Hey guys, sho'reg here, due to some requests I am making Panther Squad's ordeal a whole series. Though it won't be centered around them, but around Redeski, as I feel like it could be a more interesting story from his viewpoint. So without further wait, here is "The Phoenix of the North." I will also try to be more realistic this run through, as some reviews had very good points on how physically impossible some stuff was.
Chapter I: Introduction.
Honor, Strength, Cunning and Dignity. This is what Commander Redeski lived by and fought by. He had abided by these pillars his whole life and it hadn't failed him. Ever since he was little, his grandfather had taught him how to become a good man, as his parents were usually away on business, he was raised by his grandfather and grandmother. His grandfather had served in WWII, but he didn't usually talk about that. Why? Because he served in the war as a Wehrmacht NCO on the eastern front. His Grandfather got the nickname 'Phoenix of the North' because to combat the Soviets, he used a lot of flamethrowers. This tactic was met with success during the war, but eventually history happened. He was surrounded by the soviets near Estonia, and had his army flee to Sweden by stealing fishing boats and other civilian boats, where they claimed amnesty and dispersed. Officially he was presumed dead by the Nazis. So he fled to the States, preferring the climate and isolation of Northern NewYork.
Redeski was not only taught the pillars that he lived his life by his Grandfather, but also all of his Grandfather's tactics. Redeski would pass the time on rainy or slow moving days playing 'War' with his Grandfather. Of course, he would usually lose in the battle of green and tan toy soldiers, but as he grew up, losses went to draws and stalemates. He had never actually beaten his Grandfather in a match of the game they created, but Redeski was more than content with the draws.
So when given the option to attend a military prep school, Redeski jumped at the chance. There was quite a lot of options, usually 5per state, but he narrowed it down to the Iroquois. They were based near Buffalo in upstate New York, which happened to be not too far from home. They also provided barracks for students to stay in during the school year, which was a bonus for Redeski.
The school participated in many different sporting events, each based on a service branch. There was Naval Supremacy, Air Supremacy, Tankery, and Combatery. Student were forced to do one and could only do one of these. All of these were based off of WWII equipment, nothing past 1945 was allowed. The school was based off of a mix of German and American tactics and equipment. Redeski, not being too familiar on the aviation or naval areas WWII, picked Combatery. He wasn't a fan of only using tanks, as his Grandfather had told him the dangers of relying purely on armor, and in this 'sport' All branches were combined. (Based on battlefield of course, no water, no ships)
Upon applying for the school, one had to take an entrance exam. This would place them in what role suited them, such as being a rifleman, NCO, Fighter pilot, ETC. Redeski Took this exam and was placed on the command branch. His first command was of the Northern Flank, under Commander Green. Green was a senior in the school, and had a pretty good track record as far as wins and losses. He was around 6'0" had short brown hair, brown eyes, and a slightly muscular look about him. It also seemed that he had a constant 5 O'clock shadow on his face. He was pretty social also, and usually ate with his command staff, which now included Redeski.
Chapter 1: The Phoenix Returns.
The day before the first semester started, Redeski was able to get settled in his Barracks. Luckily enough, he managed to get the top bunk, he didn't know who was on the bottom bunk yet, as the man hadn't shown up yet. That wasn't surprising to Redeski, as he had gotten there early to secure a favorable place. He had been able to get the bunk in the corner of the barracks, right next to a window. There was a bit more space over here as well. Redeski placed his stuff in the locker next to the bunk, and went out to explore the campus. The first place he came across was the cafeteria, as all the barracks surrounded it, seemed huge, but empty. It was still early in the morning and the term hadn't even started yet, so Redeski wasn't surprised there.
As he went to the exit of the building, he found a bulletin board. It had a few on campus job positions, he'd have to check those out later. As soon as he exited the building he walked into someone, and fell flat on his face. So did the other person. He quickly stood up, and went to apologize, he hesitated once he realized the person he walked into was Commander Green.
"Uhh-" Stammered Redeski, he was mentally punching himself. "Sorry sir" He managed to get out. He went to help his commander up.
"Just when you thought they'd bring some talent into this place." Green looked like he was having a rough start to the day. His uniform, which was basically olive green dress shirt and pants with a darker green tie, (it's the school uniform.) Was quite worn. The tie was loose around his neck, the top button was unbuttoned, and His shirt was half untucked. This was not the standard that was expected of wearing a uniform.
"Are you alright sir?" Redeski asked. He was genuinely concerned.
"Yeh, just blowing off some steam." He replied in a sighing tone. "Hey, aren't you the replacement for Jim?" Green asked.
"Yes sir." Redeski said sharply.
"You eat breakfast yet?" Green asked. It was still only 7am.
"No sir." Redeski replied.
"Cool, come with me, I know a great place to get food around here." Green replied.
Redeski fell in step with Green as they made their way to town. It was only a ten-minute walk. Once they arrived Green led the way to a Diner. In front of the diner was three other guys, each one was dressed in civvies like Redeski. Once they met up Green introduced what was his command staff.
"Alright guys, this here is Redeski, he's our new Northern NCO." Green stated. "Red, this here is Mike Sheedy, Erica Sherry, and Tom Horn."
Redeski shook Mike's hand. The man was a giant, around 6'7" and had The longest hair that regs would allow (not that long, but long enough) and brown eyes. He seemed a bit on the heavy side, but Redeski was unsure if it was muscle or not.
As Redeski shook his hand, Mike stated "You can call me Big Sheeds." Redeski nodded.
Next was Erica Sherry, she was quite short, about 5'7" and was wearing aviators. She was very tan, and had brown hair that was in a ponytail. Her bust wasn't that large, as red was quick to notice that instead of a hand shake, she flat out hugged him. He was caught completely off guard.

"Nice to meet youuuuuuuu" she said as the hug got more intense. Redeski was trying to laugh it off.
After that ordeal, he shook Tom Horn's hand. The guy was about 6'5" short blonde hair and blue eyes. He was quite muscular and had a Nordic look about him. He just shook Redeski's hand with a very firm grip, it felt like Redeski's hand was being crushed. Other than that, he seemed like a pretty chill guy to Red.
They followed Green into the Diner, and got seated at a corner both. The diner was quite busy.
"So I take it your plan didn't work?" Big Sheeds asked.
"what do you mean my plan, this was all Sherry!" Green replied, he seemed to be back in the mood Red had found him in.
"Hey now, don't blame me! My plan was solid, it not my fault that your smooth talking made her reject you!" Sherry retorted.
Horn slammed his fist on the table and stated "Enough" with arhourity. This quickly ended the bickering.
"He's right, I'm doomed to be single for the rest of my life…." Green leaned back against the booth. He let out a sigh as the waiter can and took orders from the table.
Red was completely lost. He had no idea what was going on. So, in true Freshman fashion, he stated "What happened?"
"Well you see, Green over here has-"Sherry was cut off by Green.
"Let me tell my own failures Sherry!" Green interrupted. "So you see Red, this all started freshman year. I found myself falling for this one girl, who was utterly out of my league." Green seemed to be having a flash back if sine kind, staring at his drink. "So I built my way up from zero to 100 in three years. It took me three dam years to get to this point in my life, and she still won't go out with me." Green let out a deep breath.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you man, you could have any girl besides her, but here you are chasing this hoe." Big Sheeds said.
"She's not a hoe!" Green retorted.
"Dude, you, me, and the rest if this school know that she has had more the a few ventures" Big Sheeds replied with the same tone.
Green looked defeated. Just in time for the food to come though. There was an awkward silence, Sherry decided to break it.
"So, Red, how are you liking the school?" Sherry asked.
"It's alright, I saw some board with job offers on it, think I might take one." Red replied
"Don't. They're not worth it trust me, you clean the dishes for hours and get paid barley anything." Green replied.
"It's not that bad, but he has a point." Big Shreds responded.
"Really?" Red asked.
"Yup, I made that mistake Freshman year." Green replied.
"Green, I just noticed, why are you wearing the school uniform?" Big Sheeds pointed out. The thought had just accrued to him, as it didn't fit the asking a girl out scenario.
"Oh I just got whooped by the principle. My grades are sub-par as usual." Green replied. His tactical genius on the battle field didn't transfer over to core subjects, mainly Physics.
"What he threaten you with this time?" Sherry asked. She seemed genuinely concerned.
Green's expression saddened. "It wasn't a threat." He let out a deep sigh. "This time I can't bullshit my way out, I might not graduate."
This surprised Redeski extremely, as Green was one if the schools selling points. He had gotten the school plenty of fame, and was praised as a tactical genius by most students and faculty. But Redeski decided to hold his tongue, not wanting to assume anything.
"What do you mean not graduate?" Big Sheeds utterly surprised by the fact.

"What do you think I mean?" Green replied. "I literally just said what I meant!"

"Cool it guys. Green, you always climb your way out of these holes." Sherry said, trying to keep tensions from rising, Green seemed to be on his last wits.

"You know why I'm always able to climb my ways out of these holes Sherry?" Green said to Sherry, equally as taught. "It's because I dug those dammed holes! But I didn't cause myself to be shit at school work, no matter how hard I study I only scrape by, and if I can't do that this year I'm boned!"

"Then you don't do it 'by the book'" Big Sheeds suggested, Green only got more pissed.

"I. Don't. Cheat." Green said, teeth clenched. Don't get him wrong, him and Big where best friends, but Big just put him off sometimes.

"Well you're running out of options man-" Big Sheeds persisted, trying to get Green to accept his idea.

"I'd rather fail then pass a cheater." Green retorted, spitting out the word cheater. He couldn't even grasp the idea that his best friend even suggested the idea. Sherry, on the ball as ever intervened again trying to put out the flames before fists where raised.

"Shut up or take it outside, I want to eat my breakfast in peace." Sherry interrupted them both in a deadly tone. They both shut up, much to Red's surprise.

Red decided that he could easily take their focus somewhere else. So he decided to change the subject to the sport they would be fighting together in, Combatery.

"So….. who will be under my command during the upcoming season." Red asked, more directed toward Green, but open still.

"Uggggg, I forgot, we still have to divvy up forces." Green just face palmed and gave up on life.

"Why not do it now?" Sherry suggested. "We're all here, and I got pen and paper." Red was quite surprised Sherry managed to pull a small notepad and pen out of a pocket. I guess it would work, all they needed were names.

"Your preparedness never fails me Sherry, now let's see…" Sherry handed Green the paper and pen. ".. Alright, so Sherry, you're going H.Q. again, Tom you got mid, Big you got south, Red you got north. Everyone cool with this?" Green asked before finalizing. No one objected, and the planning continued.

"So, I haven't seen you in a command before Red, what units do you think you'll excel with?" Green asked, Red however, didn't know that much himself. Sure he played a few R.T.S.' but those where games.

"Well, what units do we have available?" Red asked, he figured it would give him more time to think.

"Well, as it stands, we model ourselves off the U.S. and German forces, so we got halftracks, Stewarts, Sherman's, Pumas, Tigers, it's quite the haystack." Green replied.

"If you don't mind, I'd prefer the light tanks and light infantry." Red answered, from what his grandfather told him, Heavy units could cost you a war.

"Mobile type of man eh? I knew you were a good pick. Alright so Sherry, you're getting the Rear Guard as usual, Big sheeds guessing you'll want whatever Heavy tank you can get your hands on?"

"Yup" Big said in agreement.

"And Tom, gonna take it you still want the anti-tank guns and that jazz." Green asked, Tom simply nodded. "And there it is; We'll meet tomorrow on the training fields." Green said with finality.

Then the food came. It was quite good, Green seemed to have his mind occupied by something else, Redeski didn't blame him. He seemed to have a lot on his mind.

The Rest of the morning went by quick for Red. After breakfast the group split up to do last minute preparations for the upcoming semester. Redeski headed back to his bunk, to find it more crowded then before. It was two floors, Freshmen only. Communal bathrooms (to many dismay, not co-ed) limited airflow, little to no privacy besides their locker, which could only hold their clothing, school books, and a few other small items.

With 100 students on the first floor, and 50 on the second, Redeski was glad to have been able to get a relatively calm area on the second floor. His roommate seemed to have just arrived, and was unpacking his items into his locker. Redeski figured he might as well make good terms with the bottom bunk.

"Why hello there." Redeski said, he stretched out his hand for a shake. His roommate turned around and met his hand shake. It was quite firm.

"Sup, I guess you're the top bunk?" The guy said. Redeski nodded. "Sweet, my names Juno Prophet, mobile recon for the upcoming season. You?" Prophet stated, he was a white 6'5" black haired guy. He was in good shape, if not a bit lean.

"My names Redeski, I'm the C.O. for the Northern forces this upcoming season." Redeski replied with and equally relaxed tone. Prophet on the other hand nearly snapped to attention.

"Sir, shouldn't you be using officers' quarters?" Prophet replied. Rank was something earned through the student's time at the school, even though Redeski was a Second Lieutenant, he still had the option of sleeping in a much more private officer's quarters. He chose not to, not because he didn't like the extra privacy (no matter how small the room actually was) but his family couldn't afford the extra payment. Usually it was covered by the school once a student reached the rank of an officer, but since Redeski was a Freshman, they would've made him pay for it.

"I don't have that kind of money, otherwise I would've" Redeski let out a chuckle. "You don't have to be at attention you know, it's not like I'm Green" Redeski finished saying.

"If you say so sir." Prophet replied. He then resumed his previous activities. The rest of the day went by quickly, to Redeski's dismay. He explored the campus a bit more, getting a feel for the layout of the area. There was five maim buildings. The Class building, which held normal classes. The building along with most of the others was brick and looked like something out of colonial times, but the inside was up to date.

The second building was the Mess hall, which was right next to the Class building. Its purpose pretty obvious, to feed the students. It was surrounded along with the Class building by the Bunks and other student housing.

The Third main building was the Armory, which was situated about a mile away from the Class building. It had a firing range, and housed all the school's equipment for the sports it participated in. It was massive in its own right.

The fourth main building was the hanger/Airstrip. It was nothing more than a dirt field and some hangers, but it managed to house the whole team for Air Supremancy. It seemed a bit beat up, but he wasn't able to get that close to it because he started to run out of daylight.

The Fifth building was situated on Lake Erie. This was two miles away from the Class building. The dockyards there housed the schools Naval team. Redeski doubted that he'd ever see them in a battle, as combatery matches usually took place on land locked areas.

Once he got back to the Dorms, it was nearly 10 P.M. The school day started at 7am sharp, and Redeski needed all the sleep he could get. Much to his surprise, as he passed by the Dorm buildings common room, some one recognized him as an officer, no matter what rank he might be.

"Area, attention!" was called from a student by the doorway to the common room, the place went dead quiet. The student then saluted.

"At ease, and you don't salute indoors man, just a tip." Redeski replied to the room. Everyone went back to what they were doing.

"Yes sir" Replied the student Redeski was correcting.

Redeski continued to his bunk, checked his phone for any updates. Before he knew it, nearly 30 minutes passed. He shook his head in disbelief, set his alarm to wake up at 5:30 am, so he could get his morning routine down before the rush, and went to sleep.

Green, however, was in his officers' quarters with his staff, everyone but Redeski of course. He needed seniors, not freshmen for this upcoming task.

"Alright, Sherry and Big, you got the first floor, Me and Tom got the second." Green stated to the group, they were all Relaxing in the cramped living space. It was one room, with a T.V., bed, couch, coffee table, and small counter top. It also had a small bathroom attached to it.

Everyone nodded, they were quadrating with other Seniors to wake up the freshmen at 5:30, to make sure they were all awake. It was really just a prank to get some freshmen aroused and panicked, but hey, when your top dog, its stuff you can get away with. The two groups were armed with a small metal trashcan and a wooden handle.

"Good, timing is impartial, I know I can trust you guys, hopefully the other Seniors will come through."

The rest of the night, Green hung out with probably the best friends he ever had in his life. Whatever life he had was behind him, it had been a rough journey and a long and windy road, but Green knew it wouldn't last forever, so he took nothing for granted. This had been one of those moments, just him and the squad, of course Vinny was missing, but he had gone on to do better things. Green was sure Redeski could fit in enough, but he'd have to make sure he was a good guy first, he didn't want an idiot to ruin what was more or less, the high of his life.

And then, that moment was interrupted with a phone call.

Greens phone went off, in his usual ringtone of "This is your ringtone pick up the phone". He'd gotten it from some T.V. show, he didn't remember which one though.

"I'll be right back guys." Green said, leaving from what was starting to turn out to be Tom kicking everyone's ass in poker.

He walked out of his room, and into the hallway, to meet whatever was thrown at him, today just was going south.

But he wasn't prepared for this call.

"This is Cadet General Green speaking." Green said into the phone. He didn't recognize the number, so he gave the formal title.

~ , this is officer Hobs.~

This surprised Green. Hobs never called him from the office phone before.

~ -~ Hobs started to sob on the other end of the line. Green had thoughts racing through his mind, but it avoided the subject that was to come.

"Hobs, are you alright?" Green asked, not only was he puzzled by being called , as Hobs had taken him in as a son for half Greens life.

~Danny, I'm so sorry... Hobs said in-between sobs. ~I tried everything. Nothing worked…~

At this point Alex Hobs, a man of the law. He had busted cartels; he had been in the force for 20 years and had earned a reputation of being unfazeable. They called him the Iron willed man in the paper once. It was nearly closing time at the station, and more than of his co-workers had felt the uneasy feeling in the air the moment he came back from his beat. He had just sat at his desk, staring into a void.

So when he started to have a breakdown on the phone with someone, a few co-workers came over to find out what was happening.

"Hobs, you there?" Green asked. He was starting to get worried, his sister was off today. No way this was about her, but if not then who. Green's brain was like a ships bridge scrambling to get to Action stations during pearl harbor.

Green heard some other voices in the background of the call. Then Hobs got back on the line.

~I'm alright, but thank you… There was a deep breath and exhale. Danny, your sister's dead.~

There was silence. The bomb had just hit the ship, Green's brain was put into emergency state.

"Hobs, she was o-" Green tried saying.

~She was called into work today to help me out on the beat… she was shot by someone, Danny I tried, and I tried, she just wouldn't get up…" Hobs went back to having a mental breakdown.

Green stood there stunned. The ship that was his body was sinking. A ship in which he couldn't Jump. His last family member had been shot. He hung up the phone, leaned against the wall and just slid to the floor, and stared.

His sister had been quite a bit older then him, and had basically raised him with Hobs, her husband. They met in the Force and had been renounced as a deadly duo for crime. Lana was a good woman, unlike his mother. A drunk and drug addict, he fled to his sister when he was ten, and she had given him the best of what she had. His father was probably some man who fell into his mother's trap, but escaped before the child support payments hit. He never knew what had become of his mother, or the rest of his family, but now he was the last one.

The fleet had been sunk.

After twenty minutes passed, Green entered his room with his composure. He was the last one of the fleet, and he would refuse to sink.

5:20 am Redeski's bunk.

Redeski had woken up before his alarm surprisingly enough. He slapped himself awake, canceled his alarm, and got to work quickly.

Piss, shower, get dressed and get out that door and down to the mess hall. This took him ten minutes on the dot. Just as he was going down the stair case, He saw Green and Tom, sneaking their way up with a trashcan and wooden handle in tow.

"What are you guys doing?" Redeski whispered.

"Revelry, you want in? Just take my lead." Green replied. Redeski, not wanting to disappoint, agreed.

As the trio cleared the staircase, and opened the double doors to the second floor bunks, Tom flicked the lights on. Green played the trashcan like a drum.

"REVELRY, REVELRY, REVELRY! DROP YOUR COCKS AND GRAB YOUR SOCKS!" Green yelled. "YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO BE INSPECTION READY!"

Green took pure pleasure from this, last night's thoughts were for a more peaceful time, like math class. He needed to do this at the moment. Although, he felt extremely tired from lack of sleep. Once a minute had passed, he yelled once more. "AREA ATTENTION!" the scrambling of young men was cut short. It was dead quiet, almost everyone half awake.

Prophet noticed his Bunk bud was missing. He was either dead, or going to be soon.

"Alright, Redeski you know how to conduct an inspection?" Green asked.

"Yes sir" Redeski replied, of course his standards were his Grandfathers. This meant Wehrmacht standards.

"Good, you take right, Tom you can get mid, and I'll get left." Green said, they moved out.

Tom, was silent, just writing stuff down. This was only a mock inspection after all, but for the students in combatery, this would be reviewed.

Green was your normal inspector. Loud, asking questions, and demanding answers.

Redeski however, put whoever he was inspecting on edge. For example, the first bunk to be inspected was in pretty good shape, but good wasn't perfect.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS MORNING PRIVATE!" Redeski shouted.

"OUTSTANDING SIR" The student replied.

Redeski took a Nickle from his pocket and walked over to the bottom bunk.

"PRIVATE, ARE YOU THE BOTTOM BUNK?" Redeski asked.

"YES SIR" He replied.

He dropped the Nickle onto the quickly made bed. It didn't bounce, and therefore needed to be corrected.

"PRIVATE, DID YOU EVEN BOTHER MAKING YOUR BED THIS MORNING." Redeski asked.

"YES SIR" The private replied.

"THEN WHY, WONT MY NICKLE BOUNCE ON IT PRIVATE." Redeski asked.

"I DO NOT KNOW SIR" The private replied, quite confused.

Redeski took the mattress, flipped it off the bunk and returned to being in front of the private.

"YOU WILL RE MAKE THAT BED! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!" Redeski yelled.

"YES SIR." The private replied.

"DO YOU HAVE A UNIFORM PRIVATE?" Redeski asked.

"YES SIR." The private replied, yet again.

"Then where in God's name is it?" Redeski whispered in a deadly tone.

The Private, now shaking in fear, replied to Redeski. "IN THE LOCKER SIR" The Private replied.

So Redeski went to the closet. Got the uniform which was on a clothes hanger, and held it in front of the Private.

"PUT THIS UNIFORM ON NOW!" Redeski yelled, giving the Private the uniform.

The Private quickly started getting dressed, not more than 10 seconds had passed when Redeski started the count down.

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE…" Redeski started to yell.

The private had nearly finished, all he needed was to put on his tie.

"TWO, ONE. YOUR TIME IS UP PRIVATE, UNDRESS AND DO IT AGAIN WITHIN THE TIME LIMIT." Redeski ordered.

The private did so, just within the time limit.

Once he finished yelling at that private, he wrote some things down, and went on to bunk number two. The thing was, he skipped a few bunks. It was almost like a game of Russian roulette. The same possess that occurred on the first bunk happened on the second bunk.

They all finished at the around the same point. Redeski's half of the room was notably more of a mess then it was when they started this ordeal. As the Trio walked out of the doors, Green yelled once more, ending it. "AS YOU WERE!"

There was a scramble of teenage boys repairing their bunks and conversing. Prophet, was not one of those boys, he had seen Redeski get up and ready early, so as soon as Redeski went to the showers, prophet had gotten ready. Thankfully it payed off when Redeski came to inspect their bunk. Prophet had passed, with relatively little damage. Besides the fact that his tie was a bit weird, the bunk had checked out.

So Green, Sherry, Redeski, Tom, and Big Sheeds met up on the first floor and went to the mess hall to grab some breakfast. The moment they sat down, Green was more than ready to share what happened.

"Guys, you're not gonna believe this." Green said.

"I probably won't" Said Big Sheeds

"You'll want to, trust me." Green replied. "During that inspection I literally had a kid piss his pants in fear, I nearly died!"

Big Sheeds started to laugh along with Tom, Sherry, however, wasn't as amused. They weren't there to make freshmen piss themselves.

"And Red over here, this guy is a savage during inspections." Green joked.

Redeski raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" Sherry asked. She was known to take liberty during inspections.

"Sherry, you would be put to shame to the likes of this guy!"

"I'll have to see this for myself during the next inspection." Sherry said, she was glad to hear a rival had finally appeared to match her inner drill instructor.

Breakfast was bland, and so was most of the first day. Trudging through the usual high school subjects, and being a freshman didn't help. But getting respect for having the Rank of 2nd lieutenant did help Redeski. He chuckled every time a classroom without a teacher was called to attention when he walked in.

Prophet was in almost all of his classes, including lunch. Redeski met some other Freshmen that were pretty chill, it wasn't that hard for him. He seemed to attract people not only because of his rank, but his friendly persona.

The better part of the day came when the school day ended, and practice began. Red headed to the training fields and met up with his fellow CO's. There was a crowd gathered outside the building, the freshmen where babbling about their day, the other classes were waiting for Green to make his usual day one speech. And as sure as the sunrise, Green took a crate, stood on it, and did what he did best.

"Area Attention!" Green said. The area snapped, quite was assured. "At ease."

Green cleared his throat. "I know you've heard me talk about this before, but ill do it again for those lovey Freshmen." Green started his speech. "Today you will be assigned your CO, and some of you will get the position of NCO. I have high expectations from you, our whole command staff does, I'm sure you will not disappoint." Green, not one for long speeches wrapped it up smoothly. "I am ment to command you, but it is you who command me. Keep that in mind, as I am not fighting these skirmishes, you are. It is you who will win this season, not me."

Green then assigned the Students to their commanders. Each squad replaced their missing or needed members with a new Freshmen. It went smoothly as the older students helped out the newer ones.

The commanders split into 4 areas, on the dirt field in front of the tank hangars. Redeski stood in front of a semi-circle. His group seemed to be composed of around 50 men/women. Prophet was in the front row of the semi-circle, which was pretty good Redeski guessed.

"So, I'm the new CO here, but I still expect you'll follow me, even if I'm a freshman." Redeski stated. He knew he'd have to flash his rank to gain respect initially, as after all, he was a freshman. "I requested mostly light units, I hope you guys will be alright with some mobile combat."

Someone raised their hand. Redeski called on him. "Sir, what if the enemy has heavy armor?" The student asked. It was a good question.

"Well, I'll be equipping all squads and vehicles with at least one panzer Faust and 5 rounds. You'll have to get in close, but that's why we'll be knife fighting." Redeski replied.

The student seemed to question the thinking. But the answer was final.

After that, they got down to practice. Redeski took count of his men. He wrote the following list.

1 ELC-AMX (good gun/spd, shit turret traverse.)

5 M5 Stewarts (Average all around)

5 M3-Halftrack motorized infantry. (Flanking/defending)

2 Puma's (Great scout.)

5 Infantry squads (Average squad of five)

1 M3 Priest (Mobile shelling)

3 MG-42 teams (mainly defence)

3 Willis Jeep with .50 cal (Scouts.)

After he finished the list and notes he went and discussed knife fighting tactics with the light tanks. He also got to know the ELC NCO. His name was George III, and apparently was to be crowned a knight when he turned eighteen. He was only a junior, but hey more to him. George's nickname was quite literally 'Knight' as he carried a 'sword' (fake of course) into each skirmish. He was a 6"5 English looking man, with brown hair. You literally couldn't get more knight like than this guy.

Anyway George and the other tank commanders, along with Redeski decided it would be a good idea to fix a Panzerfaust to the side to the tanks turret, and be able to fire it from the inside. It was an interesting idea to say the least, but Redeski told them if they could make it work, he'd allow it. After that, Redeski moved onto the other squads discussing the tactics he was most likely to use.

Apparently Prophet was on a Willis. The Jeeps would be key to harassment and recon. After he got to know most of his men, he went onto the shooting range while the rest of his men did similar things. Today was pretty relaxed, and Redeski was sure Green would have a plan for tomorrow.

He walked right through that door and into…. Woah.

Redeski had just walked into a beautiful chick, it took a second to apologize.

"uh- sorry." Redeski said, of course he had lost his cool now.

"Oh it's alright sir, I should've looked where I was going." She replied. She was 5'10" and had her brown hair in a French braid. "Heading to the range?"

"Yeh, any recommendations?" Redeski replied, trying to play it off, in a fashion only a freshman could attempt.

"Follow me, I'll show you the better guns." She replied.

"Say, what's your name?" Redeski asked as they walked to the master of arms. Who was an adult of course.

"Oh- I'm Angela Newt. People just call me Newt." She replied. "One Luger, and One STG-44 please."

The master of arms had her sign here and there, and gave her the weapons.

"Alright Newt, I'm Redeski, Red if you want." Redeski replied.

And so Newt led Redeski to the both, and taught him how to shoot.

Green had taken a pistol, but wasn't at the range.

He was by himself, behind the armory building. There was overgrown grass and other junk back there, he sat down and put the pistol to his head.

One bullet

To end it all

His hand quivered against the cold steel. He could jump ship right now, end his pain, his troubles. He might even see his sister again, in whatever world was after this one.

He pulled the trigger.

ALRIGHT BOYS, THAT'S ALL. Please leave a review, this is probably my longest chapter. I want to hear what you guys want in the story also. If things start getting to unreal, just say so, ill put it back into the real world.

So happy Labor Day and such, kick off the school year with this fanfic!