"Open. . ." Liam began, but stopped as the Chief drew his PAMAS pistol and slammed the pistol grip into the window, shattering it.
"Where the fuck were you going?" Shinji demanded. The man began speaking rapidly in the local dialect. Shinji pressed the muzzle of his pistol against the man's temple and pulled the hammer back with his thumb. "Where were you going?"
"I just wanted to get my family out of the city!" the man screamed in perfect French.
"Than why'd you take them back in nine times?" Shinji demanded. "Keep them in your sights, Dog."
"Not a problem, Chief," Martin replied. The older soldier nodded and he holstered his pistol again. The driver's eyes were wide as he looked around. Suddenly he lurched to the side. Martin hesitated for a split second as he tried to get a shot without endangering the wife or children, but Shinji had already grabbed his pistol again. It cleared its holster and discharged twice from the hip, barely high enough to angle down through the car's window.
"Don't move!" the Chief snapped, aiming the weapon at the car's other occupants.
"What's happening?" Martin demanded, the muzzle of his weapon jerking back and forth as he tried to ignore the screams of the man's wife and children. Shinji leaned into the car through the shattered window and pulled out a cell phone.
"Dumb bastard lurched over and snatched this thing up," he stated as he set the cell phone on the car's roof. "Get the family out of the car, Corporal."
"Right."
"Is it a bomb, Chief?"
"Maybe," Shinji stated. "I hope so, or I just shot an innocent man. Taylor!"
"Right here, Chief," Liam stated.
"Get in the pit and radio the FOB," Shinji ordered. "I want engineers out here now."
"Right away, Chief," Liam replied as he disappeared into the pit.
"Grab her!" Martin spun to see Kalash, half inside the car and already holding two squirming children, trying to subdue the wife. Shinji fired twice from the hip, striking the woman in the lower torso, but she managed to grab the cell phone as she went down and quite suddenly the car had become a fireball rushing at Martin's face.
(:ii:)
"Shit!" Liam ripped the burning cover off the pit and threw it off into the desert as he climbed out of the pit. The illumination from the burning car allowed him to easily make out the scene before him. Martin was the closest. He was flat on his back where the blast had thrown him. "Dog?" Liam kneeled and shook the larger man.
"What happened?" Martin asked.
"The car blew up," Liam stated. "How do you feel?"
"I think my leg is broke," Martin stated.
"Fuck!" Liam jerked upright and saw that the Chief had dragged himself into a sitting position and was aiming his pistol around wildly. The man was covered in blood and his left leg was horribly mangled. "Sound off! Dogsong!"
"Here!" Martin croaked.
"Taylor!"
"Here Chief," Liam replied as he moved to the man's side.
"Corporal!" There was no answer. "Corporal!" Shinji looked around jerkily. "Where the fuck is Chamusso?" Liam stood and moved to the other side of the burning wreck. He found Corporal, what was left of him, lying on the other side of the car. He had been inside the car trying to drag the children out when the sedan exploded. He was quite definitely dead. Liam moved back to Chief's side. "Did you find him?" the man demanded.
"He's dead, Chief," Liam replied.
"Fuck!" He grabbed Liam by the front of his load bearing equipment. "Get on the radio and report a situation zulu. Do you hear me? Tell them it's a situation zulu!"
"I hear you, Chief," Liam replied. He turned and sprinted back to the pit. A minute later he was out again and checking his teammates. By the time he made it back to the Chief, the older soldier had lost consciousness, the hand clutching his French-made Beretta was sprawled across his chest and his blood was soaking into the sand under him.
(:ii:)
Hikari Horaki sprinted towards the VTOL landing pad as she saw the lights from a VTOL drawing close to the field hospital. "Does anyone know what happened?"
"It was a VBIED, Doctor." Hikari turned and saw one of the young nurses pacing her. "We have two seriously injured."
"I'm sorry I woke you." Hikari turned back to see that it was the hospital's nightshift doctor, a man named Fahad Ayoob, who was speaking. "Both these guys are supposed to be in critical."
"Its fine," Hikari replied. "So, who are these guys?"
"Just a pair of French Foreign Legionnaires," Doctor Franks replied. He shuffled the two folders he was holding. "A Legionnaire Martin Dogsong and Chief Sergeant Shinji Yamamoto."
-End
(:ii:)
-Author's notes. Yeah, it's another serious one from me. Now, I have no idea about the structure of the French army and I couldn't find out anything about it, despite my attempts, but I did find out what the units were called. So, I made a team analogous to a fire team, a group into a squad and a section into platoon. If it's wrong. . .meh. Can't say I didn't try. And yes, Legionnaire is apparently a rank as well as a title. Think Private.
I wasn't really going to post this story, but I didn't have anything else. You guys know how I like to get something out to you every week. As for the pole, I'm still getting e-mails. I'll give the results next week.