A few weeks later…

"Field day! Field day! Field day!" Rook called out excitedly as he retrieved his ninety-six hour patrol pack from his locker, his enthusiasm not matched by anyone else. Shade leant over to Dash as he closed the main part of his own pack, gesturing toward Rook with some concern.

"... I expected this kind of thing out of someone like Meat, or Royce, or maybe even Robot… but Rook? I don't know about the blokes in the SASR, but we Commandos weren't big on extended range field stuff…"

Dash shrugged, "Pretty sure it's just him," she replied, packing up her own gear.

Shade just nodded as he slung his pack onto his shoulder, "This should be a walk in the park, consider what we went through a while ago," he shifted it around, making sure the weight was balanced and nothing was digging into his back, "I'm going to assume just some land nav, survival training, fieldcraft and other pretty bog-standard shit?"

She huffed a chuckle, "It varies, could be easy, could be fuckin' Hell Week on steroids."

"Oh joy," Shade remarked dryly, "one extreme to another. This'll be good." He looked around the room, then back at Dash, "Meet you at the hangars, alright?" He threw a brief wave before leaving the equipment room, beginning to make his way towards the hangar where they were told to meet.

The team had been slated for a week-long field training exercise, focusing on missions that had an extended duration as opposed to raids where they would be in and out of the target area within a day. The intent was to refresh everyone on their fieldcraft, navigation, and survival skills, and how to act if separated from the main element.

Most of the team had gathered at the designated hangar, where a CH-47 Chinook was waiting for them. Some of the guys had already loaded their packs and gear in the helicopter, whilst others were going through them one last time to make sure they had everything they needed. For the trip, Shade had packed a couple of extra uniforms, enough food to ration out through the week, cooking and shelter equipment, plus a few signal flares as instructed by the Captain. He'd also tucked a few extra items that he'd normally take with him in his patrol chest rig, like his knife and multitool, and some light snacks.

Walking up the ramp of the Chinook, he dumped his gear with everyone else's then took a place in one of the jump seats that ran along the sides of the aircraft, tugging down on his field shirt that he opted to wear in place of his normal combat shirt. Scarecrow and Chemo walked up and sat down beside him and across from him.

"No pain in your leg or anything?" Chemo asked, gesturing to the leg that Shade had gotten shot in weeks ago.

"Nah mate, all good to go. Otherwise I'd still be off, y'know?" He answered with a dismissive wave. "I'm kinda keen to get out there, actually, shake off the rust that's built up."

"Same, though maybe you can lend an idea as to why Rook's acting like a kid in a candy store?" Scarecrow asked, pointing as the Aussie in question entered the hangar with a huge smile on his face.

"Nope, can't help you there," Shade shook his head sympathetically, "must be just a chicken-strangler thing… hey, any idea on what we're facing?"

"If it's anything like the last FTX, it'll be pretty good. Split up into pairs, dropped around random points of a set area. We're given a map, compass, a set of coordinates, and a time frame of three or so days," Chemo started to explain, "generally you have to find your location on the map, find the coords on the map, then get from where you are to where you need to be. Pretty simple stuff, no real rush to get to the end. I mean, the trip is long enough to require the good part of a day, camp overnight and finish the trip the next day, but once everyone's regrouped it turns into more of a camping trip than anything else."

"Hmm, sounds like fun," Shade said as he thought over what he'd just heard, turning to watch as everyone started to board the Chinook and take their seats, "can't wait."


"Myers! Williams! You're up, drop in sixty seconds!" The loadmaster called over the intercom as the two soldiers in question stood up and retrieved their packs, shuffling to the open ramp as the large helicopter started to settle into a hover over a small clearing surrounded by trees. "Thirty, rope out!" She called out, tossing the rope over the edge and waiting for it to hit the ground before looking at Dash and Shade. The pair of them had their gloves on, ready to slide down the rope once given the word. "Go go go!"

Shade went first, gripping the rope tightly and stepping off the edge, careful not to go too fast lest he hurt his ankles when he hit the ground, though the heavy pack on his back did him no favours. He slowed up just before he touched earth, and took a knee to help absorb the shock before crouch walking away a few meters to the side, flashing a thumbs up to above him.

Dash reached the ground a manner of seconds later, she too taking a knee and sending up a thumbs up to the loadmaster, who started to retrieve the rope as the Chinook lifted away and left the two soldiers in relative silence.

Dash, still on her knee, took the folded map from her bag and laid it on the ground, using a few weights to keep it down as she checked their surroundings, trying to pinpoint their exact location. She marked it with a black marker once she found it, and looked up at Shade.

"You got the coords," she said simply, "Let's get to work."

Shade nodded and pulled out his compass, holding it to the map and plotting the direction from their position to the coordinates he was given. "That makes it a little easy, since the rendezvous point is on the side of a small natural lake. Gives us a landmark to work off and look for. If I had to guess, might be a good two day's hike."

Dash chuckled, "I'm Recon, Shades, I always get there first," she looked over the course Shade had plotted, "I think we can cut that down to… a day and half about."

"If you say so," he said, handing the compass to Dash and shifting his pack on his shoulders, "ladies first!"

"Such a gentleman," Dash teased with a smirk, double checking their direction before leading off at a jog.

"... her name's Dash… of course she jogs with all of her shit on…" Shade said exasperatedly to himself, before taking off at his own 'jogging' pace.

The pair made good progress for the first hour, before being forced to slow down as the bushland around them started to get thicker. Shade was thankful he decided to wear his wider-brimmed boonie hat as opposed to his cap, as it helped protect his neck against the occasional branch that tried to flick down onto him.

"Did you much of this pathfinder stuff in Recon?" He asked, breaking their comfortable silence as they caught a breather on a pair of rocks. "We occasionally did stuff like this in Afghanistan, longer range dismounted patrols and shit like that. Just it was far and few between."

"Quite a bit, yeah," Dash answered simply, "I was top of my company in it. Did one of these every month or so."

Shade smothered a laugh, then looked at her. "Sorry to stereotype, but I'm assuming that the guys in your company were always like 'should we ask for directions, or nah?'"

Dash laughed and nodded, "Every single time. I didn't mind so much, they knew I'd find the way before they could."

"So it was more like a harmless tease then, that's cool." He said, standing up from the rock and shouldering his pack once more. "Break time's over, let's get going… I wonder how the others are goin'..."


"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"... are we there yet?"

"... shut the fuck up Meat."


"Are you sure we're headed in the right way Robot?"

"How the fuck would I know, you have the map and compass!"

"... about that…"


"Hey, pass that beer over here, would you?"

"Respectfully, sir: you're closer to it, go get it yourself."

"Rank has its privileges, Ghost… remember that. Now pass me the bloody beer."


Dash checked their direction and adjusted the course slightly, "Either wanting to murder each other, or a couple hours behind us."

"Sounds about right," Shade laughed, now all too familiar with each of the guys quirks after working alongside them for about a couple of months now, "I bet the Captain and Ghost are just kicking back, enjoying the silence right now, talking about the kinds of things that officers talk about…"

"Probably," Dash agreed, "Meat's probably being the annoying li'l shit he always is," she chuckled.

"I wouldn't even bet on that, too much certainty there," Shade remarked, stepping around a tree in his path, "I feel bad for whoever's paired with him… though it's more than likely Royce. How the hell does that man put up with him? He has to tell us his secrets!"

Dash chuckled and shook her head, "I dunno, man, Royce seems to be at least half of his impulse control."

"They do act like flipped sides of the same coin," Shade said thoughtfully, "which kinda makes sense, since they came from the same unit… on the record, if I knew a guy like that from the Commandos, I'd want to get as far away from him as possible… not that I don't like Meat, but small doses."

"I hear you," Dash agreed, "Can only take so much of him in a day."

"You know what the ultimate irony would be?" Shade prompted, looking over to Dash with a smirk on his face, "if whoever Meat ends up meeting and settling down with was a vegetarian or a vegan…"

Dash laughed, "Oh man I think Meat might decide to break it off if he found out they didn't eat meat."

Shade laughed harder as he thought of something, "That or he might try his hardest to convert them."

"Maybe," Dash shrugged as they kept walking. The hours seemed to fly by as they got closer and closer to their destination, until such a time where the light was on the verge of fading over the horizon and making it much harder to navigate the thick brush.

Shade stopped for a breather and dumped his pack onto the ground, stretching his arms and back as he paced around for a bit. "Wanna call it? I'm starting to feel it, don't know about you…"

Dash gave him a wry smile, "I could keep this pace going for hours yet," she commented, then looked at the sky and sighed, "but it'll be harder to navigate once it gets dark, might get off track… So, I suppose we might as well."

"Cool… mark our pos on the map, I'll radio it into the boss so they know where we are, just in case."

Dash nodded and knelt, spreading the map on the ground in front of her. She found their position before long and marked it, "Made good distance today. If we get going at first light we should get there around… say midday, given time for breathers."

Shade nodded with a small smile, "Awesome." He retrieved the small radio they were given for emergencies, and turned it on, tuning it to the designated frequency. "All stations, this is Shade. We're setting up camp at this time, grid to follow, break," he read out the grid reference and repeated his message once more, before signing off and stowing the radio away.

Dash sat back and stretched casually, sliding her pack off her shoulders and setting it beside her. Shade retrieved his small entrenching tool and began work on a small fire pit, digging it out wide and deep enough for a small fire to cook with. "Now, the all important question: did you bring marshmallows?"

Dash chuckled, and shook her head, "Yeah, right next to the chocolate," she joked and stood up, "I'll go find some firewood." She walked off into the thickets, picking her way carefully around the thorns. Shade sighed as he finished up the pit, then began work to start clearing space for their small shelters. His was basic, effectively a small AUSCAM-patterned tarp called a hootchie that he could string between some trees into an A-shape. He wasn't too sure what Dash was using for her shelter, so he cleared up some space for her near his place, careful to be upwind of where the fire was to avoid any smoke or embers landing on them during the night.

He was in the middle of tying up the cord that would suspend his hootchie when Dash returned. "Much luck?"

"Plenty," Dash answered, dropping her armload of firewood, then the two canteens slung over her shoulder, "Found a freshwater stream, water's perfectly clean, no dangers of running low."

"Sweet, might take an APC once I've got this stuff done," he said with a smile, finished with the cord and now fishing out the actual tarp part of his tent from his pack.

Dash crouched by her bag and unclipped the sleeping bag with her poncho liner wrapped up inside of it and unrolled it in the spot Shade had cleared for her. She looked up at the sky and squinted. It didn't feel like rain… If worse came to worse it wouldn't be too bad anyway, she decided to leave the liner as a blanket for now.

Shade finished hanging the tarp out and had pinned it down with some pegs he had brought along, and stood back to admire his work. "Looks like a dog's breakfast, but it gets the job done… a lot easier to take down than one of those bloody civi single-person tents."

"And mine's more comfortable too," Dash commented, sitting contentedly on her sleeping bag, "Don't think it'll be raining."

"Nah, we'll be right tonight," Shade agreed, kneeling down by the fire pit where he started to assemble the firewood and prepared some kindling. Satisfied, he leant back towards his pack and pulled out some steel wool and a nine volt battery, then began his attempts to light the fire. It didn't take long, and before they knew it they had a small fire lit and slowly growing. "Let there be light! Now, I don't know about about you, but I'm bloody hungry."

Dash nodded her agreement, "We breaking out rations or going hunting? Saw some pretty fat squirrels and pheasants."

"Nah, got some rat-packs instead, I don't feel particularly inclined to go run around for something that mightn't be worth it," he said as he started digging through his pack for his food, "wouldn't put it past Rook though."

Dash shrugged and pulled her pack closer to her, before digging through it for her own ration packs, "Fair enough."

The pair ate in relative silence, enjoying the ambient noise of the bushland around them as the light slowly faded into darkness. The fire was now steady, only requiring the barest of maintenance to keep it alive. Shade was leant against a tree that his hootchie was attached to, looking at nowhere in particular as he relaxed. Dash relaxed back as well, laying on her sleeping bag with one arm under her head, the other crossed over her belly as she stared up at the stars.

"Gotta say, this is pretty good," Shade said idly, "All I need right now to finish this off is a beer, and this'd be perfect. Maybe some better food, but you can't win 'em all."

Dash shrugged, "You'd be surprised what I can do with minimal supplies."

"... just how many Southern stereotypes you do invoke, D? I mean, you said you grew up on a farm, you talk like a regular cowgirl, and now you're telling me you can moonshine?" Shade said in bewilderment, shaking his head with a chuckle, "I'm half-expecting you to keep some damn spurs or some shit like that in your room."

Dash threw a twig at him, "Not moonshine ya ninny, food. Good food."

"Ah, right," he said, rubbing his face, "though that still wouldn't surprise me. Maybe if we come across something on the way tomorrow, we can stalk and kill it. We're ahead of schedule, after all."

Dash shrugged, "Maybe… Let's get some shut-eye, plan on getting an early start in the morning."

Shade was halfway into his hootchie and sleeping bag when he groaned loudly, "You had me at shut-eye, D, but lost me at early start!"

"It's not a vacation, Shades, and I always get there first," Dash replied, getting comfortable inside her own sleeping bag.

"Whatever you say, D…" He said, poking his head out one end and looking at her curiously. "Sleepin' under the stars? If it gets a bit cool or anything, there's room enough under this thing for two. And I promise I don't bite… much."

Dash chuckled, "Go to bed Shades, I'm fine where I am."


Dash was awake when the sky started turning it's blue-ish pink-ish grey, right before the sun came up. Shade, evidently, was not.

"Shade," Dash called, "Get up, we gotta shake a leg here." There was no response from the small tent that was housing the man in question. Dash sighed and moved to the pegs supporting Shade's makeshift tent, "Shade! Final warning, get up!" Still no sign of movement, or life for that matter. "Don't say I didn't warn you…" she muttered, pulling the pegs free and letting the tarp fall over the Aussie. There was a muffled yelp as the cool fabric landed on top of Shade, followed by a string of curses as a pair of arms shot out from under one end and pulled the tarp down, Shade's head popping up shortly after.

"The fuck D? I was having a pleasant dream just then!" He said with a frown as he rubbed his face, still somewhat sluggish.

"Pack up, we gotta get moving," Dash responded, her pack already secured and ready and firepit cleaned, she had been up for a while before she'd decided to wake Shade.

"Right, give me a few…" He said, finally crawling out of his bag.


It didn't take long for Shade to finally fully wake up and get his gear together, and with a fresh field shirt on, the pair were back on track and on their way to the rendezvous. "Glad it hadn't dewed overnight, otherwise I'd have flicked the water all over you in payback…" Shade remarked as he ducked to dodge a low branch.

Dash chuckled and shook her head, going quiet in thought then speaking up a few minutes later, "So how'd you end up as 'Shade' anyway?" she questioned.

"Well, it depends on who you ask and which version you want to hear," he began with a laugh and a slight shake of his head, "like, if you ever asked my company commander and my battle buddy the same question, you'd get two completely different answers."

"Uh-huh…" Dash stuck her hands in her pockets, "Which do you prefer?"

"I just tell the truth, nine times out of ten, it's funnier than the 'official' version that we tell in polite company," he chuckled, "the 'official' account is that I tend to lurk and strike out from the shadows, and I was called Shade because one of the guys from A Company already had the name 'Shadow', which is true." Shade looked around, then smirked at Dash, "but the truth is that I tried to hide myself as a lamp shade when the CO walked into the base's rec room during a raging party. We had maybe a minute to hide, and everyone else did sensible things like hiding behind couches or under tables or in cabinets. Nope, not me. I just grabbed the nearest lampshade, threw it on my head and just stood at attention. This was after I'd finished off an entire six pack of beer and was halfway through a bottle of some serious whiskey, keep in mind."

Dash snorted a laugh, "I was expecting something lame like wearing sunglasses all the time," she replied, "A lampshade? Really?"

"What can I say? I was three sheets to the wind at the time, I thought it was a good idea. Y'know, that hiding in plain sight shit." He admitted with a shrug, "It kinda worked, actually. Everyone else who did actually hide got worse punishments than I did, on account on the fact that 'I was already at the position at attention and ready to receive disciplinary action'."

She laughed and shook her head, "I bet it was actually just 'cause 'e felt bad you embarrassed yourself like that already."

"Honestly, I don't know," Shade said simply, "and I don't really care. The day after we all finished our punishment, which was gate duty at the base for a solid month, I was 'christened' Shade and it stuck to me like bees to honey,"

Dash's laughing died down to a chuckle, "That's the most ridiculous reason for a call-sign I've heard in a long time."

"I kinda want to hear the story behind Meat's, Robot's, and maybe Scarecrow's," Shade wondered out loud, "I mean, how the fuck do you get a name like 'Meat'?"

Dash shrugged, "He's declared himself a carnivore," she answered simply.

"Oh, bugger, I was half-expecting like he was found in a butcher's shop or something during a mission gone wrong…" Shade admitted, a little disappointed, "or something along those lines…"


"Hold up, I got movement…" Ghost said as he and MacTavish sat in a pair of camping chairs, binoculars in hand as they watched the treeline on the other side of the small lake, "looks like we've got our first pair."

"Who is it?" MacTavish asked, sipping from his beer as he focused on the book in his other hand.

"Dash, and Shade's right behind her."

"Hmm… those two are becoming quite the element aren't they," the Captain stated, "despite their rocky start, they've be able to overcome quite the odds. I imagine that they'll be quite the team on the next mission, whenever that comes down."

"No kidding, sir," Ghost agreed, raising an arm up and waving back as he saw Shade waving towards them through his binoculars, "I think that's also the fastest we've had a team get back to us too, day and a half?"

"That beats her last record by a few hours," MacTavish confirmed, standing up to set up a few extra chairs for their new arrivals, "now, who do you think'll be next?"

"Either Rook and Roach, or Chemo and Ozone, whomever comes first, with Meat and Royce coming in after those two. Robot and Scarecrow'll be the last pair, if previous history is any indicator…"


"Yeah, I'm sure that this is the right way…"

"You fucking said that the last three times we changed direction!"


Authors' Notes:

(Spitfire)

There's a few weeks between the end of the last chapter and the beginning of this one. Long enough for Shade and Dash to get back up and all. Dash is, well, Dash and has to move fast for the rendezvous. Shade would Rather Not wake up that early, thank you very much Dash (fuck that noise).Agreed. So… That's all I suppose when we pick up next time, camping trip. Woohoo.

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out

(Shade)

A camping trip disguised as a Field Training Exercise (FTX)? I love how my mind works sometimes… totally something I can see these guys doing to get away from the boredom of the base. This is probably the third or fourth time I've written a part where Shade explains his name, and out of them all I love this one the most. After all, most nicknames stem from embarrassing moments after all. Some more bonding between the two operators, pretty sure we're at a solid friendship now, at least that's the vibe I'm getting from them.